The Wake

Panda Bear - Person Pitch

Panda Bear, whose real name is Noah Lennox, recently lost his father. The result was Young Prayer an album of soft clapping and wailing mourning, as he fights through his loss with music. “Where are you?” are some of the only discernable words, but if you listen closely, you can put together the phrase, “This is how I’ll talk to you.” The result is an album that is like dark magic, a musical limbo and oddly soothing sound of the living communicating with the dead.

His sophomore album, Person Pitch is a gentler branch off of the freak-alt-folk sound of his larger band, Animal Collective. With songs like “Leaf House,” which sounds like someone singing through a pinched tongue during a ritual, and “Grass,” an up-beat, tribal-percussion tune with a violent chorus of “Pow! Pow! Pow!” is known for doling out the ugly right along with their unconventional madhouse of sounds. Panda Bear ditches the shocks and fury of his band, and creates songs just as strange, but kinder to the ears.

“I’m Not,” is more a meditation than a song. The echoing voices reverberate like ripples in a pond, creating a sense of being in a deep cenote, a sacrificial well in Mexico, surrounded by water, vines, and lurking bones.

“Dressed In Nautica,” and other songs feature a vocal chorus like a Beach Boys song faded in the sun. No element is prevalent enough to give the song a defined structure, so that they all float aimlessly like old radiowaves masterfully blended.

Listen to Person Pitch alone, and experience the sound of the lighter parts of your subconscious.