Panda Bear and Sonic Boom Return With an Album That Lives Completely Offline

The second collaborative album from Panda Bear and Sonic Boom will not appear on Spotify, Apple Music, or any streaming platform. ‘A ? of WHEN’ lands on 10 July through Domino as vinyl, CD, cassette, and a download option via Domino Mart and Bandcamp. It is a deliberate step back from digital convenience, and the duo have framed the decision in language that sounds more like a manifesto than a marketing strategy.

“We’re taking things a little off piste,” Noah Lennox and Pete Kember said in a joint statement. “More rock n’ roll than flick & scroll.” The announcement pulls no punches about the online landscape they are leaving behind. References to algorithmic slopes and AI slop sit alongside a call to reconnect with radio, live shows, Q&A sessions, and listening parties. The message ends with a line that doubles as the project’s core instruction: “IRL not URL.”

The album itself gathers ten tracks of gleefully experimental pop. Harp loops, steel drums, a Mexico City mariachi band, and yodelling all surface across the record. Its title track is available now as a download. Two earlier cuts, ‘Graveyard’ and ‘Lucky Charm’, had already appeared in April on a Record Store Day 7-inch.

Fans who want to hear the full album before the release date can attend listening parties set for late June. Confirmed stops include Lisbon (20 June at Cosmos), Paris (24 June at Lithium), London (25 June at Rough Trade East), Berlin (26 June at Rough Trade), and Porto (27 June at Studio Sparks). No streams, no placeholder pre-saves, just physical sound in actual rooms. It is a small gesture, but rare enough to feel pointed right now.