We still don't know his name, but Gold Panda has made it easy for us to know him. The British producer's debut, 2010's Lucky Shiner, was an emotive tapestry of personal history, with textures that evoked imagery with a distinct personal glow. On his second album and first substantial release in three years, Half of Where You Live, Gold Panda shifts the focus from who he is to where he's been.
This shift makes sense. The success he's enjoyed has sent him far from the suburban Essex enclave he once called home. Lucky Shiner cuts like "India Lately" and "Same Dream China" swirled the culturally distinctive sounds of plucked strings and tangled sitar detritus into their respective mixes. 2009's Miyamae EP took its name from a ward of the Japanese city of Kawasaki; its bookended cuts were named, respectively, "Back Home" and "Long Vacation". Clearly, the act of leaving is far more intriguing to him than returning.
A quick scan of Half of Where You Live's tracklist uncovers more name-checked locales-- Brazil, Hong Kong, the Japanese island of Enoshima, the British town of Flinton-- but above all else, Gold Panda's current residence of Berlin looms large. Whereas Lucky Shiner had a bright, nostalgic glow, Half of Where You Live is distinctly darker and, at points, clubbier than its predecessor. The glimmering synths and hazy, chiming techno featured on James Holden's Border Community label are reference points here, alongside shimmering vignettes that call back to the pretty-sounding IDM that German imprint Morr Music was known for in the early 2000s.
Half of Where You Live doesn't mark the first time Gold Panda's flirted with more distinctly dancey fare, but it's he's never been this successful with it. For all its winsome elegance, there were moments on Lucky Shiner that, for better or worse, sounded truly handmade to the point that you could practically hear Gold Panda's fingers mashing hia Akai MPC. The MPC is still present here-- the gurgling "S950" takes its name from a specific model of the sampling equipment-- but these tracks sound smoother and more refined, a logical progression from the staticky amniotic techno that made up this year's brief stopgap EP, Trust.
Gold Panda's long been someone who works very well in miniature form; his talent for pushing repetition to the brink of its greatest, most pleasurable effect is documented by the attention-grabbing success of early singles "Quitter's Raga" and "You". But his ability to expand his vision to fit longer forms is his secret weapon. The nearly psychedelic sprawl of "India Lately" already suggested as much, and on Half of Where You Live, Gold Panda delivers his most potent side-stretcher in the form of "Brazil". The six-minute track is the closest thing this album comes to in terms of anthems, as a hollow bassline and a male voice repeating the titular city's name build the backbone. A mess of chimes come crashing in, the beat drops, and then picks up again with a tangy, winding synth line that makes for a seismic, satisfying addition.
"Brazil" is Half of Where You Live's big highlight, and the subtlety of its charms extend to the record as a whole. The winsome, direct melodies that marked Lucky Shiner's high points are largely absent here, which may cause some to consider the album a slight disappointment. That's understandable, but ultimately the success of Half of Where You Live lies not in Gold Panda repeating old tricks, but in how he's expanded his repertoire to include new sounds, and his aesthetic proves sturdy enough to accomdate them.
