Man, if aliens ever visit Earth then Pond’s sixth psychedelic rock album Man It Feels Like Space Again should be the first thing they hear. A warped adventure into kaleidoscope pop, could it be the perfect icebreaker between us and outer space?
Pond are blasting off again! The fuzzed out Man It Feels Like Space Again proves they’re wicked psych explorers in their own right.
Perth buddies Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson and Joseph Ryan have never been afraid to push the psychedelic music envelope. As an all-inclusive collaborative, the band’s melting pot of creativity takes them to some pretty far out places that sound unlike anything your earholes have heard before. Whacking out an album almost every year since forming in 2008, each LP has managed to explore all new sonic territory.
Exploring the psychedelic galaxy once more, their latest album brings you supercharged fuzz, loose jams and plenty of alien noises. Made just one month after releasing their last album Hobo Rocket, they recorded it over two weeks in a Melbourne studio. Experimenting with all sorts of weird and wonderful sounds, they decided to record everything to tape before piecing it back together and finding that perfect combo of fuzz and noise.
Opener Waiting Around For Grace momentarily floats in zero gravity before blasting out a whole lot of noise. Flighty synthesisers whizz past Allbrook’s hazy vocals and send you hurtling into the stars. Landing back on solid ground, glam pop tune Elvis’ Flaming Star then kicks up some dust with its jittery Bowie-esque vocals. Jamming the airwaves with lots of whacky noises, this one’s sure to set off a mind explosion or two.
Deeper in the psych galaxy, trippy tune Zond sounds like it’s been abducted by aliens. Allbrook’s wobbly vocals layered on the drum machine-riddled beat sends the track somewhere very strange. But, strange as that place may be, it gets weirder when shitting oneself is taken to a whole new dimension in reverb-heavy Heroic Shart. Synthesisers power up to zoom past the loose melody, but eventually tumble into a bottomless pit of fuzz.
Floaty ballad Sitting Up On Our Crane is a nostalgic wander down memory lane. Back in the day, Watson used to sneak into building sites to climb cranes and watch the world go by. Leading the vocals, his dreamy lyrics set the tune in orbit and fly you towards introspection. Keeping you in that headspace, final track Man It Feels Like Space Again is an eight-and-a-half minute jam of hallucinatory proportions. A swirling mess of fuzz, it builds a rocket ship and sends you on one last interplanetary trip.
Unafraid to venture into the unknown, the best thing about Pond is that you never know where they’ll take you next. Their latest space pop adventure shows everyone they’re not Tame Impala’s “side project” or “little brother”, they’re wicked psych explorers in their own right.
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