'Ghostdance' / 'Carousel' is the double A side single from Lesser Panda. The CD single contains five tracks (three mixes of 'Ghostdance' and two of 'Carousel') from the goth band that hails from London.

When I started listening to 'Ghostdance' for a second I thought I'd stuck an old album of The Cure in the CD player by mistake. As I continued to listen I picked out riffs that sounded like The Sister Sisters had written them. Yes, the biggest problem with 'Ghostdance' is that it sounds like an amalgamation of well known bands.

Do you remember the episode in the BBC comedy The Office where David Brent (Ricky Gervais) gets out his guitar and sings to his co-workers a song he's composed himself? It's actually a badly amalgamated selection of famous songs which he's patched together to call his own. Listening to the tracks on this CD I couldn't help thinking of that episode.

Lesser Panda is fronted by Mariano Robles on vocals with Chris Howarth (guitars / drums / synth) Ben Chatwin (guitars / synths), George McLeod (drums / synths) and Chris Fenner (bass / vocals).

Lesser Panda fans will no doubt lap this up. However, fans of The Cure and Scissor Sisters could be forgiven for thinking that this is the work of a tribute band that has decided to write their own material in a similar vein.

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Nick Smithson