Skip to main content[DARK SOUL CRUNCH] I've faulted Panther before for a lack of genuineness. I've commented on his costume-wearing, his spasticity and that unrelenting falsetto; in summation, I've said maybe we should just take the theatrics for what they are and revel in the joke. But just the fact that this solo project of Charlie Salas-Humaras' has existed for six years means something. And Secret Lawns, his follow-up to last year's self-titled EP, means that something is no joke at all.
Watching Panther onstage—or in either of his two perfectly telling videos (three, if you count his standout bit on the Portland Burn To Shine DVD)—is a mesmerizing spectacle, in part because Salas-Humaras hits an escapist nerve that few can: Most of us really want to be able to lose our shit like that. Searching for this energy on record can be something of a red herring, but that's not to say it doesn't ever translate. "You Don't Want Yr Nails Done" is the classic example: The beat is surprisingly contained—based around a machine high-hat and low-end thumps—and the other sounds are limited to background synth rumbles and bloops. The "loss of shit," so to speak, is all in Salas-Humaras' voice: At the thirty-second mark he launches into frantic, possessed vocal beeps that accelerate into even more frantic faux-soul shrieks. Loop and layer them a bit, and you have a nervous breakdown in document.
Elsewhere, the Panther fever is more in check. On opener "Use Your Mouth To Breathe," for instance, the falsetto is actually dropped in favor of straightforward singing during the song's somewhat nonsensical refrains. And just Charlie is kinda weird. Even weirder is what follows: "Here We Stand" and "Take Us Out" sound downright jazzy, all backroom bass and washed-out (live) high-hat. "How Does It Feel?" starts off in a plodding, crunchy techno beat, which barely picks up for the drawn-out "How does it feel/ How does it feeeeel" of the almost piercingly falsetto chorus. Relief finally comes in "Rely On Scent," a wonderfully odd lounge-sleaze throwback.
Much of the disc has these feel-swaps between rough, dark electronic cruch and bizarre (but still electronic) soul-jazz homage. It's so much the cooler for the nearly continuous loop-station self-harmonics. And there's more than just a passing sense that Panther can travel in directions beyond "spaz-soul": In fact, Secret Lawns travels the odd, dim dance floors of the club you never figured could exist until now.
Panther celebrates the release of Secret Lawns Friday, March 2, with Copy, DJ Brian Foote, Rob Walmart and E*Rock at Holocene. 9 pm. $7. 21+. Also see Riff City.
WWeek 2015