Where culture, genre, and time converge: Polo & Pan

I have never connected with electronic dance music. The beats overwhelm me, the melodies bore me, the unpleasantly pleasant mood irritates me, and the buildups, particularly the ones with vortical reverberation, and the beat drops do nothing for me. From my point of view, all EDM sounds the same — no matter the song, I hear “The Middle” by Zedd. I mean, how many variations of an introductory beat, a breakdown, a buildup, and a beat drop can exist? Maybe Ryan Seacrest’s Top 40 has ruined EDM for me, and maybe I do not know good EDM. But, as of now, I do not like it. And, every time I attend an EDM concert, I feel out of place. In a crowd of bouncing bodies and bobbing heads, I stand as still as a marble statue.

At 8 p.m. on Friday, April 19th, 2019, however, I did not stand as still as a marble statue. I was surprised to find myself bouncing and bobbing to the EDM of Polo & Pan.

A French DJ duo composed of Polocorp and Peter Pan, the stage names of Paul Armand-Delille and Alexandre Grynszpan, Polo & Pan create complex, eclectic EDM. Before meeting each other, Armand-Delille and Grynszpan separately DJed at Le Baron, a nightclub in Paris — Polocorp mixed culturally diverse EDM while Peter Pan drew inspiration from various genres. Soon after they met, however, Polocorp and Peter Pan joined forces, becoming Polo & Pan. They merged their unique styles; Armand-Delille brought his knowledge of different cultures while Grynszpan brought his knowledge of different genres. Combining multicultural EDM with multi-genre EDM, Polo & Pan created a new sub-genre of EDM. It was cosmic, or as my friend likes to call it, “proof that soulmates exist”; their distinct musical styles perfectly complemented one another. In 2013, Polo & Pan released Rivolta, an EP that includes a title track as well as two remixes. The EP combines Polocorp’s fixation on the music of other cultures and Peter Pan’s infatuation with other genres of music. In 2014, Polo & Pan produced an EP, Dorothy, inspired by The Wizard of Oz (1939), and, in 2015, the duo released another EP, Plage isolée, which means “isolated beach” in French. Surreal and tropical, the two EPs reflect Polo & Pan’s idiosyncrasies and experimentation. The duo took a leave of absence for two years, condensing their distinct styles and developing their unique identity. In 2017, they reemerged with a new album, Caravelle, and in 2018, the duo released a single, “Arc-en-ciel,” and an EP that contains five remixes of “Mexicali,” Mexicali. Caravelle, “Arc-en-ciel,” and Mexicali differ from one another in terms of sound but resemble one another when it comes to ideology. Caravelle and “Arc-en-ciel” have mellow, tropical tones while Mexicali is anything but calm. All three, however, reflect Polocorp and Peter Pan’s vision: cultural and stylistic diversity. Today, Polo & Pan pushes the boundaries of conventional EDM, infuses cultural and stylistic diversity into EDM, and essentially creates a new sub-genre of EDM. In June 2019, Polo & Pan will go on tour.    

On the first night of the second weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, teenagers caked in glitter, millennials wearing sun hats and snapbacks, the occasional toddler, and I gathered at the Gobi Stage to watch Polo & Pan, whom I was not familiar with, perform. My friends and I entered the red-lit, smoke-filled tent and situated ourselves in the middle of the crowd. Wearing a fuchsia bucket hat, a rainbow fishnet pullover, and paper diffraction glasses, I looked the part, but, predisposed to a hatred for EDM, I did not feel the part. In the midst of EDM enthusiasts and rolling ravers, I prepared myself for an hour of torture.   

Polo & Pan kicked off the show with “Abysse,” the first track on Caravelle. The title of the song painted a picture of a deep, endless chasm, already creating a trippy, space-like atmosphere. Additionally, the five basslines, including a single, prolonged note, two alternating notes, a scale that ascends and descends, a bell-like pattern, and a xylophone sequence, altogether formed a psychedelic sound. Strange and spacey, “Abysse” was different than the EDM that I was accustomed to. As the song ended, my resentment towards EDM faded away, and I was not dreading the next track. Instead, I was somehow excited for whatever eccentric sounds Polo & Pan would deliver.

After mixing “Abysse,” Polo & Pan remixed “Sirba,” a song composed by Vladimir Cosma, a composer who was born in Romania but moved to France. “Sirba,” the first track from the score of the French film, Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972), incorporates the pan flute, the flute, the cello, and the piano, combining Romanian folk with French classical. Having a Romanian sound but staying in the traditions of classical and folk, the song must have appealed to Polocorp’s infatuation with the music of other cultures and Peter Pan’s fixation on other musical genres, laying out the perfect foundation for Polo & Pan. Polo & Pan sped up the tempo, looped a phrase to build up to the beat drop, silenced the music before the beat drop, and then dropped the beat. The rest of the song oscillated between tropical house, Romanian electronic, and Latin drum beats. As I listened to the tight, clean bassline and the funky melody, I could not help but move. And the bizarre mixture of EDM, with Romanian folk, French classical, and tropical music intrigued and delighted me. I was hooked.    

