Panda Riot - Northern Automatic Music

  by Adrian Janes

published: 9 / 5 / 2013

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Review

Opening with the cooing multitracked vocals of singer Rebecca Scott, ‘Amanda in the Clouds’ lays down what emerge over the course of the album as some of the key elements of Panda Riot’s approach. Chief of these is the use of strong contrasts within a song, often a limpid backing on the verses with a switch to greater drive, fiercer guitar and sweeping keyboards on the chorus. Conversely the music is sometimes in full flow and suddenly drops away to expose her voice with a simple backing. Scott and guitarist/keyboard player Brian Cook have a background in writing music for films; these sudden changes might be considered musical jump cuts. There are also several instrumentals (‘Golden Age’, ‘Someday, Someone Will Wake You From This Nighttime’, ‘Encrypted Wilderness’) which, while pleasant and well-played, seem somewhat undeveloped but which it’s easy to imagine as serving to add to the atmosphere of a film scene. My Bloody Valentine (and to a lesser extent the Cocteau Twins) would seem to be a strong influence, not merely in the use of particular contrasting elements (especially the female voice set against intense guitars), but to the extent of mimicking the palette of Kevin Shields’ guitar tones (for example on the title track, ‘Mtwn’, and ‘Black Pyramids’, the latter resembling a less frantic ‘You Made Me Realise’). At the same time, it’s true that Panda Riot aren’t merely a collection of influences and have their own ideas; Scott’s vocals are both more prominent and clearer than the characteristic placement of Bilinda Butcher’s, while the use of keyboards is much more pronounced and important to the overall sound than in the work of MBV. The most impressive song here is 'Good Night, Rich Kids' which has an explosive opening before the first verse begins with a tune and singing like the Roches at their cutest. A storming chorus in turn cuts in: razor-sharp guitar, pounding drums and Scott pitching her voice lower so that the whole has the effect of a shoegaze Shangri-Las. This is an enjoyable album, without (‘Good Night, Rich Kids’ apart) being terribly compelling. I find it hard to put my finger on why this is so, as the material is well-played, melodic and also fairly gritty. Perhaps it’s the diffidence in Scott’s singing, perhaps it’s a degree of predictability in the dynamics of the songs. Panda Riot show real potential, but somehow there’s a sense that something is being held back which would make for songs that really grip the heart.

Track Listing:-

1 Amanda In the Clouds
2 In the Forest (Some Kind of Night Fills Your Head)
3 Serious Radical Girls
4 Northern Automatic Music
5 Golden Age
6 Mtwn Glass
7 Black Pyramids
8 Someday, Someone Will Wake You From This Nighttime
9 Good Night, Rich Kids
10 Encrypted Wilderness
11 Camden Line

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/PandaRiotBand
http://www.pandariot.com/handmade/main
http://pandariot.tumblr.com/
http://pandariot.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/pandavspanda

Label Links:-

http://saintmarierecords.limitedrun.co
https://www.facebook.com/Saint-Marie-R
https://twitter.com/StMarieRecords
https://www.youtube.com/user/stmariere
https://instagram.com/saintmarierecord
https://plus.google.com/10115674474082