The menacingly beautiful rock music made by Mariano, Chris, Ben, George and Fenner has been refined in Hot Chip's Brick Lane studio and championed by DJs such as XFM's John Kennedy, who can't stop playing "Happy Birthday", and DFA mixmaster Tim Sweeney, who requested their track "Anthem" for his influential Beats In Space net show. Optimo believe Lesser Panda are the new Bauhaus. Some say it's the sound of early, angular Simple Minds blended with the doomed romance of Echo and the Bunnymen. Or Interpol if they just lightened up a bit. We're talking energy and drama, people, and lots of it. Their formidable reputation as one of London's best live bands has been proven again and again at venues such as 93 Feet East, the Old Blue Last, Madame JoJos and the Dublin Castle, not to mention at festivals such as Calvi on the Rocks in Corsica alongside LCD Soundsystem and Neneh Cherry. They also host their own Pandaphilia club nights, where anything goes, and usually does. Blessed with the kind of smouldering stage presence most groups would kill for, their sets give the crowd the blistering euphoria of a classic dance record with all the urgency and vigour of a live rock band. Happy Birthday was produced by Riton. Wonderkid Architeq delivers a spaced out bongo mix that lifts the song to a new level. The just-completed video for "Happy Birthday" is as striking and memorable as the song itself. The single will be out soon on Superdark records and iTunes to download very soon. Piers Martin of Vice Magazine