BANNISTER, BOB Dives & Lazarus (Twisted Village) cd 13.98
Here's an album of (sometimes radical) interpretations of traditional British and American folk songs, all done by Bob Bannister of Tono Bungay. Melancholy stuff beloved by fans of Shirley Collins and the like ("The Murder Of Maria Marten", "George Collins", "The Unquiet Grave", and others). His production and arrangements are both evocative and inventive, mixing the original words and melodies with violin drone, tape manipulation, electronics, and even distorted guitar feedback. The weak spot is Bannister's singing, he's just not a great singer -- but the feeling is there, and his music captures the mood perfectly. Amps For Christ meets John Fahey meets Slap Happy Humphrey meets the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music? Er, something like that, if that means anything to you... Or, if you've heard the P.G. Six album we raved about on list #112, you'll have an idea of where this is coming from (no, it's not as good as P.G. Six, but shares a similar sound-approach, and is well worth checking out if you liked that album).
RealAudio clip: "Murder Of Maria Marten"
RealAudio clip: "A Miniature Rainbow"
RealAudio clip: "Dark Hollow"

BANYAN (Cyber Octave) cd 14.98
Former Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins jams with Mike Watt (Minutemen), Nels Cline (Nels Cline Trio, Geraldine Fibbers), and a mysterious keyboardist, in an attempt to conjure the spirits of both Miles Davis and Igor Stravinsky (as the liner notes somewhat pretentiously imply). Now of course I'm thinking that Utah punk band Iceburn has already done that, but Nels is a wonderful guitarist and AQ has to pretty much recommend everything he's involved in. Basically this is a mostly instrumental, improv-funk romp. Recorded by the Dust Brothers by the way.

BAR KOKHBA Lucifer (Tzadik) cd 16.98

BARBARA A Blessing From The Angel Of Death (Heart & Crossbone) cd 12.98
Since we're reviewing the brand new record from Israel's Barbara, we figured we would get a handful of their first record, so all of you who missed out on this killer disc the first time around could have anther chance...
How could we resist? A band called Barbara. From Israel. On the cover, the name Barbara is written in ornate olde English, with the middle 'b' extending into a huge crucifix. The record is called A Blessing From The Angel Of Death! Song titles include "Heart Of Thorns", "Concrete Heaven", "Morbidity" and "Hotdog" (?). We knew before we even heard it that this was AQ through and through. Thankfully, the music was just as good as we had hoped. Noisy and raw, Blessing... was recorded live in Tel Aviv in 1999, and sounds like it. Overblown and a bit lo-fi, with super saturated vocals and crumbing guitar distortion, this is wild and chaotic and furiously intense. Imagine a black metal Hella, or the Ruins playing Darkthrone in a concrete bunker, or an even more damaged sounding Lightning Bolt. Just bass and drums, a super tight, uber distorted sludge-metal rhythmic chaos engine, spitting out relentless metallic mayhem, wild unpredictably spastic drumming, huge throbbing mud bass, and howled and shrieked vocals. Occasionally, the band stretches out into ambient post rock, doomy Khanate-isms, all syncopated bursts of musical bile, melodies hidden amidst prickly pounding riffage. And as with lots of live recordings, it's totally disconcerting to hear the barely there smattering of applause in the black hole vacuum of silence between each song. This is the sort of monstrous brutality that you imagine being played atop Valhalla, across a valley of cowering minions, bowed in reverent worship. Or at least in the corner of a sweaty, writhing, jam packed little club!
MPEG Stream: "Pest Control"
MPEG Stream: "Skinny"

