Dizzy Panda Blur The Human Line With A Nervy, Late Night Album That Refuses Easy Answers

On Point of No Return, the music of Dizzy Panda positions itself firmly in a place of tension instead of comfort, and this is what permeates an album that is electric and deliberate. The Haarlem duo have always revelled in genre-hopping, but what comes out here is a fully cinematic and charged record. Pulsing electronica presses against dreamy jazz chords, retro synth sounds flicker in and out of the picture, and a sense of nervous energy hums along below the surface. At the heart of this album beats a heavy and straightforward question – what does it mean to be authentic when technology is also at work?

The sound production is deliberate and doesn’t sound like it’s trying too hard. The tracks progress at a gentle pace that lets the silence speak for itself. The beats click and then retreat. The melodies sound like they’re from a familiar place but recalled from a distance away. There’s a tug-of-war between warmth and removal that echoes the feeling found in the cinematic aesthetics of things like Ex Machina or early seasons of Black Mirror.

The masked aesthetic works well with their music. On the surface, it's playful—at times even cartoonish—but the more time you spend looking at it, the creepier it gets. This kind of juxtaposition happens all over their album. Those into artists such as Moderat, the more electronic side projects of Radiohead, or the darker side of Air will discover much about which they feel strongly. Regardless of what background music Point of No Return would make in a crowded market, it demands your complete focus.