Gold Panda – Good Luck And Do Your Best – Album Review by Rena Garrett

Label – City Slang

The idea for this album came to Derwin Panda while he was travelling in Japan. The original intent for the journey was to gather material to produce a sound and visual documentary of the trip. But a chance encounter with a taxi driver gave him the title for the album and it developed from there. Good Luck and Do Your Best is a chillout album with a stripped back and minimalist style which reflects the Japanese aesthetics that inspired it.

One of the noticeable features here is the use of layering to build more complex sounds. The tracks Pink and Green, I am Real Punk, Autumn Fall and Haylards start off with simple beats with layers of percussion, guitars and piano being gradually built up during the tune. The guitar strains on Autumn Fall give it a distinctly Japanese sound and Time Eater embraces this eastern influence in its opening strains.

Song for a Dead Friend is not a dirge like we would expect, given the title. It has an almost tribal feel with the background vocal chant. This is one of the more unusual and surprising tracks on the album and I would love to know the inspiration behind it. The tune Unthank experiments with dissonance and is less easy to listen to, but I wasn’t hitting the forward button.

As artists we are each a product of our influences. The trick is to outgrow these and develop our own unique style. Gold Panda has achieved this with Good Luck and Do Your Best. In album terms it could be called a coming of age. He has produced a recognisable sound all his own and left the influences noticeable on previous albums behind.

Tracks:
1. Metal Bird
2. In My Car
3. Chiba Nights
4. Pink And Green
5. Song For A Dead Friend
6. I Am Real Punk
7. Autumn Fall
8. Haylards
9. Time Eater
10. Unthank
11. Your Good Times Are Just Beginning