“Ultramarine” sounds like the end scene or a movie but it sits in the middle of Panda Riot’s new album Extra Cosmic. The guitar melodies seem to be flowing forth in a slow moving geyser of uplifting moods and intermingling with effervescent keyboard sparkles in a sustained state of bliss. The distorted edges of the rapid flow of atmospheric haze convey a sense of crystalline structure paradoxically coursing and evolving as though change its lattice composition every moment as the turns of emotion hit. For a song that seems to be one of acceptance of complex emotional dynamics and the mixed feelings that can make things messy unless you find a way in your heart to not be too attached to the way you think things need to be instead of how they are but without being doormat. It evades the clichés of songwriting by taking a different perspective than the agonized sense of betrayal and loss and by turning a melancholic chord progression into something expansive and wistfully hopeful. Even the title of the song suggests blue moods and the green of new growth in a single word and that’s more poetic and clever than you often get in rock music. Listen to “Ultramarine” on Soundcloud and follow Chicago’s long-respected shoegaze band Panda Riot at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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