Former Spacemen 3 member Sonic Boom (a.k.a. Peter Kember) has played a key role in the solo career of Panda Bear, mixing 2011's Tomboy and co-producing 2015's Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper. Now, it's been revealed that the pair's working relationship also resulted in a yet-to-be-released album.
Speaking with Time Out Portugal this past March [via Stereogum], Kember shared that he had completed a collaborative LP with the Animal Collective member. He explained that the album, titled Reset, has no release date due to issues clearing samples of work from the likes of the Drifters and the Everly Brothers.
Kember explains the record's genesis as follows in a translated excerpt from the Time Out interview:
The record was born from a conversation with Noah [Lennox, aka Panda Bear] and from an idea of mine that was to take the beginnings of some amazing songs, the ones where you hear the first chords and you know they're going to be fantastic, and loop for upon which we built the songs. I sent him these loops and he started writing amazing stuff. Lyrically, it's his best work. And even the singing and writing of the songs is very special, very refined and different. Perhaps they are the most traditional things he has ever done.
Seriously?
Perhaps. Of course it's Panda Bear, so it's never going to be completely traditional [laughs]. But we sang the two together. I've always loved doo-wop and that kind of music where the most important thing is the voices and a little percussion, some clapping or something. We wanted to make a record like this, with super good vibes, reminiscent of Jamaican ska and rocksteady music, around 65, 66, 67, which was born in a messed up social and political context, but had great vibes. Of course, despite all these references, it's still my and Panda Bear's record, and it sounds like us. It's really good. I've shown it to 40 or 50 people and the reactions have always been amazing. Which was what we wanted.
While additional details on Reset are slim, there may have been some movement on the sample clearance front if an Instagram teaser is anything to go by. Yesterday (May 3), Kember shared a minute-long snippet of a song with the hashtags #pbsb (Panda Bear Sonic Boom, clearly), #reset, #owl, #theresnodoubtinmymind and #itsinmybody.
Panda Bear's most recent studio LP remains 2019's Buoys, while Sonic Boom last delivered All Things Being Equal in 2020. Animal Collective delivered Time Skiffs earlier this year.
Speaking with Time Out Portugal this past March [via Stereogum], Kember shared that he had completed a collaborative LP with the Animal Collective member. He explained that the album, titled Reset, has no release date due to issues clearing samples of work from the likes of the Drifters and the Everly Brothers.
Kember explains the record's genesis as follows in a translated excerpt from the Time Out interview:
The record was born from a conversation with Noah [Lennox, aka Panda Bear] and from an idea of mine that was to take the beginnings of some amazing songs, the ones where you hear the first chords and you know they're going to be fantastic, and loop for upon which we built the songs. I sent him these loops and he started writing amazing stuff. Lyrically, it's his best work. And even the singing and writing of the songs is very special, very refined and different. Perhaps they are the most traditional things he has ever done.
Seriously?
Perhaps. Of course it's Panda Bear, so it's never going to be completely traditional [laughs]. But we sang the two together. I've always loved doo-wop and that kind of music where the most important thing is the voices and a little percussion, some clapping or something. We wanted to make a record like this, with super good vibes, reminiscent of Jamaican ska and rocksteady music, around 65, 66, 67, which was born in a messed up social and political context, but had great vibes. Of course, despite all these references, it's still my and Panda Bear's record, and it sounds like us. It's really good. I've shown it to 40 or 50 people and the reactions have always been amazing. Which was what we wanted.
While additional details on Reset are slim, there may have been some movement on the sample clearance front if an Instagram teaser is anything to go by. Yesterday (May 3), Kember shared a minute-long snippet of a song with the hashtags #pbsb (Panda Bear Sonic Boom, clearly), #reset, #owl, #theresnodoubtinmymind and #itsinmybody.
Panda Bear's most recent studio LP remains 2019's Buoys, while Sonic Boom last delivered All Things Being Equal in 2020. Animal Collective delivered Time Skiffs earlier this year.