PANDA BEAR — Alsatian Darn (A Capella via Tomboy Boxset, 2011)

A very generous member of the Collected Animals forum ripped the Tomboy Boxset yesterday, including the record consisting of a few a capella versions of some of the songs. Here is ‘Alsatian Darn,’ beautiful in its own right, but even more impressive with just the vocals standing on their own. You can hear all of the strange little vocal effects whirling around in the background, as well as the overall strength of Panda Bear’s voice.

If you want to buy the Tomboy boxset, you might want to hurry — only 5,000 were made!

PANDA BEAR — “Surfer’s Hymn (Vinyl Rip)” (Tomboy, 2011)

“Out on the water, a rider can get ready; the waves come crashing, a good board can steady”

The folks over at Collected Animals were able to get their hands on a copy of the Surfer’s Hymn 7” (apparently a few copies were in Other Music today) and have uploaded a rip of the A-side, “Surfer’s Hymn.” The song is absolutely heavenly, with its soaring harmonies and layered vocals. The beat is loud and strong, plodding along underneath the kaleidoscopic marimba-like sound that pinwheels in the background throughout the track. The song eventually dies down and is overtaken by the sound of waves washing ashore. “Surfer’s Hymn” is easily the most reminiscent of Person Pitch of the songs we’ve heard thus far.

It’s a pretty high-quality rip, but it should be noted that this is Panda’s mix, not the final album version.