MySpace Trawl – Gold Panda

Not only is it coming to the end of this year, but also the end of the decade.

So far, various lists have been chewed over to come up with the best albums of 2009. And, as usual in December, it’s time for so-called industry bigwigs to tell us what will be clogging up space in record shops and on your iPod next year.

Generally, electronic artists don’t get looked at and are never well represented. The cool and experimental sound of the nineties died with Euro cheese this decade. Nobody will ever get sick of a moody indie band churning out some copycat melody or an odd-looking female belting out some feelgood song. But will the New Year see something on the electronic side rise up? According to those clever types at the BBC Sounds Of 2010, Gold Panda will save us all.

Gold Panda’s MySpace lacks information about the producer, apart from a list of records that have been so far released. Therefore, we shamelessly turn to the BBC and steal its biography on Gold Panda. And to be fair, it’ll probably do a better job than we’d ever manage:

“Gold Panda is a left-field producer and remixer called Derwin who makes instrumental soundtracks to half-remembered, dreamy summer days. He scours charity shops for old records and VHS tapes to turn into distorted samples, and wraps them in minimal, warm beats. He is obsessed with Japan and its culture, and once sold his entire record collection to pay for a Japanese diploma at the School of Oriental and African Studies, before moving there for a year.”

Quitters Raga couldn’t do more than back up what you have been read. Despite being under two minutes long, its sharp bursts of cut-up vocals under sweeping melodic reverb is music everyone needs to hear. Especially the people who are worried about a few flakes of snow that are currently falling.

Anyone London based or prepared to travel should really visit Fabric on the 22nd January where Gold Panda will play alongside Four Tet and James Holden amongst others.