When Chris Stewart set out to write and record his third album as Black Marble, he was newly living in Los Angeles, fresh off a move from New York. The environment brought much excitement and possibility, but the distance had proved too much for the car he brought along. With it out of commission indefinitely, he purchased a bus pass and planned his daily commute from his Echo Park apartment to his downtown studio, where he began to shape Bigger Than Life. The route wound all through the city, from the small local shops of Echo Park to the rising glass of the business district, to the desperation of Skid Row. The hurried energy of the environment provided a backdrop for the daily trip. When Stewart finally arrived at his studio, he’d look through his window at the mountains and the sky, seeing the beauty that makes L.A. unique — the same beauty his fellow commuters, some pushed to the edge of human endurance, had seen. That was the headspace he was in when he began to map out the syncopated drums and staccato arpeggiation of Bigger Than Life, an ode to his new condition and a shimmering synth-pop response to its cacophony.

Soundscaping a fogged-out fatalistic-future…. this is Panther Modern and this is ‘Los Angeles 2020’. This is where it was always heading…the neon brightens, the beats get bigger, the bodies move... from the fluorescent husk of Sextile... Panther Modern has something to say. This is a future-past, where Neuromancer aesthetic meets synthetic EBM pleasure... Panther Modern handles every facet of Keehn’s latest techno-vision, and finds the ever-evolving Keehn combining the audio/visual components buried deep within his programming into one cohesive project. Panther Modern is an exciting new audio/visual project by Brady Keehn (of recently defunct LA outfit Sextile). His self-released debut EP, aptly titled ‘Los Angeles 2020’, is out now. The 4-track EP was written, recorded and produced by Brady Keehn and mastered by Maurizio Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher, Merchandise, Niños Du Brasil).