Panda Bear's Favourite Albums

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"This was the first hip-hop album I can remember really loving, like, listening to from start to finish, over and over. This and Dre's The Chronic, but that was more like, with my brother in the car, just listening to it. But for obsessively looking at all the details of the production, the Wu-Tang album was the first time I was interested in what a producer did to make it sound like that. I loved the MC'ing, but it was really the production that caught my ear. It's so harsh and aggressive, so mean sounding. When I listen to it I feel so tough. That's what I love about it. It makes me feel like, "Yeah! I can do this. Don't mess with me!" I love anything that makes me feel that way. Wu-Tang created a whole universe with that album - all the kung fu samples and stuff. That was so exciting. I love thinking about it. I haven't heard the new album, but it feels to me like there isn't that sense of unity any more. They aren't all fully invested in it and that's kind of a bummer. That was part of it too - they were all together presenting this thing to the world. Kind of: "You've never experienced anything like us." The confidence of it. That blew my mind."

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"Similar [to Wu-Tang] in that, the album gives me a feeling that I don't think is really natural for me. It's something I long for but I don't really get it on a day-to-day basis. It's almost like a drug in that way. It's like, you feel so high. I wanna feel like this all the time but I can't because it's not who I am. It's like the rawness and the rockiness of it... I'm a subdued kind of a guy, so having that hyped up, ripping feeling is really attractive to me. There's a lot of Sabbath albums that I like. The riffing - the performances and the playing - are all so great. But what separates Master Of Reality is the really tender moments. There are a few tracks that have really beautiful sections to them, and that's what makes that one stick out for me."

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"This was the album that made me fall in love with dub music. It's still my favourite. The spectre of the pop song that has been remixed - or maybe nullified in a way - is still there for me when I listen to it. I can still hear the structure of the song, unlike a lot of other dub records where it's just really the instrumental thing. I really like that about it. It took me a while to get into the sonic template of dub, but once I did I've never been able to go back in a sense. It's been the most consistently influential set-up for sound for me. The bass is very prominent, there's a high, percussive, clicky-clacky element to it, and then this big reverby space in between those two rhythmic plains.

I find myself always wanting to push my productions towards that place. This album marked that sea change for me when something switched over and I started wanting to always hear things that sounded like that. I feel like there's something about sounds like that, I couldn't say what - that huge reverb and washes of sound - that really resonates with me. That's why I will often equate musical practices to ritual practices. They're all aiming towards getting our brains into that space, that spiritual place. It doesn't work for everybody, but I feel like dub does that to my brain. I react to it in a very specific way."

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"Their back catalogue is massive, but this one is the most popular. That's why I chose it. There's so much good stuff that it's hard to single out a particular one. They've done things their own way and created a culture of their own. That's been massively inspiring for Animal Collective. I think I can speak for the other guys on that. I worked at a bagel shop in Baltimore and my friend Jen gave me a mixtape that had a couple of songs by the Sun City Girls, a couple by Fuck, Third Eye Foundation, among other things. Those tracks stuck with me. And then, coincidentally, hooking up with Dave (Portner, aka Avey Tare) and Brian (Weitz, aka Geologist), they were also into those guys.

There's kind of a no rules approach to what they do. Not really defining themselves. Stylistically they're all over the map. They wear costumes on stage and do really theatrical productions. Sometimes it borders on stand-up comedy. It's that freedom of expression that was really liberating for us. That was a big moment for me - it was like, there are a lot of ways to do this. There's stuff that I hear on the radio I like, but you don't have to be on the radio. You can do things on your own terms, put out your own music. Grateful Dead did a similar thing, and there was a hardcore scene in DC when I was growing up that presented itself in a very specific way. But the Sun City Girls for me were like the gateway to that mentality. They ran the Sublime Frequencies label and they used to put out compilations of music they heard in Thailand as well as their own stuff. That spirit of exploration - about not only the world of music, but the world in general - that was very influential and inspiring. "

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"They took us on our first tour and they've released stuff for our label, Paw Tracks. This album for DFA was the first time they became what they are now. They stopped working with a drummer and it became more of a strictly electronic entity. That was a real inspiration for what I do now... y'know, having a table on stage and a bunch of gear. They've been hugely influential for me in terms of trying to reach for stuff, and find new sounds and explore sound.... trying to take yourself to new places. Watching them do that over and over again has been a massive inspiration."

