The melody in Panda Transport’s latest single “Transmission” seems to float on a viscous stew of synthesized sounds and rhythms. This bubbly binary brew is the perfect medium for the duo’s catchy melodic lines, silky, if familiar, harmonic rhythm, and airy vocal tones. The combination of real, that is, acoustic instruments and electronic sounds is seamless, and each sound supports the tune’s infrastructure as it builds, gurgling and popping like a thick lava flow growing slowly and gracefully.
“Transmission” is a morsel from this unlikely duo’s album, “Plush Mechanique,” an apt name for the soupy mix of traditional and computer music. The two artists, Kathy Compton and Thierry Holweck, met over the internet; she an American jazz and pop composer, he’s a Frenchman and master of the virtual music world. What would seem to be an odd mixture turns out to be a successful experiment in music-meshing and genre-bending. Panda Transport has already found commercial success in America with “Transmission” being featured on Grey’s Anatomy. Their new EP “Monorail” will be released this fall.
Review by Jon Peritz
Traduction en francais
La melodie du dernier single de Panda Transport semble flotter dans un melange épais de sons synthetiques et de rythmes.
Jon Peritz
