The Lost Stoned Pandas - 2020 - Tune In, Turn On, Get Panda'd

(78:55; Fruits de Mer Records)

Track list:
1. Track Seven (White Witch Black Panda Mix) 18:36
2. Track Four (Noah's Marc Mix) 17:20
3. Track Six (Bamboozled Mix) 6:25
4. Track Seven (Waltzing Me Panda Mix) 9:34
5. Track Five (Yangtze Basin Mix) 5:49
6. Track Three (Into The Hadron Kaleidoscope Mix) 21:11

Line-up:
Panda Pete - guitars
Panda Paul - violin
Panda Chris - electronics
Panda Jack - drums
Panda Kate - cello
Panda Glenda - bass


Prolusion.
UK based project The Stoned Pandas started off as a side venture of UK band Sendelica, with members from that band and a number of outside musicians engaging in creating material where the aim appears to have been to have fun and be expressive and experimental. A total of five albums have been released under this moniker so far. "Tune In, Turn On, Get Panda'd" is the first of these albums, and was released through UK label Fruits de Mer Records in 2020.

Analysis.
The four tracks on the promo CD I have in my possession, where one of the tracks has been split into three tracks for the official release, all come across as the result of improvisations that has been subject to a subsequent studio improvement. Not as much to perfect and polish the material but rather to alter, change, add and expand to the original recording. Much of this material strikes me as something that couldn't be reproduced live without quite a bit of rearranging, but the main tendencies can of course be preserved.

We are taken on four different journeys here, each of them lasting for a full album side. The opening eighteen minutes or so is a more ambient affair, with floating and flowing textures placed on top of and beneath layered spoken voice effects, with the landscape slowly fluctuating and the voices providing tension and a variable constant. After the halfway stage a delicate violin starts floating on top, emphasizing the cosmic tendencies of this ambient escapade and adding an effective contrast while at it. The tone and timbre of the violin reminds me quite a bit of US artist Cyndee Lee Rule and the landscapes she used to explore some 15 years back or so.

The next seventeen minutes or so revolves more around a haunting violin solo initially at least, with field recordings, electronic effects and occasional guitar riffs coming into play, before switching over to a guitar solo lead at some point. The violin returns as a more prominent instrument towards the end, alongside an increase in the role of the field recordings. With drones used here and there too. The mood and mode is a relaxed one, and the landscapes explored reminds me of a calmer, slower and more relaxed variety of some of the solo material I have encountered by former Hawkwind member Alan Davey from some years back.

The third phase of this album continues with the space rock, but now it is explored with a bit more of a redneck approach. We have the violin used more like a fiddle here, we get some banjo sounding motifs in the early stages, and in the initial phase of this song a loud shout of "yahoo" wouldn't have been out of place. The redneck impulses gradually fade as this creation enters a searching phase and transitions to a more regular and also more electronic and guitar driven variety of space rock, but with ghostly echoes of the fiddle sounding violin never quite fading away.

The concluding phase of the album is a much more chaotic affair. Still very calm and collected mind you, but here fluctuating fragmented violin and electronic sounds is a recurring element throughout, with many parts of this creation existing more in a chaotic, cosmic drift occasionally assembling into a slightly more harmonious whole by way of a few dominating constant textures. A bit more electronic in nature, and with a part of this particular journey taking on a bit more of a Tangerine Dream feel to it.

This is very much an ebb and flow affair, and the band and album name can perhaps be read and understood as instructions to the state of mind that is advised to have to best enjoy the contents of this production. These are sounds that are rather far out, but in a relaxing manner, and presumably with lots of in-jokes that people with a more intimate knowledge about space rock and the space rock scene will chuckle at too. There is a fun and relaxed atmosphere to this entire creation, and while not everything is quite up my alley I did find greater parts of this production to be enjoyable and the best moments to be brilliant.

Conclusion.
The Stoned Pandas may or may not have been in that state when this music was recorded, but if a chilled out and relaxed take on space rock is up your alley they certainly deliver that. The landscapes are both expressive and experimental however, so while relaxing in mood those who are intrigued by listening to details and carefully analyzing the music they listen to may find this album to perhaps be a bit more than they initially expected. And possibly become panda'd as a result of that. "Tune In, Turn On, Get Panda'd" is a quality specimen of relaxed, expressive and experimental space rock, and that is probably the most important matter here.

Olav "Progmessor" Björnsen, January 2023

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100053476689804
https://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/