BARBARA Peger (Heart & Crossbone) cd 11.98
Finally! A brand new record from Israel's Barbara. A band we fell in love with before we even heard them. Why? Well, they're called Barbara to start with, they're from Israel, Barbara is written in olde English with the first 'b' extending into a crucifix, and they're a bass and drums duo. We were completely sold before we even discovered how amazing they sounded. But with all that going for them, if they didn't rule, we would have seriously lost faith in the universe.
The sound on Peger is not all that far removed from their 1999 debut A Blessing From The Angel Of Death, the biggest difference being that where the first disc was a live record, this is recorded in a studio, so it sounds heavier, noisier and more intense. A sloppy, ultra loose doomy prog jam of the highest order. It's like a confusional mix of Godheadsilo, Hella, Burmese, Lightning Bolt and the Ruins, but dipped in molten metal and rolled around in filthy gritty grimy dooooom. The guitars buzz and moan, chugging and grinding, weaving elaborate layered fuzzscapes and jagged melodies, a seriously sludgy downtuned blast of sonic chaos, feedback and amp buzz everywhere, shrieked vocals and blown out rumbles... but it's the drums holding it all together, a relentless ultra complex pound, drums splattered everywhere and cymbals crashing all over the place, like someone was firing a machine gun into a room stuffed with old drum kits. But this isn't just noise rock, the songs are weirdly catchy, underneath all the throb and pummel, thrash and grind, lurk some killer hooks and some super memorable riffs. And interspersed throughout the record are washed out extended drones, long stretches of buzzing fuzzed out guitar, and rumbling low end, punctuated by occasional bursts of aggro drum crush. Some super abstract ambient doom, that always seems to collapse back into another blast of stumbling low end punishment. So good!
MPEG Stream: "Schnell"
MPEG Stream: "The Philosopher Under Pressure"
MPEG Stream: "Pray To Black"
MPEG Stream: "The Feedbacker"

BARBARAS, THE 2006-2008 (Goner) cd 13.98
Holy cow, hard to think this record almost never saw the light of day, but it was nearly so, 2006-2008 being a collection of sorts, gathering up almost everything recorded by this short lived fuzzed out jangle pop garage rock combo from Memphis, whose members would be plucked out of the group to join Jay Reatard on the road as his backup band, and who would later go on to form the Magic Kids and play in Wavves. But while they were a band, and we assume before the above mentioned plucking, Jay Reatard would record The Barbaras whenever he wasn't on tour. Later, before his death, Reatard for some reason claimed to have erased all of his Barbaras recordings, which thankfully proved to be not actually true, as much later, in 2011, the bulk of this collection was discovered, still stored on Reatard's digital recorder. So after some further recording, mixing, polishing and reworking, the only full length from the Barbaras finally sees the light of day, and we have to say, it was well worth it.
All it should take is about 30 seconds of album opener "Day At The Shrine", with its dense barrage of drumming, sing songy vocals, HUGE hooks, jangle crunch, sunshine-y ooooooh background vox, total beach ready jangle pop bliss out, fun and summery and catchy as all get out. And that pretty much sets the template for the rest of the record, a twisted fuzz pop affair, with strange arrangements, vocals that slip into falsetto 'la-la's at the drop of a hat, swirling synths, the sound simultaneously murky and lo-fi, but surprisingly lush and rocking, fans of groups like Wavves, Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, the Babies, Woods, will find much to love here, the songs super varied from rollicking rockers, to groovy sixties girl group style shuffles, to angular synth driven new wavey garage punk, to almost twee dream pop, to swaggery old school garage stomp, it's easy to see why Reatard wanted these guys in his band, and fans of later, poppier Jay Reatard stuff, will be in heaven. Pop record/reissue of the year, quite possibly!
MPEG Stream: "Day At The Shrine"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven Hangs"
MPEG Stream: "Grief Touches Everyone"
MPEG Stream: "Topsy Turvy Magic"

BARBARAS, THE 2006-2008 (Goner) lp 14.98
Holy cow, hard to think this record almost never saw the light of day, but it was nearly so, 2006-2008 being a collection of sorts, gathering up almost everything recorded by this short lived fuzzed out jangle pop garage rock combo from Memphis, whose members would be plucked out of the group to join Jay Reatard on the road as his backup band, and who would later go on to form the Magic Kids and play in Wavves. But while they were a band, and we assume before the above mentioned plucking, Jay Reatard would record The Barbaras whenever he wasn't on tour. Later, before his death, Reatard for some reason claimed to have erased all of his Barbaras recordings, which thankfully proved to be not actually true, as much later, in 2011, the bulk of this collection was discovered, still stored on Reatard's digital recorder. So after some further recording, mixing, polishing and reworking, the only full length from the Barbaras finally sees the light of day, and we have to say, it was well worth it.
All it should take is about 30 seconds of album opener "Day At The Shrine", with its dense barrage of drumming, sing songy vocals, HUGE hooks, jangle crunch, sunshine-y ooooooh background vox, total beach ready jangle pop bliss out, fun and summery and catchy as all get out. And that pretty much sets the template for the rest of the record, a twisted fuzz pop affair, with strange arrangements, vocals that slip into falsetto 'la-la's at the drop of a hat, swirling synths, the sound simultaneously murky and lo-fi, but surprisingly lush and rocking, fans of groups like Wavves, Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, the Babies, Woods, will find much to love here, the songs super varied from rollicking rockers, to groovy sixties girl group style shuffles, to angular synth driven new wavey garage punk, to almost twee dream pop, to swaggery old school garage stomp, it's easy to see why Reatard wanted these guys in his band, and fans of later, poppier Jay Reatard stuff, will be in heaven. Pop record/reissue of the year, quite possibly!
MPEG Stream: "Day At The Shrine"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven Hangs"
MPEG Stream: "Grief Touches Everyone"
MPEG Stream: "Topsy Turvy Magic"

