Longtime friends and collaborators Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) and Sonic Boom (Peter Kember) have announced their first joint release, Reset, out Aug. 12 (digital) and Nov. 18 (physical) on Domino. Lead single “Go On,” out now alongside an animated music video, is built around a sample of The Troggs’ 1967 track “Give It to Me.”
Reset was a long time coming, in retrospect: The pair first met (via MySpace, which itself says plenty) when Panda Bear thanked Sonic Boom’s former band, Spacemen 3, in the liner notes of his 2007 solo album Person Pitch, prompting a grateful response from Sonic Boom. Their creative partnership led to Sonic Boom mixing and co-producing Panda Bear’s 2011 and 2015 solo albums Tomboy and Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, respectively, and now it’s led to Reset.
“Inspired by Sonic Boom’s collection of ’50s and ’60s American doo-wop and rock-and-roll LPs, the songs of Reset are as catchy and bright as anything either Panda Bear or Sonic Boom have made in their own vaunted career and serve as a testament to the power of communion and collaboration,” says a press release.
Our first preview of the album finds the duo yearning for the future, looking ahead in a manner split between eagerness and anxiety: “Somethin’s comin’ round the bend / Somethin’ that I wanna know,” sings Lennox. Their stomper of a Troggs sample is eventually augmented by whirring synth and echoing handclaps, as if to sonically say of the track’s dual moods, “Why not both?” But what’s most striking about the song is how much Panda Bear and Sonic Boom make of the sample, reimagining the Troggs’ bare-bones love song as a harbinger of all that an uncertain future may hold.
Watch the “Go On” video (dir. James Siewert) below, and see the details of Reset further down.
Reset Tracklist:
1. Gettin’ to the Point
2. Go On
3. Everyday
4. Edge of the Edge
5. In My Body
6. Whirlpool
7. Danger
8. Livin’ in the After
9. Everything’s Been Leading to This
Reset Art:
