The Pixel Panda
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The Pixel Panda

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"The Nation of Symmetry (review)"

Pixel Panda keeps things deliberately obscure on its full-length debut, The Nation of Symmetry. Buried in a blender of guitars, keyboards and jack-rabbit beats are the tag-team vocals of Do-Yun Kim and Nicholas Seider. One utilizes straightforward stylings; the other screeches like a weasel caught in a lawnmower blade. Burning through 14 songs in less than 30 minutes (only one tune breaches the 3-minute mark), Panda keeps things moving at a breakneck pace, abandoning ideas almost as soon as they're formed. The strategy underscores the punk ethic that grand musical statements tend to be insufferable but nevertheless produces a work of epic scope. The Panda is here to make as much artfuck noise as possible, audience -- and melody -- be damned. Each number begins with a threadbare musical concept that's expanded and reconfigured to the breaking point. Song titles such as "Our Band Is More American Than You" and "Annual Gift Man" hint at social and political criticism, but the vocals are indecipherable, so it doesn't matter. Nation is nothing if not original, though Pixel Panda is best appreciated in a live setting, where collective effervescence trumps all. Plus they wear panda masks. And we like panda masks.

By Geoff Harkness - The Pitch


"Burial Suite (review 1)"

Kansas City, Missouri locals The Pixel Panda don their panda masks again to release their latest album, Burial Suite. Chock full of complex rhythms and dark, twisted carnival organs, this album is a fantastic end of the year release. Do-Yun Kim growls, screams, whines and sings his way through this release with a passion and energy that is hard to match. The Pixel Panda seem to teeter on the edge of chaos and insanity on nearly every track of Burial Suite. The keyboards, played by Alicia Solombrino, really add to this overall feeling throughout the album and layer on this extra air of creepyness.

The opening track “A Ghost Whisper” sets the mood for the rest of the album. Shortly into the song you know that you are running down a demented carnival midway for the duration of this album. The next couple of tracks that follow reinforce that idea and are the strongest of the album. “To Happy Hunting Ground” and “Mr. & Mrs. Mocking Child” stay with you long after the album is finished.

“Sangre Seca” is a latin-influenced lounge number that gives the listener a moment to breathe after the last five tracks and before the rolling drums of “Application for Naturalization”. The chaos begins to grow back with “Look Who Came for Dinner” and with the cacophonous waltz of “Automatic Westy You are So Hasty.”

“Humor Me” is another short instrumental number, this time with a spaghetti western theme filtered through a child’s nightmare. “Cold Hands Dead Eyes” ends the album on the perfect note. It is a strong track with frenetic drumming, spooky organs, start-stop timing, and Do-Yun Kim’s whiney, wailing vocals.

Burial Suite is a solid release from a band that is guaranteed to surprise and impress. With their complex timing, eerie aura and energy they create an original, beautiful and discordant sound.

Reviewed by: Tom Gilbert - soundsect.com


"Burial Suite (review 2)"

The Pixel Panda is Do-Yun Kim, Jorge Arana, Luis Arana, and Alicia Solombrino. Whether unmasked or sporting creepy panda masks as they perform, the band develops their identity both on the merits of visual appeal and musical audacity.

This video reveals a glimpse of their surreal and mind-bending hijinks complete with martial arts kicking, skipping, and odd corporeal transformation as an old man faces off against panda warriors with weird results. YouTube's format does not serve the band's music or vocals well, but the video sheds insight on the phenomenon of this art-rock band. They perform as a spectacle to watch and listen with equal attention to sound and vision.

Listening to the songs on Burial Suite is only part of the experience. "To Happy Hunting Ground" is a Red Bull-fueled romp with unrelenting drumming, inflamed by bursts of shredding guitar, shrill keyboards, and piercing, desperate vocals. The musicianship is adept and concentrated, filtered through a manic circus grinder's imagination that pours into the ears. The story contained within the lyrics is enigmatic and suggestive without offering instant gratification. It's like a poem that bears meaning for the poet and requires clues to decipher further, perhaps with repeated listens and the transfer of meaningful experience between artist and audience.

"Look Who Came For a Dinner" further demonstrates the band's inherent theatrical flair with hysteric vocal outburts, aggressive bass and guitar salvos, and abrupt shifts in pace. The eerie, somewhat tragicomic, intensity of keyboards reminiscent of old horror movies. Don't look for pretty vocals in this pinched, anguished narration. The singing is expressive and tortured, an aural display of a victim in distress, a monster on the loose, a frantic populace, a wicked tale with a less than happy ending.

Other song titles like "Unfortunate Nightmare" and "Cold Hands Dead Eyes" summon thoughts of dire times and malevolence, but don't let words limit the imagination. Humans tend to view pandas as cute, innocent, and cuddly play things. This image tucked into the band's name contrasts sharply against their inventive, absurdist visual identity, the darker psyche lurking behind the lyrics, and the ferocity of their music. Look for The Pixel Panda on tour along the coasts in April-May 2007 with select dates in Kansas City. ––Pete Dulin - Present Magazine


"Burial Suite (review 3)"

After so many bands try to throw in the whole, "Experimental/Indie/Punk" or whatever you want to call it, you really want to give up on finding a actual decent band in that area because they just really only play mediocre music that has nothing experimental except for a few synthesizers here and there. So, after getting pretty agitated with so many of those bands failing, I come across The Pixel Panda. I prematurely wrote them off before listening to them as just another band who in reality just plays loud music. Well, what I got was a slap in the face as during the four tracks I heard, I couldn't stop dancing and swiveling in my chair. Combining the elements of screamo, indie, dance punk, and experimental, The Pixel Panda really don't hold back and go for it all on Burial Site. Where other bands have failed, they not only succeed, but decide to be the kings of what they do.

First, a quick history of the band. They released another full length called The Nation of Symmetry which was basically At The Drive-In combined with the Blood Brothers and The Locust and with a bit of latin pop. Since that album, the band has truly matured and writes more complex music and gets rid of the duo vocals. As the album kicks off with A Ghost Whisperer I truly got the feeling of Antioch Arrow (more like the song Too Bad You're Gonna Die). As the album continues you start getting sucked in more and more and start just dancing. You go through one track and then all of a sudden realize, you are listening to the next track without losing the feeling of joy you are getting while listening to the album. Happy Hunting Ground is really eerie and just really sticks to your head. Sangre Seca is definetly a personal favorite of mine mainly because the music on that track just really captures what this band is about. As you go along, Unfortunate Nightmare is a catchy little number really capturing the imagination of what the band is set out to do.

What I truly love about this band is their ability to combine all these elements of music, and not make the listener feel like its just too much to take. They know how to make the songs catchy and complex at the same time. The vocals are honest, and I mean honest in the way that they are not forced and they have the feeling of just naturally flowing and the screams are kept to a minimal only used when they are effective. Musically is where this band really shines throughout the album really creating sort of a atmosphere that they are inviting you to and you cant help but refuse. At times, the music is just playing with no vocals and you are kept in a trance. The organs feel like they are coming straight from Ray Manzarek and play a major part as well in the music. Two complaints though. One, sometimes they get a bit too chaotic in the more heavier parts. And two, the album really doesn't end so well Cold Hands Dead Eyes just being a ok track compared to the rest of the album. But other than that, The Pixel Panda are leagues above most bands.

Truly a great piece of work by a band who wears panda masks when they perform live. They will only improve as time goes on. In the meantime, it's The Pixel Panda's world, and they are wanting you in it.

by patrickbateman - Sputnikmusic


Discography

7 " split w/Hook and Ladder - 2002
CD - Nation of Symmetry - 2004
CD - Burial Suite - 2006

Photos

Bio

Formed in 2002, The Pixel Panda has gone to release two albums, a 7", and gain an enthusiastic following on numerous tours while asking for little help from anyone. Everything is self done ranging from recording, mixing, to promoting, art design, booking, etc.

Stylistically always changing, The Pixel Panda keeps things evolving with the desire of ever more expressive means. Weather this means more complicated rhythms, harmony and sharper dissonance, or the simplification of a melody to two notes and no beat.