Sad Acoustic Side Project Day

Masha Qrella - I Want You to Know. Masha has been recording in secret. Playing guitar in a band called Contriva and keyboards in a band called Mina, Masha laid down a complete album by herself without telling anyone. Then she slipped it into a few friend's cd players. Lucky for us, those friends convinced her to put the album out.

This track has a loping acoustic strum chopped over some beats, all creating a soft bed for Masha's double-tracked vocals. There's some nice keys in there too. The whole thing is a great little package, sounding immediately familliar but totally unique. Love it. The album (and a 7" single) are out on Berlin-based Monika records. You can grab her album, Luck, from Forced Exposure on CD or LP for about 14 bucks.

Panda Bear - Untitled (track 8). Panda Bear is one half of the Animal Collective. I'm not really sure what to say about this one. According to the press, Panda Bear's father recently passed away, and this album was cut during a short period in the father's house. That scenario makes sense, what with the searching, wandering, wailing qualities of the album.

The album, Young Prayer [Buy It], is honestly like nothing I've ever heard. This track has loose guitar plucks and piano plinks while Panda croons in what sounds like another language. It's basically just vocal sounds. There are no beats. The whole album is like this, with each song blending into the next. There's no weight to it, the whole thing as light as a cloud, and each track quickly dissipates into the ether after its completion.

Obviously Paw Tracks is onto some next level stuff here, and despite what you may hear, it's something of a challenging listen. Totally non-traditional melodies and whatnot. It's exceedingly interesting, and for various reasons reminds me of Skip Spence's Oar.