Based in Bozeman, Montana, Panther Car is a four piece band consisting of Connor Smith, Chrys Kirkwood, Scott Merenz and Andrew Cornell. Together, they craft a distinctive amalgamation of psych, dream pop and grunge—producing a sound that manages to be both meditative and immediate. Therefore, whereas most acts working in these genres lean towards either a warm and enveloping ethereality or a brooding cascade of noise, Panther Car manage to straddle the entire spectrum, often within a single song, all invention and playfulness balanced by a mean, serious streak that anchors you in the moment.
Having been a major part of the music scene in Bozeman for the best part of six years, self-releasing a handful of EPs and demo collections, this week sees the release of the debut full-length Panther Car record, Pomegranate, on Anything Bagel. The complete realisation of the band’s vision, the album sees Panther Car marry their divergent influences seamlessly, as opening track ‘Lull’ attests. The prog-rock heft and psych swirls are tied together with a grungy edge, the through line that allows the track a real sense of focus despite its sprawling ambition.
‘Cool Lies’ is equally inventive, glimpses of Panther Car’s arty sensibilities flickering into view as the track lurches between heavy garage rock and languid dream pop. Such size and juxtaposition could be said to have something to do with the album’s home state. As Meredith Schneider writes for Imperfect Fifth, the expansive beauty of ‘Rainbows’ is lifted from the Montana landscape, the vastness interspersed by large and looming mountains of noise. For every colossal peak there are valleys and gullies, and an active listener will find new ground upon repeated plays, each track an unmapped expanse that is only brought into relief by exploration.
And there’s plenty to explore with Pomegranate. The angular stomp of ‘Nonpareil’ leads into the weightless opening of ‘Behave’, but even within the latter the tone is shifting, meandering in slack water for spells before finding turbulent eddies that cast it forward. The ominous, off-kilter rhythms of ‘Hearts’ follow, before the breezy sixties-style psych-pop of ‘Ladders’. ‘The Way’ morphs a proggy soundscape into something altogether more brooding, rising with a volatile energy that threatens to blow as the track develops, and the mood passes over onto the mean and dark closer, ‘Thought Up’. A slow-moving juggernaut that pitches emotions into a swirling mass, the track grows and grows, culminating in a cathartic avalanche of sound that closes out the album.
We’re lucky enough to be streaming the record a few days early, so grab you headphones and let Panther Car take you by the hand into the grand, weird world of Pomegranate.