Review: Gold Panda – Koko – 06/10/11

With laptop music breaking into bigger and bigger venues; the artists supporting it are faced with growing crowds. They might have the acclaimed, mood-set electronica albums but it’s hard to place them on a stage, labelled with the front of a live-gig.

Gold Panda stoops over a low-lit laptop, hood-up he leans into his imperative electronics; tonight he plays Camden’s Koko and it’s packed, sweaty and expectant. Having released his debut Lucky Shiner last year; Gold Panda has drawn huge warranted attention but despite having the sound, ultimately it’s a solitary act: one man, one laptop –  without engaging in gimmicks it would be hard to push a show. But tonight: it’s about the sound.

The set is raw. The audacity of Koko’s blood-red haul goes unnoticed against the glow of the film-screen backdrop and string low-lighting surrounding the stage. Where Koko’s appearance feels slightly ill-fitting to the beats; its amazing shake, its bass-heavy floor rumble rides the gig’s tone.

It’s dance music that’s hard to dance to, awkward bleeps and 4/4s that change pace and rhythm uncomfortably but it’s addictive, hooked into waiting for the next deep drop of bass. Jolting silence and noise, you fall dependent on Gold Panda’s minimal machine-works, dependent on an impending pulse, holding on for recognisable strands of album staples, tracks like ‘You’ breaking the crowd from complexity and simplicity. Lucky Shiner isn’t on-play; but mixed and broken into a live, explicit sound. It’s the quiet-breaks and the self-conscious doubt of the next dance move that’s exciting (no stage-dramatics necessary).

Tonight, Gold Panda proved his definitive status to laptop music, to these grimy strands of production. It might not smoothly cross over from club-room to gig floor but that doesn’t distract from the fact he constructs and demands some fucking beautiful music.