CMU Approved

Approved: Gold Panda – Time Eater

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 24 February 2016

Gold Panda has announced that he has signed a new record deal with City Slang, and will release his third album, ‘Good Luck And Do Your Best’, on 27 May.

The record began as a collaboration with photographer Laura Lewis to create an audio/visual document of a trip to Japan based around field recordings made while in the country. But a chance comment from a taxi driver provided a creative spark, and took the project in a whole new direction.

“One afternoon we had taken a taxi, and as we got out, the Japanese taxi driver’s parting words to us as we left, were ‘good luck and do your best'”, explains the producer. “It was [the driver] speaking in English. He didn’t know English that well, but there’s a Japanese phrase called ‘ganbatte, kudasai’. And roughly translated, it basically means ‘do your best’, or it can also mean ‘good luck’. Once you have a title, for me, things come together a lot easier for what it’s going to be”.

Recorded back in the UK, the music was actually inspired by two trips to Japan and the photographs that Lewis took while there. “The album was recorded at home in Chelmsford, but I had that visual inspiration or documentation from Japan”, he says. “So it was a look back … You don’t control the music you make. The tracks need to reveal themselves. Personally I don’t think I can choose to make it how I want”.

The first single from the album, ‘Time Eater’, certainly has a Japanese feel about it. It’s also possibly Gold Panda’s most musically interesting work to date, filled with a warmth and spark that makes his return all the more welcome.

Watch the video for ‘Time Eater’ here:

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