New School Review
Giant Panda
Giant Panda Electric Laser Tres Records
I’ve been a fan of Giant Panda ever since I discovered them through Thes One (who gets down on the beats for them occasionally). Their latest release Electric Laser dropped this year and I can definitely give it the seal of approval. The album starts with some spacey video-gameish sounds swirling back and forth in your speakers and drops into a heavy break which morphs into the first track ‘Justin Case’. As the album title would suggest it is on the electro tip, however it is not leaned on that heavily as other hipster releases you might hear this year. The funk and soul formula is not strayed from too far, so don’t expect a Pharrell/Kanye/Cool Kids cheesefest. The vibes bounce around from laidback chill tracks (AIM, Let It Go) to native tongue sounding house influenced (Pops) to the synth-laced tracks (Speakers Pop). The melodies don’t jump out and grab you right away, but the saving grace for this LP is the crisp drums (The Thes-One influence is very evident). It is actually a very short listen at only 13 songs, which means there is almost no filler at all here. I thought the overall vibe was pretty chill and the use of synth/laser/64-bit sounds was used sparingly and came off sounding fresh. The thing that is also really dope about this album is there are some party jams tucked away in there once you get passed the obvious club-targeted Speakers Pop. I was feeling the tracks ‘Do The Robot In Cyberspace’ and ‘Pops’, but the Page 14
lyrics seemed out of place and corny. Rapping about your gay Dad, really? I understand ‘Do The Robot in Cyberspace’ is intended to be a fun track, but Chikaramanga on the hook was a definite miss. Despite the albums faults, I can’t say enough about the beats because they’re really raw and just plain shine. I can see this album staying in the rotation if not visited upon later on.
Information Giant Panda: www.myspace.com/giantpanda Buy: Itunes
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Words by Brian Pollock
Speech Defect is a group from Kicksville, Sweden. Their music is really similiar to friends and colleagues Ugly Duckling but also to the music of Giant Panda. Funny lyrics, nice productions, no cursing or tough talk, just great ‘feel-good hip hop’.
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