[Photos and words by Rez Avissar]
Rusty Santos mixed Panda Bear’s Person Pitch (among releases by Animal Collective, Born Ruffians, White Magic and others) and is a long-time friend of the Animal Collective crew. I’ve seen him before opening for Panda Bear at Bowery Ballroom, which was an awesome, surprising freak-out set. This time, he sported a very Panda Bear-like setup of twin Roland SP-404s (even though Panda has since upgraded to 555s). However, he manipulated a vastly different palette of sounds and to very different effect.
One year strong, the band still seems to be exploring different sounds, and Santos Party House’s downstairs area was a perfectly intimate setting to witness the fruits of their experimentations so far. As a long-time follower of Rusty, it’s hard to tell where this project is going to go… the three-piece is mixing together some seriously disparate musical elements (check the differences between the songs on their MySpace) and I’m curious to see where their experimentations (and instincts) take them.
[Taka Imamura and Gang Gang Dance's Brian DeGraw (in hat) DJed]