BARDO POND Archive 24 (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
An awesome live recording from these psych rock astral travelers, this lengthy two track performance recorded live in the living room of a house somewhere in Philadelphia finds the Pond at their driftiest and dreamiest. The opening track is a 34 minute psychbliss epic, guitars swirl and shimmer, drifting lazily across a gauzy sun dappled sonic sky, violins float by occasionally as do snatches of fluttering flute, the background dense with chimes and distant bells, muted melodies and slow undulating waves of guitar groan and ambient rumble, colored here and there by some scrape and hiss, as well as voices and sounds from the partygoers seated around the band. It's a sloooooow build and when it finally does reach it's peak, it's not a blow out as much as a heavy drone. Totally mesmerizing and tranceworthy! The second track, clocking in at a much more brief 12 minutes or so, is an even more mellow affair, simple drifting acoustic guitar, hand drums, flutes and ethereal female vocals, while in the background, thick billowing clouds of distorted psychedelic guitar pulse and swell, like some mysterious sonic Northern lights. So nice. Hard to imagine these sounds emanating from a house in some suburb, unless that house suddenly became unmoored and began drifting through alternate universes, or through some unexplored corner of the galaxy. So perfect!
LIMITED TO 600 COPIES!! Two different covers, each one super striking, no need to ask for a specific cover, they'll be pulled at random, and you'll be pleased as punch either way!
MPEG Stream: "Amur"
MPEG Stream: "Walkingclouds"

BARDO POND Batholith (Three Lobed) lp + cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If we had to pick our favorite modern psych rock band, it might be tough. There are so many groups who have mastered the fine art of druggy soundscapes, tripped out space rock, and in-the-red avantpsych drone jams. But if push comes to shove, most of us would probably pick Bardo Pond.
Release after release, every single one of their records manages to push all our musical buttons, be it droney krautrockishness, damaged freaked out noise rock, trippy stoned drift, fluttering psych folk, heavy riffrock, or all of the above! These guys have mastered their craft, but remain unafraid to just wing it, jamming wildly, almost always resulting in something truly transcendent.
Batholith, while ostensibly an actual album, is in fact, a collection of some of Bardo's favorite songs that for whatever reason have never been released until now. Some live tracks, Peel sessions, and the opener "A Tune", that the band began their legendary Terrastock II set with, a laid back stoned groove, all warm washed out guitars and shuffling drums, until over the top, in swoop the Gibbons brothers, to tear it up, unfurling fiery sun baked leads over the top, wrapped around the vocals, a buried murmur, ghostly and gauzy, the whole track a glorious acid drenched, fuzzy buzzy drone-y jam.
In fact most of Batholith sounds like that, super hazy, lazy, drawn out, sprawling riffs, dreamy and definitely WAY druggy.
But that all changes about halfway through.
"Splint" begins as a post rocky meander, barely any guitars, just little trills and flourishes here and there, amidst a cloud of bass thrum and shuffling drums, which rev up about half way through into a dense churning wall of sound, crumbling and massive, before drifting back to the track's opening drift. "Slip Away" is total nineties shoegaze, somewhere between the Swirlies and Swervedriver, the vocals ethereal and dreamlike, the drums a driving pound, but guitars EVERYWHERE, thick and fuzzed out, layers upon layers, one guitar soaring above the rest, skywriting buzzing minor key melodies over the top, sometimes exploding into wahwah drenched squalls, other times just adding to the overall buzz.
The final track, the longest at 10 minutes, is all Eastern raga, with some steel string buzz that sounds a bit like a sitar, a loping sea sick main riff, a hypnotic pulse like drum beat, and again the guitars take over, snarling and growling and glowing, a super intense tangle of downtuned buzz, draped over the steady motorik jam beneath, until the band launch into space, and unload an incredibly fierce and furious space rock outro, the drums dense and complex, the bass thick and fuzzy, the guitars all wound up in a glorious psychdrone battle to the death.
Incredibly deluxe packaging. Heavy heavy gatefold. The record pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Included with the lp is a cd of the same music. LIMITED TO 1049 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "A Tune"
MPEG Stream: "Push Your Head"

