Panda Bear & Sonic Boom announce new album "A ? of WHEN" - Out 10 July
Today Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) and Sonic Boom (Pete Kember) announce their new album A ? of WHEN, due out July 10th on Domino. Their delightful and winning second album together, A ? of WHEN maintains the sense of musical play found on Panda Bear and Sonic Boom’s triumphant 2022 debut, Reset. It is, to wit, built on loops of harp and sequences of steel drum, webs of pedal steel and even bits of a mariachi band from Mexico City. At one point, Panda Bear actually does his best yodel. Listening to A ? of WHEN feels like being a kid inside this pair’s musical playground, beaming as you bound from station to station.
But maybe more than ever, Sonic Boom and Panda Bear emerge through these 10 songs as two people with frank opinions about these times, with a real stake in the sway of the world. These tunes grapple with online exhaustion and pervasive depression, with political chicanery and ecological sustainability, all while advocating for respecting the power of luck and giving one another grace in a moment when very few of us actually know what the hell is happening.
The record will be released on vinyl, CD, cassette, and download via Domino Mart and Bandcamp; it will not be available on streaming services. Says the duo:
Change. Exciting & frightening at the same time. The slow slips & the big shifts. Highs & lows from the distraction of connectivity.
AI slop becomes an AI slope. Algorithm tables & algorithms tumble.
We’re taking things a little off piste.
More rock n' roll than flick & scroll...
From here on in we're getting back to a place of real connectivity and as you might have noticed from our new “Graveyard”/“Lucky Charm” 7" (only available from record stores) there's no streaming, no videos, and a minimisation of online everything.
Going forward we're looking to radio, live shows, listening parties, Q&A sessions & real life interactions to get back to a place we feel makes more sense.
To that end, we're asking you to join us offline, outside of social media. To meet us in the real world. IRL not URL...
A ? of WHEN is the follow-up to Panda Bear and Sonic Boom’s instant classic 2022 LP Reset and its two alternate versions, the Adrian Sherwood rework Reset in Dub and the Reset Mariachi EP featuring Mexico City’s Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez. The mariachis return for a couple tracks on A ? of WHEN, and the album also features contributions from harpist Mary Lattimore, British multi-instrumentalist Daniel O’Sullivan (Sun O))), Ulver), and “Steel Witch” Zena Kay on pedal steel guitar. Alongside today’s announcement, the album’s title track is available to download. Despite how ebullient it sounds, with its bouncing beat and flute riffs and lyrics about kitty cats and flip-flops, “A ? of WHEN” is about that inexorable moment when all the shit we’ve fucked up finally catches up with us. A ? of WHEN is the sound of looking out at the world, sighing, and transforming it into ebullient songs with your friend, anyway.
Tracklist:
1. Never givin’ in
2. Lucky Charm
3. Revive him
4. Something like dreaming
5. A ? of WHEN
6. Pray to you
7. Be the bridge
8. Like a moth to the flame
9. Somethin’ that lasts
10. Graveyard
A ? of WHEN also includes the new tracks “Graveyard” and “Lucky Charm,” which were released as a Record Store Day exclusive 7” in April. The 7” is available exclusively in indie record stores, the tracks are now available to download, and fans can also hear “Graveyard” in rotation on radio stations including SiriusXMU, Los Angeles’ KCRW, Philadelphia’s WXPN, and Seattle’s KEXP.
A ? of WHEN is available to pre-order on limited edition pink vinyl (indie stores), orange vinyl (Domino Mart), black vinyl, CD, baby pink/pisello green cassette, and digital download. LP and CD formats feature a first-pressing exclusive 3D embossed sleeve. LP, CD and cassette formats each come with their own distinct colorway. DomMart Bandcamp Digital
Fans can hear the album in advance at the below listening parties throughout the UK and Europe in June:
LISTENING PARTIES
- 20th June - Cosmos – Lisbon, PT
- 24th June - Lithium – Paris, FR
- 25th June - Rough Trade East – London, UK
- 26th June - Rough Trade – Berlin, DE
- 27th June - Studio Sparks – Porto, PT
- Panda Bear & Sonic Boom will perform live at the below festivals this summer; stay tuned for more live dates.
PANDA BEAR & SONIC BOOM LIVE
- 3rd July - Open’er Festival – Gdynia, PL
- 4th July - Roskilde Festival – Roskilde, DN
- 12th July - Kikimu Festival - Jäneda, EE
