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March 20th, 2013

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Night Panther - Fire

"Fire" is haunted by bad memories. It’s a song with a dark, dark core. Yet it’s probably the most fun, most danceable song we’ve ever put out. That polarity was in high effect as the Night Panther came to Miner St to track, and we watched those bad memories bubble to the surface.

Late in 2012 we asked I Guess I’m Floating’sand Small Plates Records’ owner Conner McGlynn for his thoughts on who would make a great candidate for an episode of Shaking Through. We loved that he suggested someone close to our home, yet new to our radar - Night Panther. "I don't remember exactly how I came across Night Panther," McGlynn told us. "But I knew instantly that they were onto something. I think when you play electro-pop music, it's often a passive pursuit, so you really need to step up the performance aspect of your music. Night Panther have really nailed that over the top performance -- it's in their live shows, their videos, and it completely saturates their music. They call it "sex pop" and it's really easy to hear why. The vocals scream velvet and black lights, the bass lines are assless leather chaps, etc. That sounds utterly ridiculous and it would be if these guys didn't have the quality and musicianship to back it up... but they have it all. That's why I'm so excited by this band."
   Amazingly, "Fire" lives up to those words. It’s a testament to a singer with an incredible voice, and a group of musicians with strong senses of composition, rhythm, and melody. 
   At the heart of Night Panther is a contrast between light and dark. Made up of Farzad Houshiarnejad, Michael Cammarata, Marissa Hope Lesnick, and Chris Radwanski the band pinpoints the fulcrum between danceable up-tempo music and dark, haunted lyrics. Farzad, Mike and Chris were former members of the trashcan smashing Bucks County PA group, Drink Up Buttercup, before the band’s demise in late 2012. The band submitted a recording of "Fire" that had been released on a My Old Kentucky Blog mix tape a few weeks earlier. We liked that version, but saw a potential to push it further, to do more with it. The band was happy to oblige. 
   The session was intense and productive; full of great, focused vibes and augmented by dramatic lighting. Their exploration of light and dark reached it’s peak with Farzad’s lead vocal performance. It was mesmerizing, soaring even. It demanded our attention. It wasn’t until the interview that he revealed how challenging doing it was. "I hate this song," he told us. "It’s a horrible song about me. It’s about me being a really shitty person, it’s something I don’t want to remember often." But it’s that vulnerability that gives the song strength and depth, something Farzad showed in spades. As the rhythm track came together and we added synths, strings and horns, it became clear that "Fire" might be dark, but it’s still a whole lot of fun.​

CREDITS

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LO-RES

16 bit / 44.1 Kbps

627.4 MB

239.9 MB

79.5 MB

HI-RES

24 bit / 88.2 Kbps

1.7 GB

788.3 MB

465.9 MB

TRACK SHEET

.XLSX

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