Gold Panda – Marriage remixes review

Gold Panda returns with the third EP taken from his 2010 album Lucky Shiner. Blending house, minimal techno, IDM, downtempo and more, the Essex lad released a slew of singles on Various, Make Mine, Puregroove and his own Notown imprint before making his mark with the aforementioned eleven track long player on Ghostly International and Notown. Now, returning to the central track of the album “Marriage”, Gold Panda brings in Star Slinger, Halls, Baths and Forest Swords for four unique remixes.

The original “Marriage” blends beautiful instrumentals, softly chiming chords, dripping SFX and crackling atmospherics with gentle, pumping beats and pulsating bass. It’s got a gorgeous, sepia-toned quality to it – hazy and hypnotic and deeply compelling, almost Sepalcure like at times, with a multitude of moods rolled into one. Layers build, textures toy with each other and you can feel yourself getting more and more intrigued by Gold Panda’s richly textured style.

Baths remix takes us on an existential journey with glitchy, pattering beats and pared down somnambulance oozing out of every pore. Star Slinger then ups the nostalgia factor with the distant sound of laughter and bells chiming, adding in a lustrous Joy O style synth haze alongside clearly enunciated beats and a discernable dancefloor punch. The Forest Swords 1am Hotel Room Redraw is the most bizarrely brilliant of the lot, pairing a discordant choral passage with searing guitar melody and ambient synths. Finally, the Halls remix brings us back, full circle, with a more gentle interpretation of the original, all soothing and sultry, rounding off the EP with a sweeping artistic flourish.

Belinda Rowse