Bleep

Although he never truly left, Derwin Dicker’s palpable absence from his Gold Panda project has made it a long six years since its last album. In that time, he has been hard at work with a handful of side projects, such as the vibrant house tracks of his DJ Jenifa alias, and his collaborations with Jas Shaw of Simian Mobile Disco as Selling. What has been missing, however, is the highly emotional electronica that makes the Gold Panda name so revered.

As soon as the sweetly stuttering arpeggios open on ‘Swimmer’, you know you’re in for a treat, as Gold Panda’s fourth album finally begins, teeming with life and bathed in luscious lo fi. With The Work, he offers us a peek into his world of the past few years, providing an album that sifts through his musical past as much as it forges a new path forward in his artistry. The Work presents a much fuller and more heartfelt sound than Gold Panda has explored before, pairing some of his warmest loops with his most ecstatic rhythms. Lead single ‘The Corner’ practices this fusion well, with billowing neon-lit synths and soulful samples reaching an emotionally embracing peak as it swells in its final moments.

This is perhaps his most organic sounding album to date too, full to the brim like an aviary of instrumental samples mixed into an intricate beat fresco. Blushing piano chords and blissful harps are braided into the fabric of ‘The Dream’, while the deep reverberations of tabla give a cinematic energy to the more turbulent and solitary ‘The Want’.

The Work is a sensory feast showing Gold Panda at his most robust and refined.