I can’t lie, the use of a question mark in place of the word itself, gets my inner crotchety ol’ geezer agitated. If that wasn’t enough they compound the typographical madness by styling ‘when’ in all capitals and using the title, in block letters and vivid colours (different for each format) as the cover of the record. Then again, I think they missed a trick not calling this project PandaSonic, so what do I know?
It doesn’t hurt any that the title track turns out to be a solid gold slice of summer perfection with a spring in its step and the sun in its hair. ‘A ? of WHEN’ is one of those bright carefree tunes that hits so instantly you skip it straight back to the start. It comes in on tape running backwards and the kind of wavering synth notes familiar to anyone who knows Sonic Boom’s music before an unstoppable bubblegum beat of handclaps and percussive rhythm guitar. They could have sold this to an actual pop star and had a proper hit, if that were still a thing. Beneath the breezy vocal harmonies the cry of distant sirens winds through the background. It doesn’t feel urgent but runs a highlighter pen over the idea “it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when” everything catches up.
Nothing else on the album is quite so delightfully buoyant or immediate but there is much to enjoy if you relax and give it a little time. ‘Lucky Charm’ has a folk song quality, a touch of ‘We Three Kings’ in its melody and shining steel pans in the back while the bright riff of ‘Revive Him’ has a 60’s orchestral pop feel. With lyrics like a stream of consciousness rhyme game ‘Something Like Dreaming’ glides along on sleepy handclaps and sparkling loops of Mary Lattimore’s harp. The harp, steel pans and echoes of Brill building pop recur all across the album.
The steel pans burble along with soft strummed guitar on ‘Pray To You’ but it’s the sweet spiralling strings that really sell its begging soul feel. Carrying the general sense of summer warmth waves roll gently in and out on ‘Be The Bridge’ contrasting an awkward clunking groove. Opening on a spot of Everleys style sweet harmonising the country feel of ‘Something That Lasts’ is carried as much by its shuffling train smoke rhythm as the shining pedal steel of Zena Key and those harmonies. The closing ‘Graveyard’ pushes a ridiculous 70s end of the pier synth sound and glam beat and gets away with it.
The music on their debut Reset began with processed loops taken from the intros of old singles and it feels as if that approach is still bearing fruit. Less direct than sampling, more fluid than pastiche, they’ve hit on a way of mining old sources for a widescreen soundworld of their own. Everything feels weightless here, soft and colourful. Brief flashes of memory floating past, human warmth flowing through it all. Panda Bear and Sonic Boom are kicking back in the golden Portuguese dusk, sighing into the deep blue and darkening sky. Stay a while, they’re good, easy, company.