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"It doesn't get talked about that much, which is really weird. I feel like there's been so much stuff that sounds similar and that owes a debt to that album. I heard he [Olaf Dettinger] was an architect or something, and music was just something he did and he got tired of it. He only made two albums. For us, he was the dude. From all the Kompakt stuff, Dettinger and Wolfgang Voigt defined that sound for us. And there's been so much music released since then that just remakes those ideas - a lot of that Pop Ambient stuff on Kompakt, which I love, but it all references that Dettinger sound.

I'm sure I'm guilty too of - I hope not copies - but I've pushed the sensibilities of that music in my productions. It's similar to Basic Channel - it looks back to dub music, in a computerised, digital way. It was so unique and such a new sound to me. Every time I meet somebody who is part of the Kompakt family I ask about Dettinger and they're like, "That guy? Why are you talking about that dude?" And he's lucky in a way - sometimes too little information can lead people to invent these wild stories. I'm sure the reality isn't as exciting as the fiction. Certainly in my case!"

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"I'd listened to a lot of electronic music. I was into Aphex Twin, Warp, and via that I went backwards to Detroit, Chicago music. I knew all that stuff. But Vladislav Delay was something that, first time I heard it, I didn't understand. It's a trademark of all the stuff that has stuck with me, I needed to spend time with it to develop a relationship with it. There might be immediate qualities to the music, but there was something that made me keep going back to it, like, "What is this thing that makes me want to hear it again and figure it out? What's happening here? What is giving me this response?" I remember the cover. It was so grey and weird and cold."

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"This was their last album. I really liked Walking Wounded, but Temperamental as a house album - I'd heard a lot of house singles - but as an album, it really worked for me. It doesn't sound like an album of singles. Nobody else I know really likes it. That's rare, so I have a special relationship with it. In terms of dance albums with a singing component to it, it's really influential for me. That's why I put it on here. I still don't feel like I've found my way of making music that is overtly dancey in a way that didn't feel like some sort of lame copy. Maybe one day it will happen."

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"It's huge for me - it can't be overstated. I used to spend summers just watching TV. My parents didn't force me to get a job. I was 15, at that age where I could have got a summer job, but instead I had a lazy summer. I just used to watch SportsCenter and late-night MTV. Video after video. I remember the video for 'Around The World' coming on and it really stood out. The song was iconic for me. I got the album and it was one of the few things me and my brother could agree on. We were like, "This kicks ass. This is awesome." It was a rare personal moment between us.

Homework and Discovery are a gauge in bending the rules of popular music. They were inspirational to me. Especially now having made a track with them and seeing how carefully detailed every decision is - how considered everything is. The passion they bring to everything. That made a huge impression on me. And on Homework there are some really abrasive moments, but there are some tender, melancholic songs on there. They resonate with me. It didn't sound retro, but there are familiar elements in the music. They're super-clever, right down to the way they present themselves. Like I said, it's all considered. There's a plan to the whole deal."

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"I could have said Thriller or Off The Wall, but I was in a Fnac [entertainment and technology retailer] in Lisbon and they had a Justin Timberlake live performance on to show off their home entertainment system - gnarly speakers, a huge screen. I was watching it for a while and thinking there were only three people on the planet who could do what he does. The way he sings, the way he dances, the precision - the whole package is so crazy. It's wild. I remember quite liking a few ★NSYNC songs, but then reading how he was going to do this solo record with The Neptunes, who I loved, and being really excited about it. The production and songwriting on the album are awesome. There's lots of repetition too, which I dig. It's hyper-colour in music, which I really respond to. And in terms of the craft of being a pop star, he's made an impression on me. Not that I could ever be that, by any stretch. But he is nailing what he's doing and I appreciate that."

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"It's the most mysterious of all his albums. Again it's the tender songs that blow me away. I don't think they'd work on their own, or like a whole album of them, but when they're juxtaposed with the other stuff they really stick out - just like what I was talking about before with Black Sabbath and Daft Punk. There's a couple of songs on [...ICBYD] that are so sad and tender, but they're in with all that really abrasive techno that Aphex does. The dark stuff. So much of his music is obviously him trying to fuck with you. It's so grotesque and gnarly, but he's also capable of tenderness and beauty and I find that really interesting."

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"I'm not a Deadhead, but that album is a big one for me. It's an anomaly for that band. Retroactively I've learned a lot about the DIY aesthetic of Grateful Dead. They created their own culture and developed their own distinct thing within the world of music, which I like a lot. But the songs are so good, especially as a collection of songs to listen to from start to finish. There aren't many albums I'd rather go the distance with. It's definitely one of my favourite calls when I'm on tour and it's my turn to choose a record. I love to sing along to it - I don't know if I could pay a higher compliment to a record than that. There are a lot of choral harmonies, which is something I respond to."