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Gold Panda courtesy of City Slang
Gold Panda courtesy of City Slang
08/15/2016

Gold Panda, globetrotting maestro comes to Holocene

By MATT HANSEN // U.K. electronica DJ will be playing Saturday, August 20th

Gold Panda plays Holocene this Saturday, August 20th, 9pm, $16 ADV, tickets.

When Gold Panda toured the U.S. behind his debut album “Lucky Shiner” in 2010, his live performance was in no way a track-for-track representation of the album. On that tour, Gold Panda’s set didn’t lend much to introducing his songs to new fans that were there to see the headliner, experimental rock band Autolux. Rather, audiences only got snippets of the infectious electronica present on his album; yet together with his willingness to reinvent his set list every night, the electronic producer garnered much industry praise.

 Absent on that tour were the trilling yaps of the single “You,” or other brilliant tracks that were huge with the NPR crowd, such as “Snow and Taxis” or the minimal techno of “Before We Talked.” Gold Panda (Derwin Panda) wanted listeners to recognize the hooks and lush production of his tracks before coming to see him live, and his unconventional delivery of them was what went on to make him noteworthy.

 Moving to Berlin to write his sophomore album, Derwin lived in a city where living cheaply and producing electronic music as a way of life is all too common. But as his second album would prove, Derwin’s sound would easily set him apart from both the scene in the German capital and abroad. On “Half of Where You Live” Derwin has noticeably been affected by influences coming from outside his hometown of Chelmsford, Essex, U.K.

 The album titles now read like the great exotica records of the past in which each track seems to embody the feelings of a different jet-set destination. “Brazil” begins with break beats of drippy percussion, rising in a tone of perspiration like entering a foreign dance hall to the divine sound of harps and zithers. Between trips to Japan and living in Berlin, Derwin had cultivated a richer sound that displays rhythms and tonal moods reminiscent of the environments he was calling home.

 Since then, you can’t read a bio or review of Derwin’s work where the discussion doesn’t somehow note his current whereabouts while speculating how they’ll become some new elemental force in his producing. His new album “Good Luck And Do Your Best” was inspired by his stints to and from Japan, and judging by the buttery loops of the single “In My Car,” traveling proved to be more beneficial than simply racking up frequent flyer miles. 

 It’s confirmed that a photographer was along to document this time in Japan. Derwin’s projections at the show, if any, will be a rare visual spectacle into the life of the traveling composer and all around Japanophile.

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