It turns out that a lot of what I wrote yesterday about The Glitch Mob applies today as well. While Gold Panda’s Lucky Shiner leans towards the chillwave side of the electronic music spectrum, as opposed to the IDM side as does Drink The Sea, it’s yet another album that should not be listened to with the intent to analyze. But, that’s what I have to do for this project, which makes it fairly boring for me. Who knows, maybe that means that I’m not cut out to review records. Or, even more likely, I’m not meant to listen to a new album every single freaking day. I’ve made it this far, though; I’m not going to stop. I am not one to back down from a ridiculously stupid task.
Believe me, I love me some chillwave. It’s great to relax to, and really easy to get lost in. Derwin Panda (yes, that is his real name), doesn’t try to reinvent the genre. He doesn’t need to, though, as he has a great ear for what works in chillwave, and a knack for getting that out in his music.
Reverb heavy synths, calm-but-awesome beats, and samples dominate Panda’s tunes. The record’s lack of any vocals whatsoever give it an even more relaxing feel than lots of chillwave already out there. I don’t know why, but when music has vocals, I find myself much more actively involved in the listening. By not including any singing in his work, Panda lets the bleeps and bloops speak for themselves, which they do very effectively. I’d much rather zone out to a record like Lucky Shiner than write about it, but alas, the Swole Ear project does not allow for that.
Swole Ear 
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