The Red and Black

Issue date: 1/10/08 Section: Out & About

Media Credit: Courtesy Hisham Bharoocha Noah Lennox, a member of Animal Collective, started a solo project called Panda Bear. He released "Person Pitch" in 2007. [Click to enlarge]

It's only appropriate that Noah Lennox, one-fourth of the New York City band Animal Collective, would keep the name of his artist alias and side project within the world of the wild.

Even today, we may never know what was happening in Brian Wilson's skull during the assembling of "Pet Sounds," but 2007's "Person Pitch" gives us evidence that Panda Bear may have been pulsating somewhere within Wilson's subconscious. Panda Bear is triumphant, filling song spaces with intricate walls of sound while layering lofty choruses with contemporary psychedelia.

On its own, "Person Pitch" is what a drug-hazed spin of the Beach Boys' seminal album would be, sans actual substance abuse. Enrapturing but not excessive, Panda Bear crests the wave of classic surf rock gone subterranean and cerebral. Through the hazy clutter and calliopes of song, there's an innate pop sensibility which makes Lennox perhaps a little more "bear"able than his esoteric escapism with Animal Collective.

Maybe this is the reason why he was able to sell out shows faster than his own band throughout this summer.

"Person Pitch" is Lennox's second solo effort and with the offering of transcendent tracks such as "Comfy in Nautica" and "Bros," it looks like we've got our own Wilson to wallow in.

- Sami Promisloff

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