Panda Bear Reviews…. Pitchfork 8.5, NME, The Word, Clash (posted by Harry)
Pitchfork – review 8.5 – April 11, 2011 written by Jess Harvell
“Noah Lennox’s Panda Bear project has always been about making “difficult” music scan as almost radio-friendly, to translate experimental moves to a broad audience with little interest in such things. It’s a strategy he learned, at least in part, from sonic forebears like Arthur Russell and Brian Wilson, along with the avant-techno types he reveres. Like those disparate influences, Lennox has used potentially off-putting compositional and textural ideas to craft some of the most inviting music of his era. In turn, he’s inspired more of his own followers in the last four years than anyone might have guessed. Lennox has found himself the unwitting king of the chillwave nation, hero to a whole generation of underground kids drawn to his mix of heavy reverb, sun-woozy synths, droning kraut-surf-ambient-pop songs, high childlike voice, and psychedelic-cum-nostalgic sleeve art.”
NME – Lead Album Review – April 13th 2011 written by Louis Brailey
“Three years and countless release dates later, the trickle of ‘Tomboy’ singles suggested Noah Lennox, patron saint of beach and bro, had got a bit sad face. What exactly do you do once you’ve grown up? You spend the next few years riddled with self-doubt, then you die. “For the handful of mouths i’m trying to feed/Got to do what you’ve got to do” runs ‘Alsatian Darn’, atonal vowels suspended mid-air over looped guitar and insistent handclaps. It’s more resigned than you’d expect from the guy that with his other band, gave us ‘My Girls’.
The Word – Lead Album Review – May 2011 written by Steve Yates
“Tomboys title tune is glorious, introducing the crunch of guitars to Person Pitch’s sunshine formula. Where that and the hip-hoppy Slow Motion gesture towards his full panoply of sound, Surfers Hymn goes all the way with crashing waves, a flanger effect, and an explosive chorus that would probably send AC’s earliest fans back grumbling to their Psychedelic Horseshit albums. Lennox long ago left New York for love and Lisbon. In these moments, intermittent though they may be, he’s never sounded more beach bum.”
Clash – Album Review – May 2011 written by Charlie Frame
“Every track is a psychedelic masterpiece that engages from beginning to end rather than boring you into submission like so many chillwave pretenders.”
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