Pond Man It Feels Like Space Again Album Cover
A few months ago, I praised the ongoing psych-pop revival currently happening in Australia – bands in all the major metropolises (and numerous modest towns) playing the sort of wonky, experimental, fuzzy, sparkling, multi-faceted, stoner rock music and so dear of early Pink Floyd, 70s Todd Rundgren and even the balls-out boogie of Australian pioneers Coloured Balls.
I honed in on three bands, mainly: Brisbane's summery John Steel Singers, the woozy rhythms of Bare Realm and the monstrous pop groove of Tame Impala.
I omitted to mention the fantastic fun-speckled splendour and collective vision of Pond, however – a grievous oversight every bit Pond are front, left and centre of the Australian psych-pop scene, every bit the gluttonous sprawl of their sixth studio anthology, Man information technology Feels Like Space Again, proves.
The anthology was recorded over several months in a minor studio in Collingwood, Melbourne – where several ring members slept crude – and it sounds like it. Non in a bad way, simply in the sense of freedom that permeates songs such as the fantastically tricky space rock opener, Waiting Around For Grace, a bit similar the Flaming Lips back in the mid-90s, before they became irritating.
Or Tame Impala themselves.
Indeed, the 2 bands are so entwined that sometimes Pond are downgraded as a Tame Impala adjunct. That'southward non quite fair: if anything, it'southward the other style circular. Not only exercise the bands share a sound and a city (Perth), they besides share members – when Nick Allbrook left Tame Impala a couple of years back to concentrate on Pond and other projects, he was replaced by another member of Swimming. (In that location's but ane member of Tame Impala who hasn't been in Swimming.)
The truth of the matter though is that the two bands are distinct entities. Cadre member Joseph Ryan explained the differences to United kingdom publication The Stool Pigeon thus: "Kevin [Parker, Tame Impala frontman] writes pretty much all the Tame songs. Jay [Watson], Nick and I write all the Pond songs. Kevin likes to go everyone in Tame playing the right riffs and chords whereas Pond are [far looser]... Kevin has long, straight hair and I take a white-boy 'fro. To my ears, Tame and Pond sound completely dissimilar."
Information technology'due south tempting to think of Pond as the more than unruly, dorky, incestuous lovers of Tame Impala – non for them their concerns nearly hit the same notation twice or strait-jacketing their songs into recognisable structures. And while the main single Elvis' Flaming Star may share much of the aforementioned, wonderfully exhilarant 70s-era glam stomp as Elephant (think Marc Bolan transported to a futuristic world populated by D'Angelo fans), elsewhere it's non so straightforward.
Explosions, unearthly sound effects, trippy percussion and quintuple-tracked vocals populate the anthology. The synths on the title track fizzle and oomph like a less together MGMT before setting off in some other direction altogether. Sitting Up On Our Crane croons mournfully to itself like United kingdom cult band Telly Personalities in their psych phase, or perhaps John Lennon in 1 of his more than indulgent moments (and at that place were plenty of those). Belongings Out For You, meanwhile, is the sort of graceful slide through deject-baiting babyhood fantasyland and psychedelia that makes me still miss Mercury Rev so very much.
It'south non all wonderment and wigged-out head trips, though. Sometimes the indulgence becomes too overbearing, and y'all start wishing Pond would render to planet earth, if just for a moment. Zond is a bit of a downer, and Outside Is the Right Side is far too in thrall to George Clinton's surreal funk band Parliament Funkadelic to behave repeated listens.
Medicine Hat too is worryingly straight – Ryan crooning nasally as the band play plodding country rock, a little like Bob Dylan with the Band behind him. It's ok past itself, only one hopes this is a one-off abnormality, not a time to come direction. Commonwealth of australia already has any number of bands that sound like this, but only 1 Pond.
That's fine though – yous take to await a little uneveness from such a deranged and schizo ring. Indulgent and trippy and sometimes off-kilter – but a whole heap of fun. And they make marvellous spaced-out videos, too.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/jan/23/pond-man-it-feels-like-space-again-indulgent-trippy-and-at-times-off-kilter
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