Toro Y Moi and Gold Panda at Bitterzoet

  Toro Y Moi / Gold Panda at Bitterzoet, Amsterdam (2011)

Human versus cattle versus finance. When something is sold out you can expect to be on top of each other, but personally I could’ve done with either a bigger venue or with losing thirty or so people in there (which is easy for me to say because I’ve been holding onto this ticket for yonkers and thus I’m fairly sure I would’ve gotten in anyway). The enjoyment factor is rather diminished by the fact that you are constantly aware that you are about to touch someone who either you don’t want to touch or they don’t want you to touch them. I don’t want any sweating backs coming to close to me, and adversely, I don’t want to touch the cute people as I don’t want to get the reputation of that annoying little shit who is always “making contact”. I’m sure that might all sound terribly anal to you, but my mind does wonder from the music when my hand accidentally grazes someone’s butt. So yeah, cozy is all good, and it may allow people to snuggle up really close to that other scenester they’ve always had their eye on, but I wouldn’t have minded some dancing space. Especially since Toro Y Moi went pretty funk with his latest, and since Gold Panda is pretty much electronic music anyway.

Some people might remember Toro Y Moi for all the chillwave reports that came into existence when his debut Causers of This was released. Now, though, it is less chillwave and more funk, and personally I think that is a good thing if that makes you churn out songs like ‘Still Sound’ and ‘Elise’, with which he closes the set and which is just really catchy and danceable and has a great chorus. There is a sense of melancholy in those songs, but they are funky tunes, perhaps ‘Still Sound’ even more so than ‘Elise’. The latter has this great wave like structure where it has a rather understated intro and then rollicks to and from the up-tempo chorus to more slowed down instrumental moments. A good choice as closer of both the new album and the set.

Two essentials jump out at me, namely Bundick’s vocals which are really, really ace, and that wicked bass that just thrives some songs forward like you wouldn’t believe. It just puts the funk right into those songs and makes you want to dance a bit and have a bit of fun. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen the band, and last time it wasn’t as catchy and dancey, which I reckon isn’t so much execution as that the band with this album moved more in that direction. That suits them well, as you just can’t help to bop along to the songs. ‘How I Know’ of the new album is another example of this. Again a song in which they play with the pace (up-and-down), some sparser moments, and then the chorus with Bundick’s vocals added to it. I really like his voice, and it really adds to the arrangements in my opinion. I think with the last album they took a step forward, and it rubs off on the live show, which was thoroughly enjoyable despite some cracks in the sound system.

Next up is Gold Panda. Now, to put this in some perspective and to give you some idea of where this interpretation of his music comes from; I’m more of a House guy. I do get the soundscapes and images experimental/ambient electronic music creates, I do get minimal, and I get a whole lot of other stuff in terms of electro music. But there is always some thing in my saying, Honey, if you have a beat, ride it. If you want the dancefloor to move (which I assume Gold Panda wants because it seems to me as a combination of experimental and up-tempo sounds), you want the kids out there to be able to pick up the beat and dance to that, and from that point to add and subtract for variety and momentum. That is what I am thinking.

Surely, that what is described above is not what Gold Panda is thinking at all. To my ears (and in that venue there were plenty who would disagree based on their reaction), what Gold Panda does is not creating an image or vibe or creating a moving dancefloor, but instead of creating he seems to be constantly disrupting. Whenever he gets a good beat going he always willingly destroys it. Either by speeding it up so much it becomes impossible to dance to, or sometimes just by suddenly putting in a one second delay which throws you right off the beat. In other songs he does some glitchy stuff and some crazy sequences which one can’t even start to dance on, let alone be thrown off from.

It is just that, you are dancing, having a good time, getting one with the beat, and then suddenly someone says, Dancing, well, that is not a very refined thing to do, we don’t dance here, and then just smashes whatever you are feeling completely. Now, obviously, some people were enjoying it (and in rebottle to this, feel free to explain what angle you looked at it and liked it), but maybe I’m a simplistic fucker who just wants to dance with all the cute kids there, and that wasn’t something that was going down. Also, in my opinion, if you do want to do ambient or whatever, there is a difference in creating intricate soundscapes and just have an outro of a minute plus consisting purely of noise. Whereas the rest I happily put down on personal taste, that I just can’t see anyone fancying to be honest.