If Panda Kid ever deigns to tour the Midwest, I can’t begin to think of how much I’d thank them for the absolute joy they bring into my life with each and every release. Summetry, their latest LP, got a US release a few weeks back courtesy of Chicago’s Already Dead, and much like everything this Italian group releases, it’s taken a while to figure out what I think about it.
I mean, granted, I like it. It’s pretty much a given that any Panda Kid release will get some form of thumbs up from me at this point. It’s really more of figuring out what tack the group will take on any given release. On Summetry, it’s a vibe that reminds me if it were possible for a time-traveling Beatles to have grown up listening to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd.
The record has that strange, off-kilter vibe that so many of the best moments from the White Album and Sgt. Pepper have, but even more psychedelic and laconic. “Daltonic Eyes” is as if someone managed to take that breakdown from the end of “Helter Skelter” and stretch it into a four-minute song.
It’s pop, it’s skewed, it’s so fucking hazy that it’s sometimes difficult to determine where the album is going amongst the wash and sheen, especially on cuts like “A Long Long Summer” (which appears in pretty much the same form as it did on Scary Monster Juice). However, those cuts can butt up against something like the title track, and it’s a perfect take-off on New Order, ran through this lo-fi process that will blow your mind, and make you reconsider all over again what this band is capable of.
Panda Kid’s Summetry is available in a limited edition of 30 on white vinyl from Already Dead Tapes and Records, with a hand-screened cover.