GOLD PANDA - LUCKY SHINER (LP)

Gold Panda Lucky Shiner on Vinyl LP

On Gold Panda's Lucky Shiner, vinyl-static beats and heart-on-sleeve melancholia collide, and the results are breathtaking. The album was mixed by Simian Mobile Disco's James Shaw and recorded in two sessions at a retreat in the English countryside.

Decamping to an idyllic retreat means the album bears trademarks of a pastorally hued Englishness; GPʼs two years spent studying Japanese culture, language, and history at the School of Oriental and Asian studies in Japan also find their way into the music. Opener and lead single “You” slinks along with a stuttering vocal sample and teary-eyed chord changes in tow; “Snow & Taxis” sounds like prime dancefloor fodder, but its cloudy string samples and chiming bells situate its melancholy closer to M83 than anything else; and the deconstructed hip-hop of “After We Talked” employs a minimal, lo-fi drum machine and an array of ever-so-gently bitcrushed synths.

Gold Panda Lucky Shiner Track Listing:

1.  You
2.  Vanilla Minus
3.  Parents
4.  Same Dream China
5.  Snow & Taxis
6.  Before We Talked
7.  Marriage
8.  I'm With You But I'm Lonely
9.  After We Talked
10. India Lately
11. You