Tag: Afrika Bambaataa

New Audio: Vancouver’s Pannekoek Releases a Shimmering and Trippy New Single

Andrew Pannenkoek is a Vancouver-based musician, producer and DJ, who has a lengthy history of playing local punk and rock bands. The Canadian artist is the creative mastermind behind the new electronic music project Pannekoek, a project that can trace its origins to his long-held passion for experimenting with music software.

The Vancouver-based musician, producer and DJ has spent the past 15 years working as a bike messenger — but a recently embraced sobriety has allowed him to realize his passion and interest in electronic music. Interestingly, the project finds Pannekoek putting a modern, sophisticated and trippy twist on a unique blend of sounds he heard growing up as a child of the 80s — in particular TV shows, going to mall, listening to the radio and video games.

“Polyester,” Pannekoek’s trippy debut single is centered around layers of shimmering synth arpeggios, skittering beats and wobbling low end within an expansive and mind-bending song structure. Sonically, the playful yet cinematic track seems indebted to 70s synth disco and hip-hop — in particular, Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk and Afrika Bambaataa immediately come to mind.

Co-founded in 1979 by the legendary Brian Eno, Bill Laswell and New York-based producer, engineer and producer Martin Bisi, the Brooklyn-based BC Studio has played a pivotal role in New York’s musical history as landmark albums by Sonic Youth, Swans, Unsane, Afrika Bambaataa, Herbie Hancock, John Zorn and others were personally recorded by BC Studio’s Martin Bisi. BC35 is a special compilation that chronicles a weekend of live performances celebrating the studio’s 35th anniversary in January 2016, recorded by Bisi at the studio featuring improvised and written pieces by current and former members of Sonic Youth, Swans, White Hills, Foetus, Cop Shoot Cop, Live Skull, Pop 1280, Violent Femmes, The Dresden Dolls, Alice Donut, Lubricated Goat and others.

“What A Jerk,” the first single from the BC35 sessions is a jam from a new project, EXCOP, which features Algis Kizys, who had a stint in Swams in the 90s and is currently a member of Lydia Lunch‘s backing band; Phil Puleo, who splits time between Swans and Cop Shoot Cop; and Puelo’s Cop Shoot Cop bandmates, Jack Nantz and Jim Coleman, and unsurprisingly, the single is a murky, pummeling and noisy affair consisting of scorching guitar, sizzling feedback, down-tuned bass, thunderous drumming and random burst of spoken word that give the song an art school rock vibe.

EXCOP, along with Bisi’s newest band Nowhere Near, which features current and former members of Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Lydia Lunch’s band; New Old Skull, which features all of the original Live Skull members, White Hills and Tidal Channel will be playing at the album release show at Saint Vitus on 4/20/18. Bronson Recordings will be releasing BC on April 20, 2018 as well.