Panda Bear & Sonic Boom - Reset
Electronic – Released August 12, 2022 – 9 songs, 38 mins
LUNDI
Panda Bear and Sonic Boom. Noah Lennox and Peter Kember. By any name my guess is I’m not ringing any bells of familiarity. If that’s the case though you’re definitely not alone as the artists aren’t exactly considered household names. We here at TSR like to enlighten and explore though and this week we aim to do just that as we take on Reset, the first co-released record from the Panda Bear Sonic Boom tandem.
While their names don’t ring out like some of their peers, Lennox (Bear) and Kember (Boom) are no strangers to the music scene and certainly no stranger to each other. Lennox has been professionally making music with Animal Collective and under the Panda moniker since 1999 while Kember is a musical pioneer gracing the space with his talent since 1982 with the band Spaceman 3 and as Sonic Boom since 1990. The two are considered critical darlings with vast discographies and also have a collaborative background prior to Reset with Kember producing Lennox’s second and third albums while Lennox returned the favour supporting Kember’s second. On Reset, the duo finally decided that it was time to team up and put their long standing friendship, contrasting vocals, and technical mastering to work.
On early listens Reset can be disorienting with its seemingly never ending loops of 50’s and 60’s pop samples but the 38 minutes and 9 tracks disappear in a flash, begging the listener to well, reset. What was once confusing quickly transforms into chaotic and weird yet charming, colourful, and fun. The duo display a wide array of samples and instruments and bring new meaning to the phrase all the bells and whistles.
While I’m certainly not the tech savvy member of TSR, to me Reset is a dream album for those who appreciate the finer workings of music. The album was picked over with a fine tooth comb and while it feels as if it has no true formula or makeup it still manages to feel perfectly crafted. The duo embrace the weirdness that can be created in the studio, zigging while the music industry zags.
Truth be told its just that weirdness that makes me love this album. There’s no specific musical element that pops on Reset but it’s wildly entertaining and innovative. The duo co-produce, co-write and share vocals on the entire album and it’s unlike anything else you’re listening to today. That deserves respect and recognition.
Reset is weird, colourful, and most of all great fun. Panda Bear and Sonic Boom put their musical chemistry and adoration for one another on full display resulting in a pleasing and unique electronic experience.
Overall Rating: 8.4/10
Favourite Song: Everyday
ROZ
Please fasten your seatbelt and put your tray table in the upright and locked position - we are about to go on a very strange ride. This is Panda Bear and Sonic Boom in their first ever album collaboration. This is Reset.
A well produced homage to the 1960’s surfer and psychedelic rock genres, this sample-based journey back in time alerts the listener of its intentions right away as the introductory track Gettin’ to the Point - and boy does it ever - begins to play. Channeling their inner Brian Wilson, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom combine old fashioned loops of Beach Boy-esque sounds with their own brand of modular synthesis, leaving the listener to sit (or stand, or lay down, however you digest music, there is no judgment here at Too Sweet Reviews) in complete awe of what they are experiencing. Happy acoustic guitars gleefully strum retro-style chord progressions as a singular 1/16th synth note continuously pulses in and fades out, naturally acting as the foil that one would expect when combining two drastically different generations of sound.
Go On is much the same albeit with an infectious single toned lead, delicately layered along soft hand claps on each eighth note - the echo of the chorus (‘give it to me, give it to me, give it to me') being enough to put any listener into a trance-like state. A droning vocal highlights itself in Everyday, void of emotion or range, along with a multitude of background sounds zipping about the stereo field. Much like this record as a whole, I find this sonically enticing yet musically confusing. Some tracks lean so heavily into the Beach Boys style (Edge of the Edge) that you’d swear it was a direct rip rather than its own original thought. On the other side of this coin, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom’s electronica flavors permeate throughout Danger, its exquisite sampling meshed with additive synthesis and nicely layered, albeit off-time, vocals. The closer, Everythings Been Leading to This, displays one of the record's strongest musical performances of them all as the duo's synthesizers are given room to breathe, riffing at will - more of this would have been very much appreciated.
Between the feel-good time capsule moments and the unique sound design moments, this reviewer must still draw a line in the sand as to whether this accounts for an objectively good album. Most tracks are as repetitive as they are unique, and it is this repetition in its elements - both through its sampled music loops and the song structures themselves - that has the potential to fatigue the ear perhaps a bit too quickly. Tension builds without release, a result of the odd arrangement structure as a whole. Lyrical hooks repeat over and over, as if the record itself has hit debris and has begun to skip. How can one sum this up? Beach Boys… in space? Panda Bear, Sonic Boom - Avalanches you are not. While Reset may be a fun listen at first, its replayability is questionable at best.
Overall Rating: 6.9/10
Favourite Song: Go On
REID
Fun fact about a Google Home. Say ‘Hey Google, what is the animal of the day?’ and it will respond with information on a new species daily. Pretty neat. If the artificial intelligence was to give you information on this week’s animal, you’d find out Noah Lennox is the 44-year-old American musician behind the name, Panda Bear. He is a singer-songwriter, plays many instruments and a co-founding member of the band Animal Collective. On Reset, Noah is joined by 56-year-old English singer and record producer, Sonic Boom. Other than the sick move on Street Fighter by Guile, the Google robot will tell you this is the stage name of Peter Kember, known primarily as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for an 80’s alternative band, Spacemen 3. How much do I know about them otherwise? Not a damn thing. Let’s give it a go.
Gettin’ to the Point kicks the album off and I had to double check I downloaded an album from 2022. The simple but playful guitar and vocals overwhelmed the effects added by the keyboard and I immediately thought of 60’s rock. Although this theme is sprinkled throughout the remaining eight songs, things shifted drastically with the second, Go On, A theme was established, holding true as a blanket conclusion for the rest of the album. It’s too long, repetitive and in a word, strange. This song repeats a strange synth supplied bassline for the full five minutes and the lyrics ‘Give it to me’ on a loop. The music to Everyday is cool but it’s weird in a different way. They introduce robot-like monotone vocals and literally repeat the same two verses five times.
Issues with the rest of the tracklist are similar in that sections are enjoyable but the sum of the parts just isn’t there. In My Body is super chill and cool at the beginning but by the end I’m eager to skip. Whirlpool is about getting dragged under and at five minutes long, I’m ready to let go. Even though the album is only 39 minutes, it seems to go on forever.
As @stevelundi stated so eloquently in his review of Working Men’s Club, separating personal preference while recognizing musical excellence is no easy task. Reset has a couple of good songs and many strong moments but it’s too weird for this guy. I have no idea where I’d listen to it and the reality is, I likely won’t anymore.
Overall Rating – 6.3/10
Favourite Song – Gettin’ to the Point