The remix of “Sirba” fluidly transitioned to the remix of “Baião Destemperado,” a song by Barbatuques, a Brazilian musical group that specializes in body percussion. In remixing “Baião Destemperado,” Polo & Pan put an electronic twist on the Brazilian melody and the body percussion. As I danced to the Latin tune, I imagined myself in a Samba club in Rio de Janeiro.

After listening to the remixes of “Sirba” and “Baião Destemperado,” I started to get a sense of what Polo & Pan was all about; the duo serves as the intersection between multiple cultures, genres, and times. However, I wanted to hear original Polo & Pan, to witness these virtuosos of tropical fusion layer their own sounds, to see how Polocorp would incorporate his cultural influences, and how Peter Pan would integrate other genres. Polo & Pan proceeded with “Zoom Zoom,” the fifth track on Caravelle. The introductory beat consisted of four bass-lines, including a drumbeat, a Latin acoustic melody, a pattern alternating between an electronic beat and a clap, and a repeating lyric phrase, “zoom zoom.” Building up to the beat drop, Polo & Pan incorporated Portuguese vocals, synth-pop, a vortex sound, and silence, and, when the beat dropped, the duo stripped down the song into its electronic elements. “Zoom Zoom” draws inspiration from the music of other cultures, particularly Brazilian music, and other musical genres, including Latin folk, tropical fusion, synth-pop, and French new wave. But the song is not a remix. While Polo & Pan merged a variety of cultures and genres, they ingeniously and innovatively spoke their own voice. Blown away after just three songs, I fell deeper into the hole of Polo & Pan.   

As Polo & Pan mixed “Coeur d’artichaut,” the first song on Dorothy, the crowd grew. The DJ duo and the audience engaged in a symbiotic relationship; as the people flooded in, the music improved, and as the music strengthened, the crowd grew. The duo and the crowd fed off each other’s energy.

Polo & Pan then performed “Arc-en-ciel,” a single that combines Latin acoustic, haunting French harmonies, classical-inspired techno, and elements of flute and percussion, followed by “Dorothy,” a mystical, psychedelic amalgamation of bells, disco, synth, English lyrics performed with a French accent, and robotic harmonies. “Arc-en-ciel” and “Dorothy” were unlike anything I had ever heard. But, compared to the next song, they sounded simple.

“Mexicali” left me astonished. Polo & Pan first mixed a maraca bassline, a repeating synth pattern, a steady drum beat, and monotone Spanish vocals. Then, they broke the song down by dropping the drumbeat, and they built it back up by incorporating an augmented synth scale and a descending synth pattern. After the beat dropped, three distinct basslines followed, including a repeating pattern that sounds like a giant stomping, an awkward, ugly musical phrase, and glass percussions. For the rest of the song, Polo & Pan added layers, ranging from techno to folk. All at once, “Mexicali” took the form of a Mexican folk song, a circus tune, a fairytale, a Halloween song, a disco track, and a rap song. Confusing, eclectic, cacophonous, and simply electronic, “Mexicali” should have frightened me, but instead, it drew me in. I wanted more.

Polo & Pan then gave me “Nanã,” “Plage isolée,” and “Canopée,” their most popular tracks. “Nanã,” a Portuguese word, includes Hawaiian lyrics, tropical sounds, and straightforward electronic beats. With simplicity, however, came hard work. The way in which Polo & Pan layered the various basslines and the times at which the duo incorporated certain elements required a skilled ear. As I swayed to the tropical fusion, I travelled from the dusty plains of Indio to the beaches of Hawaii. “Plage isolée” and “Canopée” had a similar effect. The crisp silences and the unconventional beats that focus on pauses of “Canopée” gave the acoustic guitar, the tight, slow-paced bassline, the French harmonies, and the bell patterns dimension, making a simple-sounding song complicated. Polo & Pan crafted “Canopée” like abstract art, deconstructing norms and emphasizing negative space. At this point, I had fallen for them.      

Reflecting on the set, my friend Ashley, who also attended the concert, and I discussed our favorite moments and our friends’ reactions to the music. “Every person I talked to said that Polo & Pan was one of the best sets at Coachella,” my friend told me. “Even you,” she said, turning to me. It was true. Rock fans, pop fans, and rap fans fell in love with Polo & Pan and agreed that the duo triumphed. “They’re able to transcend music taste,” she said. “They’re just that objectively good.” Polo & Pan cast a spell on everyone who was lucky enough to hear. At least they cast a spell on me.

Article by Sophie Turovsky