Panda Bear & Sonic Boom A ? of WHEN LP

Panda Bear and Sonic Boom's second album together, A ? of WHEN, maintains the sense of musical play brought forth in their triumphant 2022 debut, Reset. It is, to wit, built on loops of harp (Mary Lattimore) and sequences of steel drum, webs of pedal steel and even bits of a mariachi band from Mexico City. At one point, Panda Bear actually does his best yodel.

These are, of course, deliberate choices, sounds and textures they've never used and that offered a clear sonic break from the success of Reset. It works, too. The pastoral psychedelia of "Something Like Dreaming," the Wall of Sound soul sway of "Like a Moth to a Flame," the wildly warped skiffle simplicity of "Revive Him": Listening to A ? of WHEN feels like being a kid inside this pair's musical playground, beaming as you bound from station to station.

But maybe more than ever, Sonic Boom (Pete Kember) and Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) emerge through these 10 songs as two people with frank opinions about these times, with a real stake in the sway of the world. These tunes grapple with online exhaustion and pervasive depression, with political chicanery and ecological sustainability, all while advocating for respecting the power of luck and giving one another grace in a moment when very few of us actually know what the hell is happening. Has it ever been easier to complain publicly about something without trying to change it? Sonic Boom and Panda Bear are not content to gripe about circumstances or speculate about the fall on A ? of WHEN. The goal is for the music to create physical connections between people, to encourage them to enjoy a real experience in the world with it and each other.

The record will be released on vinyl, CD, cassette, and download; it will not be available on streaming services.

Says the duo:

Change. Exciting & frightening at the same time. The slow slips & the big shifts. Highs & lows from the distraction of connectivity.
AI slop becomes an AI slope. Algorithm tables & algorithms tumble.
We're taking things a little off piste.
More rock n' roll than flick & scroll...
From here on in we're getting back to a place of real connectivity and as you might have noticed from our new "Graveyard"/"Lucky Charm" 7" (only available from record stores) there's no streaming, no videos, and a minimisation of online everything.
Going forward we're looking to radio, live shows, listening parties, Q&A sessions & real life interactions to get back to a place we feel makes more sense.
To that end, we're asking you to join us offline, outside of social media. To meet us in the real world. IRL not URL...