BARDO POND Bufo Alvarius (Drunken Fish) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BARDO POND Bufo Alvarius (Fire) cd 15.98
One of our favorite records from this Philly drone / drug / psych ensemble, available again on lp, this time with a bonus track, and a cd version bundled with the lp...
Bufo Alvarius, originally released in 1995, was Bardo Pond's first, and some (us for example) might argue, still their best, completely tripped out, hazy sonic sedatives administered in the form of blown out space psych bliss, the guitars not so much riffing as expelling thick undulating sheets of warped fuzz, the drums, loose and propulsive, driving the songs, but not rigidily, the flute fluttering throughout, like melodic flecks floating in a swirling sonic sea of bongwater, the band do occasionally come together, and briefly sound like a super loose spaced out slowed down Stooges, but even then they stumble and meander, lurch and lumber, staggering druggily through clouds of spectrascopic sonic splutter, eventually exploding into full on effects drenched meltdown, managing to sound heavy and dense and trippy, but still totally dreamy and mesmerizing.
A few tracks get all jangly, and the band sound like Pavement covering Spacemen 3, while extremely high, the female vocals are doused in reverb and echo and delay, and they drift ghostlike through woozy whirling fields of tangled psychedelic guitar freakout, the whole band seemingly on the verge of total collapse, this record a document of a group teetering gloriously on the edge. When the band rock, they rock hard, and sound a bit like Loop, albeit a whole lot more loose, that same sort of psychedelic hypno-drug-rock, but in the hands of Bardo Pond, those moments never last, instead, what could be a driving super heavy rocker, tends again, to crumble, and collapse, into a stumbling druggy psych dirge of swirling sweet crooned female vox, pounding off kilter drumming, a tangled knot of corruscated guitar buzz, everything wrapped in a thick cloak of grimy, gritty fuzzed out whirr. It really doesn't get heavier, or trippier or more psychedelic than this. Take the nearly half hour track "Amen", a single track, but essentially an entire bonus record, a fantastically OUT ambient sprawl of impressionistic psychguitar, bleary free noise, and druggy dreamlike ambience, the sort of blown out abstraction most current bands couldn't pull off if their lives depended on it.
This recent reissue tacks on a bonus track, the groovy woozy jangly "Fixed", that begins all strummy and soft focus, before the drums kick in hard, the vocals serene and sweet, backed up by a wall of churning psychedelia, softy strummed clean guitar, and of course haunting spectral flute. So good.
Way recommended, easily one of our all time favorite modern psych records, and to all those folks into the new breed of psychedelic space rock: White Hills, the Heads, Gnod, Eternal Tapestry, Heavy Winged... You NEED this!
MPEG Stream: "Adhesive"
MPEG Stream: "Back Porch"
MPEG Stream: "On A Side Street"

