It's that feeling when you first walk outside and feel the fresh fall air breezes across your face. When you think of home. When you get in your car and play that old '90s song that you used to hear in the van on the way to swim practice… The subject of nostalgia has been a hit all year, it's all over Vampire Weekend's second LP, it's even where they got the name for it: Contra -- an old video game the band used to play. James Blake's CMKY is built off of 90s R&B sampling, and he doesn't even try to hide it. It's right there in our face, it's what his songs are built by. Kanye West's first single off his upcoming album, "Power", the Chi-town rapper, samples from King Crimson's "21st Century Schiziod Man." And again, he's not trying to hide it. The Texas-based blog, Gorilla vs Bear's web design is from old Polaroid pictures. Our obsession with nostalgia is us trying to capture the past. It's so relevant in music because music is struggling to find a new path. There are hundreds of genres as opposed to 60 years ago when you could could count the amount of genres with your hands and still have enough fingers to snap to the very new rock 'n' roll sound.
Now the debut from the British electronic producer, Gold Panda, is covered with it. The album's opening track "You" begins with the sound of putting a cassette in a vintage tape player over the quiet atmospheric synth beats no doubt sampled from a once beloved 80's electronic track. He repeats a sample of any beat over and over again throughout the album. This is especially prevalent in "Vanilla Minus," "Same Dream China" and "Snow & Taxes" where you can just picture the producer playing his AkaiMPC2000XL like Chris Martin playing the same rift for "Clocks." In an interview with Pitchfork, Gold Panda said this about sampling songs, "If I'm ripping off something that's already brilliant, what's the point?" Sampling is the nostalgic feeling in music. It's old, but there's something fresh about it. Here the feeling reminds you of a quiet night. Nothing new. Nothing special.
The night's darkness surrounds everyone. Gold Panda's music is surrounding. The music feels like it's made in a bedroom. It's the 'bedroom beat' genre, the autumn/winter version of 'chillwave.' With Nighttime sounds of planes flying above while you're trying to sleep. The beat, however, keeps you up and moving, asking for more. The beat is on repeat. Over and over. Spinning it's ambiance of night. "I'm With you but I'm Lonely" is exactly what it says. The music is there, echoing, but there's something missing. The album has this sense of loneliness around it. A sense of your daily routines, what you do every night before bed. You brush your teeth. Wash your face. Read a few pages of that book you can't really get it into. Lay in bed. Watch the fan circle over and over again. You feel lonely. The album hits it's high point with this statement.
The track, "Parents" seems to stand out. It's sound resembles a live recording of any acoustic guitar set. It's a universal sound. The track's opening words, (the only words you can ((barely)) make out in the album) is that of the producer's grandmother after whom Lucky Shiner is named. Nostalgic for the British producer. Nostalgic acoustic reverb for the listener.
The opening track, "You' has the same name as the closing track although the sound is different. It's much happier. It's processes an engulfing rhythm. As if 'you' have changed, for the better or worse, it's hard to say. The sun will rise bringing a new day either way.
