WK14 - Pantha du Prince - Black Noise (6.5)

Released - 2/9/10
Label - Rough Trade

BLURB - Enter Hendrik Weber from Germany. Once again I heard about this guy through a friend at work (I love working in music) and he quickly compared him to a German futuristic Panda Bear. Sweet! Very quickly I got my hopes up thinking this Pantha du Prince guy would be some weird, yet awesome amalgamation of Animal Collective and Flying Lotus. It's been a month of listening now and I'm still undecided on how amazing or mediocre this record is. It's really hard to get a hold of Pantha du Prince because his music is so precise and methodical that it is both equally parts impressive and mundane.

Rating - 6.5 out of 10

FULL STORY - So when I was making the Panda Bear and Animal Collective comparisons I instantly started looking for those freaky layered medleys mixing with unconventional pop vocals. Unfortunately, "Black Noise" is void of lyrics for the most part as only a couple of tracks actually have any vocals. Maybe the title "Black Noise" should have clued me into that. At any rate this kind of altered my perception and expectation of the album.

As far as my hopeful Flying Lotus comparability - this was also off. We all know Flying Lotus is all over the place (in a good way) and has no limits in his creativity for defining what a song should sound like and consist of. Pantha du Prince is much more restrained and has an entirely different creative aspect to his songs. They are much more meticulous and calculated. They all slowly build with minimal drum beats and steadily building bass lines that kind of mull you to sleep, but at the same time they are easy on the ears and can become very addicting. He also does nice job of filtering in noise and lo-fi ambience which provide his tracks with a lot of air and space. It's great background music that you can just zone out and relax to, while still tapping your foot to the beat.

The best song on the album is "Stick To My Side" and very well could be one of my favorite songs of this year. The track starts off very slowly with just bells and a kick drum that wander around briefly before agreeing to work in unison. Augmenting this very simplistic track are punches of static noise, adding the obligatory lo-fi haze that I'm pretty sure was passed into legislation this year. After a little meddling and indecision a snare drum finally kicks in and an awesome electronic bass line establishes itself. This is one of the few tracks that does in fact have vocals on it, and they are amazing. Weber does any amazing job of layering melodies and doubling the vocals as they fade in and out of runs. But enough foreplay already. Panda Bear is on the track too...that's why I like it so much. Which begs the question, is this album like "Logos" from Atlas Sound? The answer to that is kind of, but not really. Atlas Sound got in trouble by making one amazing track in "Walkabout" with Noah and filled the rest of the album with garbage and depression.

With "Black Noise" we do have the same concept in that there is one great standout track, but the rest of that album is not garbage. But by having "Stick To My Side" on the album it does raise my expectations and standards for the rest of the album.

Other tracks of note on the record include "Behind the Stars" which has a somewhat dark, industrial tone but ironically does have some pop aspects to it. It sounds like something I would hear at a rave in a loft in Germany, if that makes any sense. Conversely, "Bohemian Forest" is a very bright song that incorporates xylophones and jungle sounds, providing a nice atmospheric palette of sounds and effects. The track is another slow starter that morphs into an uptempo gem without becoming too chaotic. You can really appreciate his patience and decision making process as far as knowing what to do and when to do it

I don't want to say the rest of album is filler because it isn't. For the most part, all of the tracks on the album are beautifully constructed, balancing hazy house music with minimalistic German techno. By no means is this a Benny Benassi album, but a lot of the tracks do become repetitive and monotonous. This is hard to say though, because there is so much thought that went into each track and the production - his creative sense and musical awareness are off the charts. However, there aren't many 'this is awesome' moments or tracks that really jump off the album, with the exception of "Stick To My Side." So how much credit can we really give Pantha du Prince when the best song on the album is carried on the shoulders of Panda Bear? Weber is not Atlas Sound - this is fact. But I'd like to see where his music goes over the next couple of years...he's certainly got the potential.

Tracks
1.) Lay In a Shimmer
2.) Abglanz
3.) The Splendour
4.) Stick to My Side
5.) A Nomad's Retreat
6.) Satellite Snyper
7.) Behind the Stars
8.) Bohemian Forest
9.) Welt am Draht
10.) Im Bann
11.) Es Schneit