Death Sentence: Panda!

When the minimal, peaceful sounds of Korean and Chinese folk music get filtered through a young and spastic, post-whatever noise band, the results could almost certainly be disastrous. Luckily, this amalgamation doesn't happen often and doubly luckily, Death Sentence: Panda! do it with the right amount of cartoon-ish fun and editing. Insects Awaken, the third full-length from the San Francisco trio, fits in plenty of shouting and solid, heavy drumming without becoming a headache. Ten of the 15 tracks finish under the two-minute mark, and each of them blends the musical aggression of Atari Teenage Riot with pop sensibilities. The almost-cute shout-sing vocals of Kim West are the main reason for the accessibility and at times, resemble the controlled defiance of Manda Rin and her now-defunct Scottish electro-pop group Bis. The only other instruments used here are a creepy pitch-shifted clarinet, a xylophone and a flute; Insects Awaken is an album of a lot made out of very little. It exudes a youthful ambition and creativity, and makes DS!P a safe bet as a live force to be reckoned with.