Some of the very best electronic music, contrary to popular assumption, is not made in gleaming, high-tech studios by impossibly intelligent technology buffs, but in cramped bedrooms, on cheap software, with little more than a pair of broken PC speakers and a ton of wild ideas. On his stunning debut album, Gold Panda proves it to be true once again; he claims that much of the work — named after his Indian grandmother — was stitched together in a two-week period at his aunt and uncle's home in Essex, U.K., in between dog walks. It's a humble approach to music making that comes through in Lucky Shiner's 11 crackly, homespun tracks, each one eschewing the brightly buffed bombast of much contemporary electronica for a more artisanal, handcrafted sound, where chimes fuzz, strings hum, and kick drums nestle into the undergrowth.

Gold Panda's often likened to Swedish techno shoegazer the Field, and for sure, his layers of disparate samples, bucolic harmonies and passive-aggressive 4/4 pulses inhabit a similar world of crystalline twinkles and hazy optimism. But Lucky Shiner displays a much wider range of influences and ideas than the comparison implies. Album opener "You" is driven by a crunchy slo-mo dirge,… read more »