Pond: Tasmania
Subscribe
X

Subscribe to Forte Magazine

Pond: Tasmania

Western-Australia Psyche-staples Pond have released another cosmic trip: Tasmania. The record delivers us ten songs that do not let up on the bands reputation for experimentalism, though this time it’s got more of a meditative cosmic glimmer, than the dystopian warp of 2017’s The Weather.

The opening track ‘Daisy’ showcases the ease with which the band can create a perfectly satisfying, head noddin’ hooky rock song you can sing the chorus to; “daisy, baby, are you driving home,” with a forward leaning beat and a funky baseline, but Pond never let’s their audience of that easily – dissipating into a sinking solemness in the second half of the track with a low-fi beat under toning strings that round up the track to six minutes and twenty seconds.

The title-track ‘Tasmania’ has producer Kevin Parker’s funky little fingerprints all over it. A dynamic baseline has the listener groovin’ hard throughout the verse, that serves as a much-needed distraction to the fact that the chorus lyrics are all about singer Nick Allbrook wanting to move to Tasmania to enjoy it before all of our countries lovely nature turns to shit. In the third act of the song we are blasted with a guitar solo that will satisfy the fans of the bands 70’s heavy earlier work like Beard, Wives, Denim.

After the mid-point of the album, the band is done trying to keep you involved with crowd pleasing hooks and sinks further into loosely structured experiments. Not as easily listening for fans more songs like The Weather’s Sweep me off my feet, but if you relax into it you will be rewarded, for instance in the rolling, hypnotic drums that build into giant synth waves in Goodnight, P.C.C.

All in all, this is an excellent addition to the Pond canon, with plenty of blue-eye funk and psych hooks to satisfy the casual listeners, and some pleasing adventures through space for the more committed sonic cosmonautic fans to spend some time floating about in.

5/5
Spinning Top Records | Caroline
Reviewed by Liam McNally