I remember when the former got huge in the mid-2000s while I was in college, in fact I attended a DJ night one of the members was putting on during a college radio festival in New York City once. With the latter, I simply never bothered to explore any of their music and this is no slight against them. On August 12, Panda Bear from Animal Collective released an album with Sonic Boom from Spacemen 3 called Reset and it’s actually pretty good so I’m gonna reconsider my history with both of their respective bands.

There’s a psychedelic vibe that’s present within the music and that’s a given due to the background of both of the collaborators. Some songs have a pop aesthetic, others have an acoustic foundation and some can be a bit all over the place. With this range, there’s a cohesiveness being exhibited with the overall sound of the songs and the transitions between them. There’s some orchestral elements that are present as well, which is pretty cool. A lot of the songs remind me of the production quality that The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds has but this is more of a modern take on that approach.

“Gettin’ To The Point” starts the album off with that acoustic foundation I previously mentioned while being adorned with warped sonic layers. With backing harmonies having a major presence, “Edge of the Edge” perfectly mirrors the glory days of ‘60s pop. There’s also a hypnotic catchiness that’s present as well. A great example of how the music can be all over the place is “Everything’s Been Leading To This” concluding the album with some weirdness. Other highlights within Reset include “Everyday”, “In My Body” and “Whirlpool”.

I enjoy diving into music from musicians I’m unfamiliar with because I can explore it with a pure objective view. There’s no biases and no leanings, which I hope will be appreciated by anyone who reads this. This is a really cool psychedelic album and I’ll probably listen to it again at some point in the future.

Purchase Reset by Sonic Boom & Panda Bear HERE