Changa

About

After the more pronounced electropop of 2011’s <i>Soft Universe</i>, PNAU’s fifth studio set marks a return to the pure dance music of albums such as 1999’s <i>Sambanova</i>. It took some work to get there, though—a clutch of songs founding duo Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes recorded for the album in 2014 were either shelved or radically reworked before they settled on the record’s direction. Key to finding the sound was the decision to work with New York vocalist Kira Divine, who features heavily across the album, and whose voice provided a focus to which Littlemore, Mayes, and Littlemore’s brother Sam (who joined in 2016) could write. Taking its name from a herbal DMT mixture that you smoke, <i>Changa</i> is an appropriately colorful listen: “Chameleon” is a sonic explosion of joy, “Young Melody” (featuring Australian singer Vera Blue) harkens back to the old-school deep house of <i>Sambanova</i>, “Please Forgive Me” bounces on a rave piano riff, while “Into the Sky” takes a left turn into late-’80s/early-’90s Madchester dance, complete with appropriately lairy vocal from Littlemore. <i>Changa</i> is, in short, an eccentric, exciting listen that summons PNAU’s past to create a record very much about the now and the future.

via Apple Music