BARDO POND Bufo Alvarius (Drunken Fish) lp 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BARDO POND Bufo Alvarius (Fire) lp+cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our favorite records from this Philly drone / drug / psych ensemble, available again on lp, this time with a bonus track, and a cd version bundled with the lp...
Bufo Alvarius, originally released in 1995, was Bardo Pond's first, and some (us for example) might argue, still their best, completely tripped out, hazy sonic sedatives administered in the form of blown out space psych bliss, the guitars not so much riffing as expelling thick undulating sheets of warped fuzz, the drums, loose and propulsive, driving the songs, but not rigidily, the flute fluttering throughout, like melodic flecks floating in a swirling sonic sea of bongwater, the band do occasionally come together, and briefly sound like a super loose spaced out slowed down Stooges, but even then they stumble and meander, lurch and lumber, staggering druggily through clouds of spectrascopic sonic splutter, eventually exploding into full on effects drenched meltdown, managing to sound heavy and dense and trippy, but still totally dreamy and mesmerizing.
A few tracks get all jangly, and the band sound like Pavement covering Spacemen 3, while extremely high, the female vocals are doused in reverb and echo and delay, and they drift ghostlike through woozy whirling fields of tangled psychedelic guitar freakout, the whole band seemingly on the verge of total collapse, this record a document of a group teetering gloriously on the edge. When the band rock, they rock hard, and sound a bit like Loop, albeit a whole lot more loose, that same sort of psychedelic hypno-drug-rock, but in the hands of Bardo Pond, those moments never last, instead, what could be a driving super heavy rocker, tends again, to crumble, and collapse, into a stumbling druggy psych dirge of swirling sweet crooned female vox, pounding off kilter drumming, a tangled knot of corruscated guitar buzz, everything wrapped in a thick cloak of grimy, gritty fuzzed out whirr. It really doesn't get heavier, or trippier or more psychedelic than this. Take the nearly half hour track "Amen", a single track, but essentially an entire bonus record, a fantastically OUT ambient sprawl of impressionistic psychguitar, bleary free noise, and druggy dreamlike ambience, the sort of blown out abstraction most current bands couldn't pull off if their lives depended on it.
This recent reissue tacks on a bonus track, the groovy woozy jangly "Fixed", that begins all strummy and soft focus, before the drums kick in hard, the vocals serene and sweet, backed up by a wall of churning psychedelia, softy strummed clean guitar, and of course haunting spectral flute. So good.
Way recommended, easily one of our all time favorite modern psych records, and to all those folks into the new breed of psychedelic space rock: White Hills, the Heads, Gnod, Eternal Tapestry, Heavy Winged... You NEED this!
MPEG Stream: "Adhesive"
MPEG Stream: "Back Porch"
MPEG Stream: "On A Side Street"

BARDO POND Cypher Documents I (Three Lobed Recordings) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What we have here is not exactly a new album from Philly's deeply stoned-sounding sonic spacefarers Bardo Pond, though it sort of is... This is part one of a planned series that will gather up the loose ends of BP's prolific recording career: tracks from singles, comps, etc. All BP-heads should be pleased! Cypher Documents I collects seven tracks that were previously only ever released as temporarily-available, mp3-of-the-month downloads on the band's website, except for one of 'em ("Living Testament") that also made it onto a Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine comp. And, the epic 31-minute "From The Sky" that appears here was only a five minute long edit in its original mp3 form. All these tracks date from the period between their 1999 Set and Setting album and 2001's Dilate. The disc begins with the slide-riffing, moaning, heavy-duty psych-out action of "Living Testament" and takes it from there, sometimes getting even heavier (the ominous "Slag"), sometimes quieter (the hushed "Nomad"), always sounding MEGA-STONED. The disc ends with the aforementioned "From The Sky" epic, preceeded by the nearly-as-epic 13-minute "Black Turban". Bardo Pond fans need this, also probably you want this if you're into the likes of Acid Mothers Temple, Kinski, Doktor Kettu, and the like (which means you're likely a Bardo Pond fan anyway, what are we saying?). Even though it's not a "real" album it's already one of our faves from this band.
MPEG Stream: "Living Testament"
MPEG Stream: "Slag"

BARDO POND Dilate (Matador) cd 14.98
A marked improvement from their last release -- the disappointing blues jam "Set & Setting" -- Bardo Pond's "Dilate" mopes through its thick psychedelic haze of washed out guitar and slow 'n' simple rhythms that aren't exactly memorable, but can't be forgotten after taking a really big hit on that multi-chambered water bong. The first couple of tracks have all of the slow-burning dark psych-rock intensity of recent Mogwai, and later on the buzzing guitars sound a lot like the Dirty Three. Isobel still sings way too much, sounding like Kim Gordon's recent drunken nonsense. But whether it's art rock or stoned wanking, it sounds pretty good (and I'm not even high!)
RealAudio clip: "Two Planes"

BARDO POND Dilate (Matador) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A marked improvement from their last release -- the disappointing blues jam "Set & Setting" -- Bardo Pond's "Dilate" mopes through its thick psychedelic haze of washed out guitar and slow 'n' simple rhythms that aren't exactly memorable, but can't be forgotten after taking a really big hit on that multi-chambered water bong. The first couple of tracks have all of the slow-burning dark psyche-rock intensity of recent Mogwai, and later on the buzzing guitars sound a lot like the Dirty Three. Isobel still sings way too much, sounding like Kim Gordon's recent drunken nonsense. But whether it's art rock or stoned wanking, it sounds pretty good (and I'm not even high!)

