New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Gold Panda Official Website) The breakthrough story of Peckham-born producer Gold
Panda (real name Derwin Panda) bears repeating. Having stormed 2010's Great Escape Festival in Brighton and earned US Summer tour supports slots with both HEALTH and Autolux,
Panda came back to the UK in October to find the nation's blogs and critics alike going crazy over his debut LP Lucky Shiner. DJ Magazine gave the album 9/10 and the NME described it as "just blissful" - not to mention an 8.3 rating from Pitchfork. The album eventually went on to win the 2010 edition of The Guardian's First Album Award for the finest debut LP to be released that year, and the introverted artist suddenly found himself thrust into the limelight.
The success has snowballed into this year, with headlining tours across Europe, the US, and Australia cementing his rising reputation. The chance to take a step back from the relentless schedule and put his mind to use on the latest DJ-Kicks compilation then is a welcome change in pace, not that
Panda found it an easy transition to make. "I'd never consider myself a DJ, but through doing this I've really become more appreciative of it. I have so much more respect for people that do DJ now."
Gold
Panda On Tour
10-05 Bristol, England @ Thekla
10-06 London, England @ Koko
10-07 Leeds, England @ Brudenell Social Club
10-08 Glasgow, Scotland @ King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
10-24 Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
10-25 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
10-26 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Club
10-27 Ann Arbor, MI @
Blind Pig
10-28 Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
10-29 New York, NY @ Good Units
10-30 Asheville, NC @ MoogFest
He may have found it a challenge, but it doesn't show on a 22 track mix (full tracklisting below) that weights perfectly between the bright awake and brooding nocturnal sides of electronic music: a set that works best pulsing the headphones and emanating around the bedroom rather than shaking the dancefloor. Lauded names like Zomby and Ramadanman are mixed in with new stars like
Ninja Tune's Matthewdavid and Berlin producer Pawel. "Tracks like Pawel's 'Coke' and 'Amstel' by Opiate I sort of wanted to hide in the mix, hoping that people might go and find the original,"
Panda explains. "Others I've gone for are because of the production. LV & Untold's 'Beacon,' for instance, has all these little intricacies that makes it so interesting - [dubstep producer] Untold just seems to be a master at finding and building these lovely percussion sounds."
Consistent throughout the mix is the strong sense of melody that links all of the tracks within it; from Drexciya's 'Andraean Sandunes' minimal 80s electro pop feel to
Christopher Rau's 'Do Little.' There's a light touch applied throughout, counterbalanced by the more lo-frequency friendly sounds of Nao Tokui's 'Monolith' and 'Shake' by London techno producer Sigha. Altogether, the set showcases not only the breadth and depth of Panda's musical palette, but also an ability he's already shown with his own material, including the brand new Gold
Panda track 'An Iceberg Hurtled Northward Through Clouds' which opens and is exclusive to the mix and will also be committed to 12". Of course, some tracks are simply included because he loves them and couldn't leave them out, "'Puerto Rican Girls' by Melchior & Prosanto has one of the loveliest hand claps ever, and then there's 'Maria' by Closer Musik which has been a complete favourite of mine for a number of years,"
Panda explains.
With the experience of creating a DJ style mix behind him, the business of being an in-demand musician continues for Gold Panda. After an upcoming tour of Asia and the UK this October,
Panda may even the chance to sit down and work on a second album ("around Christmas time," he speculates). This contribution to the justifiably celebrated DJ-Kicks catalogue is one of the most essential yet, proving that midway through its second decade, the series is still going from strength to strength.
Tracklisting
1. Gold
Panda - An Iceberg Hurtled Northward Through Clouds (DJ-Kicks)
2. Melchior & Pronsato - Puerto Rican Girls
3. Bok Bok - Charisma Theme
4. Drexciya - Andreaen Sand Dunes
5. Muslimgauze - Uzi
Mahmood 8
6. Pawel - Coke
7. Ramadanman - Revenue (Untold Remix)
8. SND - Palo Alto
9. Zomby - Godzilla
10. Closer Musik - Maria
11. Gold
Panda - Back Home
12.
Christopher Rau - Do Little
13. Jan Jelinek - If's, And's And But's
14. Nao Tokui - Monolith
15. Sigha - Shake
16. Opiate - Amstel
17. 2562 - Dinosaur
18. Matthewdavid - Like You Mean It
19. Brainiac - The Turnover
20. LV & Untold - Beacon
21. Autistici - Heated Dust On A Sunlit Window
22.
Giuseppe Ielasi - 2
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