Sungs Newly Tong
Panda Bear
Buoys
Since Animal Collective began their mainstream-ish ascent in the mid-’00s, each of their members has been almost aggressively forward-thinking, rarely repeating themselves while spurring micro-genres and exhaustive think pieces about their work along the way. But in 2017, two members — Dave Portner (aka Avey Tare) and Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) — decided to revisit their past with the first of a few shows in support of their landmark 2004 album, Sung Tongs. The album inspired a whole generation of musicians to rethink the acoustic guitar, and it did the same for one of its creators nearly a decade-and-a-half later. Inspired at least in part by early practice sessions leading up to their 2017/2018 Sung Tongs performances, Buoys — Panda Bear’s first album in four years — finds the always identifiable AnCo member moving the lush, samplebased soundscapes of previous albums aside in favour of a stripped-back, bare-bones approach that will no doubt delight longtime fans and puzzle fairweather ones. Co-produced by Sung Tongs’ Rusty Santos, and clocking in just north of 30 minutes, Buoys sounds like a lo-fi transmission sent from the past that’s finally caught up to current times, collecting static and other bits of infraand ultrasound ephemera along the way.
For some, it may not be as immersive as previous listening experiences on first spin, with the majority of the record being made up of subtle slapback acoustic guitar delays, spacious drum machine beats and occasional hints of wall-rattling sub-bass, but it unfolds the more you get used to Lennox’s new sonic framework here. Where previous Animal Collective and Panda Bear albums felt like engrossing page-turners, Buoys is like a mottled, 140-page paperback you can pick up at any time and get something out of, regardless of mental state or surroundings. (Domino)
What made you partner with [ Sung Tongs engineer] Rusty Santos to co-produce?
Hearing about the stuff he was working on and where his head was at with music, I was really curious to see how the stuff I was doing would kind of sound being filtered through [him].
There’s a lot of water imagery on this record. Why is that?
I’ve tried to psychoanalyze myself to try and figure out what the sea represents for me, because not just on this record, but going back, it seems to be a well that I keep going to. I think part of it is that every city I’ve lived in in my life for any significant portion of time has always been right by the sea. So I think the ocean always represents some level of comfort or being home.