Download:My Panda Shall Fly – Injury (Kool Clap Egyptian Bambatta Edit)

Download:My Panda Shall Fly – Injury (Kool Clap Egyptian Bambatta Edit)

artist: My Panda Shall Fly
title: Sorry I Took So Long
label: Growing Records
My Panda Shall Fly (MPSF) seemed to appear from nowhere last year. The Sri Lankan-born visual artist and producer, armed with an alarmingly large beard and a bundle of compelling remixes, gained a lot of attention within the Dubstep and Future Bass communities: his rework of Pirate Sound System’s “Dub N U” was featured on the Pitchfork Forkcast and became an instant hit on the dancefloor, and grime godfather Terror Danjah (Hyperdub) used MPSF to turn his anthem “Air Bubble” into a dark, moody clicks ‘n cuts groove.

Besides, the self-confessed animal lover – growing up in a house of 15 dogs, 10 cats, lots of birds, fish, a turtle and a monkey – is one of the busiest DJs in town, spinning vinyl for the likes of Rinse FM and Off Modern, as well as playing across Europe from basement parties in Berlin and Vienna to Outlook festival in Croatia.

MPSF recently finished work on his debut EP, the politely named ‘Sorry I Took So Long’, a nod to having never recorded any material with the live electronics trio, which was My Panda Shall Fly in an earlier form. But it’s been well worth the wait: these three songs navigate the boundaries of Future Bass as we know it. “With my latest tracks I’m trying to explore something different. It’s still bass-heavy, but much slower and sparser than the classic wobble sound” the 23-year-old humbly states. But it’s much more than that.

So say fans and supporters such as Gold Panda, Vondelpark and Dam Mantle. The latter signed MPSF to his new imprint Growing (a sub-label of the mighty Witchita Recordings) where his EP has become the first non-Dam Mantle production to be released.

The EP kicks off with “Injury”, a synth-driven, percussion-heavy, effervescent slow burner with a slight Detroit feel. “Xerox” sounds like a baked Nintendo Gameboy gone astray at a South London warehouse party. Then “Yoyo” finally draws the curtain with a wobbly organ bass line pillowed against eccentric Dub-wise rhythms. The snare loses itself in echoes, the orchestra of sounds melt into silence – My Panda Shall Fly has taken off.

The package comes complete with a slew of remixes from UK bass producers, Throwing Snow (Notown/Eglo), Pirate SoundSystem (Heavy Warper/Wide), DoReMi (Longreach Collective/Growing Records), Nightwave aka 8bitch (Slit Jockey US/Seed) and Dam Mantle (Growing Records).”

Gonjasufi-The Caliph’s Tea Party(remix album) October 4 +stream

It’s a tricky thing, re-working a completely unique and peerless piece of music. It is made even trickier when the personality behind the original music is so vivid and otherworldly that it is almost sure to continue to cast it’s long shadow over whatever new form is chosen for it.

Of course the questions of whether or not to remix Gonjasufi’s classic A Sufi and A Killer arose, but with that voice and those songs, it was never going to fail. Of course the fact that Gonja had made fans out of quite a few incredibly talented artists didn’t hurt either.

So, The Caliph’s Tea Party was slowly summoned to life. Like the Caliphs of the Ummahs of the 7th century, orchestrating affairs from their palaces, Gonjasufi has assembled a collection of artists in his musical world and invited them to exchange ideas. In this spirit, the symbolic and musical centerpiece of the album, as well as its namesake, is the result of the mutual admiration formed between Gonjasufi and Broadcast and The Focus Group. A bewitching, drastic re-working of ‘DedNd’ it takes the form of a suite of layered compositions and radiophonic transmissions.

Elsewhere, reinterpretations from new talents shine while established artists continue to surprise. Mark Pritchard channels Ennio Morricone with epic orchestral dystopia on his remix of ‘Ancestors’ while retaining the inherent gravity of Flying Lotus’ original production. Young guns Shlomo and Jeremiah Jae eschew their labeling as ‘beatmakers’ and tap into a fractured emotional core within ‘Change’ and ‘Holidays’, respectively, giving them new leases on life as subtly mechanized melancholia. Bibio smooths out the rough edges of ‘Candylane’ for a remix indebted to the 1980s R&B leftfield, while Brooklyn’s Bear In Heaven and Oneohtrix Point Never deal in heavy motorik meditations and ethereal musique concrete.

That The Caliph’s Tea Party lives up to it’s concept as a companion piece to A Sufi & A Killer is not only a sizeable accomplishment, but also a testament to the source material. Gonjasufi has emerged in 2010 as the most striking new voice in a vast musical landscape that continues to outrun true classification. With so many errant strands of creativity moving in all directions, it may well prove fortunate that a Caliph has been selected.

Gonjasufi – Ancestors ((Dreamtime) Mark Pritchard Rmx)

Gonjasufi – Love Of Reign (Bear In Heaven Remix)

Gonjasufi – The Caliph’s Tea Party
Released 4th October 2010 on silver foiled digipak CD, limited edition silver foiled vinyl and digital

01. Ancestors ((Dreamtime) Mark Pritchard Rmx)
02. Candylane (Bibio Remix)
03. Ageing (Dam Mantle Remix)
04. The Caliph’s Tea Party (Broadcast & The Focus Group “DedNd” Remix)
05. Kobwebz (Jeremiah Jae Remix)
06. Love Of Reign (Bear In Heaven Remix)
07. She’s Gone (Oneohtrix Point Never Remix)
08. Holidays (MRR Remix)
09. Change (Shlohmo Remix)
10. My Only Friend (Hezus Remix)
11. DedNd (agdm Remix)
12. SuzieQ (Dem Hunger Bowel Blood Remix)

preorder at bleep

http://warp.net