Animal Frequency

Person Pitch
Panda Bear
Mistletone, 2007
4 stars

Noah Lennox, aka Panda Bear, knows his tunes. His influences read like a history of modern music: experimental dance, '60s pop, and '90s gangsta rap, they're all there in the liner notes. On Person Pitch, his third solo album away from Animal Collective, he somehow manages to meld all these genres and more into a gloriously unique folk-pop-campfire-dance album. It's impossible to describe these songs without mentioning the Beach Boys, but Person Pitch honestly sounds like Lennox has kidnapped Brian Wilson and locked him in an echoey basement with a sampler, a turntable and a box of op-shop vinyl finds. Why nobody thought of doing this years ago, I guess we'll never know.

Artwork: A+

Published in mX, Thursday 12 April 2007.