Stick to My Side

You can hear something expressive and moving and realize that from the instant you heard it, it’s saved in your mind forever. You can hear something wild and rambunctious and feel the same way about it: forever imbedded in your mind. Music has a way of affecting like no other art; it’s the most natural, the most seamless and again, for the billionth time, the most aesthetic. Whatever that means, electronic music is also the most unforgiving when it comes off as dry, dull or otherwise, cold. Pantha Du Prince’s blend of electronic music is fortunately, the blissful collaboration of classical with techno in a way that it enthralls the various senses. Like a whirlwind of all-encompassing emotion, stirring strings, bumping drums and more, he’s made music as an electronic DJ/producer for years now. Mostly because I’ve drum up a bad block, here is a song off his latest album Black Noise, which features Panda Bear and a remix of it by Four Tet – all done so seamless and smooth that it’s sublime.

Everything just seems to happen so naturally. The best things in life come through effortless wonder and in a likely manner, the layers and beats and drums continue to fuse together. You can hear a distant rustling that almost beckons a tide of crushing waves and then you hear a stumbling bass line that always seems to propel forward; the synths are striving through swift terrain, by the time Noah Lennox’s voice comes warbling through everything opens up. Like his methods for Animal Collective Lennox’s vocals aren’t like a shining ray of light but more like an emotive effect of the best kind: atmospheric and aesthetic, like the rest of the accompanying music it just seems to happen so naturally. As the washing and waning of the melody continues to soak, there’s an underlying tension built upon the flowing strings and those same tinkling chimes heard throughout, it’s obvious why the song was such a fantastic hit last year.


Supplying a scrolling synth line that seeps of space travel, Four Tet’s version is immediately much more conducive to live instrumentation. Whereas you start to bleed into the singular Four Tet traits of exceptional percussion parts that sparkle with enticing rhythms, the intertwining he does with the melody and those aforementioned synths is directly impressive. The amazing aspect of the original “Stick to My Side” was the way Pantha Du Prince meshed Panda Bear’s vocals so they came in timely and still, grandly sneaky, is still ever so sweet on Four Tet’s version. Where the liveliness of the music has opened up, Four Tet greets it with a forward-thinking remix that supplies the impeccable ebb and flow Pantha Du Prince’s music is known for. Employed by a skillful approach, even the ending is creatively crafted – it all happens so naturally, too; as all best things in life. – Bryan