Reviews 103: Pan Electric
Claremont 56 takes a break from unearthing new and unheard material for another incredible reissue, giving fresh life to Pan Electric’s “Sweet as Rain,” a track first appearing in 2006 on the Defining Moments compilation by Chillosophy Music. This is a truly stunning work that deserved a nice vinyl press, suffused as it is with exotic folk vibrations and intoxicating samples from lead man Matt Coldrick’s time in Ethiopia (read more of the interesting back story here). South African legend Pops Mohamed is along for the ride, adding airy percussion and wondrous kalimba to the African infused psychedelic drift. And alongside the stunning original, Matt has provided a new “Album Version” which stretches things out and sees the sunny folk overtones lessened slightly in favor of heavy synthesizer clouds and gentle cosmic atmospheres.
Pan Electric - Sweet as Rain (Claremont 56, 2018) The original version smothers the kalimba of Pops Mohamed in spacious reverb, sounding like soft rain in the sunshine. Backwards drone fx, whispered vocals, and bird whistles form a lustrous background haze, while synth sequences and pillowy bass tones weave together a colorful and sliding web of sound. Breathtaking chants and soaring vocal leads sit above a laid back, snare heavy drum beat and we occasionally cut into bright guitar-led passages, like sunshine prog-folk as beamed in from the upper Nile valley. The layered and gentle psychedelia is hypnotizing, but the mix is also very active, with many interesting transitions and captivating electronic fx flying through the air. The vibe flows back and forth between sleepy ambiance and shuffling mesmeric rhythmics, with everything coming together for a peaceful walk aside some gentle stream, colorful birds swirling above, and crimson and gold exploding on the horizon.
The “Album Mix” starts with a looser kalimba flow and muffled synth fx intertwining with breathy voices. It’s an extended cinematic intro, floating along until a chopped up and mind-expanding synth effect introduces a massive downtempo glide. The vibrance of the kalimba is downplayed here in favor of galactic synth leads and there are these stirring beatless interludes, sometimes led by strings with fragile wisps of guitar and aquatic organs sitting aside choppy cerebral synths, other times seeing interstellar fx and delirious vocal filtering floating freely through the cosmos. The chants and harmonious feminine leads still dominate, but occasionally synthetic bells and other feverish electronic accents percolate through the stereo field, transporting the sunny Ethiopian nature vibes to outerspace realms. The Afro-folk guitars are held off a bit and slightly buried, but still just as magically transcendent, and majestic prog pads ring out over liquid basslines, everything building in momentum without ever losing the subtle intoxicating swing. And at times, everything comes together for towering passages of rainbow light, with synths soaring over the chill out exotica and chants and singing snippets sent flying through dub delays, their immersive power enhanced by the cascading echoes.
(images from my personal copy)
