Panda steps in chocolate - Creep Of The Crop

If you have been following A Future in Noise since late summer of last year, checked out my Best of 2008 list, or had a look at my Last.fm charts, you are likely to have noticed and possibly listened to Panda steps in chocolate. Whether this is your first time here or your gazillionth, take heed of this now: there is a new PSIC album!

Creep Of The Crop, released on 1/20/09, is the latest chapter of Christian Filardo's (the fellow behind all the music) creative vision. The elements that made his music enjoyable before are still here, the video game-esque, old-school synth effects, the quirkiness, and fun song titles; the difference is, with each release, the concepts are more realized, there are more curious textures. He's an artist that keeps improving- I wish I could say the same for the 'major label' artists that I like that continue to put out new material!

"look at my tie, what a jerk" serves as the overture for Creep Of The Crop, an instrumental containing many of the stylistic elements present in the rest of the songs on the album, with "indiana jones memorial sports car race" later appearing as an underture. Songs like "Good Spiderman vs. Bad Spiderman", with the chorus "This is a song that you can march to (march to) / You and you and you and even you (you, too!)", and what would undoubtedly be this album's singles, "te devo mi vida" and "is this for you guys, uhhh ok", continue on the tradition of Panda's anthemic themes, with greater gusto and catchiness.

"Sign Language" and "Porcupine", previously featured on last year's Paper EP, as well as the new "Board Games and So Are You", here provide a softer, drifting contrast. "Operation" is, for me, the best track of the album (the "COFFEEEEE BREAAAK!" bit makes me smile, inevitably!) and is a fine example what an ideal Panda tune sounds like.

"Glitter is Made of Tiny Little Worlds" reaches the height of the album's theme of creepiness viewed through a filter of cuteness, with lyrics like "I swear to God they're spies..." and "This I'm sure you are the devil...", with a vocal trip-out at around 1:30, and synthesizer-sheen around it all. The darker-vibed "ROBOTS" has, well, robots coming down from the sky, "to eat up our insides", and turning everything "into gold / So they can spend it / On their planet".

The album's final tracks are an epic run of instrumentals, with "indiana jones memorial sports car race", "Weekend Dad Fights the Fire", "MeTOMDREGO TO Lolla", and "Chicken Nugget Nightmares", each of which serve to show Panda's advancement in instrumental composition, in such a short span of time from his last releases, just as well as his lyrics have deepened and his vocals are stronger.

Download Creep Of The Crop - Panda steps in chocolate ! ! !

Panda steps in chocolate on MySpace Music| on Last.fm