BARDO POND Gazing At Shilla (Important) lp 17.98
No one does stoned and blissed out deep-in-the-forest jams better than Bardo Pond. For over fifteen years now this Philly outfit have been kicking out some of the most gorgeous organic spaced out rock EVER. Bardo Pond have so many different sides to their sound, from more song based tracks, to full on psychedelia, to dirgey space rock, and of course there's the sprawling tripped out and totally dreamy epic jams.
Gazing At Shilla finds the Pond in the latter mode, which is just fine as we can't get enough of that sound, when the band somehow bring earth and sky together in gloriously cataclysmic ways, allowing us to get so totally and fantastically lost in their sound. Recorded between 2003-2006, each side is a single, fantastic, sprawling twenty minute instrumental. "Eight - Thousanders" finds the band soaring and floating and gliding with such ease and fluidity. While "Kali" gets a little buzzier and darker, gritty space-y sonics transmitted from another dimension. Imagine if Roy Montgomery and Sonic Youth joined forces, or those special moments when Kawabata Makoto and his Acid Mothers Temple set their trajectory for cosmic spheres unknown. Ultimately though, it sounds like Bardo Pond (albeit only one of their many sides), a band who continue to grow, evolve and rule!
This the first of a new four part Bardo Pond related series of limited edition vinyl only releases on Important, we also just got the others in, one each by Bardo side projects Alasehir, Alumbrados, and Moon Phantoms - the latter a collaboration with Japan's Suishu No Fune!

BARDO POND Lapsed (Matador) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wonderful new album.

BARDO POND Lapsed (Matador) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wonderful new album.

BARDO POND On the Ellipse (ATP Recordings) cd 14.98
Time to get high. Philly psych-jam outfit Bardo Pond seems to be best appreciated with some THC intake. Or maybe not, we wouldn't know, that's just what we've been told. But certainly, for those of us who don't smoke that stuff, they're one of those bands that could be used as an aural substitute for such illicit substances. Either way, this is definitely stoner rock, of the heavy-lidded, droney, downer variety. Compared to their recent Matador label albums (Set And Setting, Dilate), this new one for ATP seems somewhat heavier and sludgier -- it's one that could be appreciated by those into the likes of Dead Meadow, Sleep or even Electric Wizard. Yet it's still downy soft, too, with folky, acoustic songs living among (or within) the massive electric-psych-guitar wash ones. Delicate female vocals from flautist Isobel drift o'er the mellowed out, doped up distortion. It's as airy as it is hairy. Loping, slumbrous, gentle, melancholic, blissful, hazy... What Sleep was to Black Sabbath's "Lord Of This World", much of this is to Sabbath's "Solitude". Bardo fans of course will like, and even if you haven't been that into Bardo Pond before, we'd say this is defintely one to check out. Maybe their best in a while. Real nice. Play loud.
MPEG Stream: "Night Of Frogs"
MPEG Stream: "Walking Clouds"

BARDO POND On the Ellipse (ATP Recordings) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Perfect, now available on vinyl!
Time to get high. Philly psych-jam outfit Bardo Pond seems to be best appreciated with some THC intake. Or maybe not, we wouldn't know, that's just what we've been told. But certainly, for those of us who don't smoke that stuff, they're one of those bands that could be used as an aural substitute for such illicit substances. Either way, this is definitely stoner rock, of the heavy-lidded, droney, downer variety. Compared to their recent Matador label albums (Set And Setting, Dilate), this new one for ATP seems somewhat heavier and sludgier -- it's one that could be appreciated by those into the likes of Dead Meadow, Sleep or even Electric Wizard. Yet it's still downy soft, too, with folky, acoustic songs living among (or within) the massive electric-psych-guitar wash ones. Delicate female vocals from flautist Isobel drift o'er the mellowed out, doped up distortion. It's as airy as it is hairy. Loping, slumbrous, gentle, melancholic, blissful, hazy... What Sleep was to Black Sabbath's "Lord Of This World", much of this is to Sabbath's "Solitude". Bardo fans of course will like, and even if you haven't been that into Bardo Pond before, we'd say this is defintely one to check out. Maybe their best in a while. Real nice. Play loud.
MPEG Stream: "Night Of Frogs"
MPEG Stream: "Walking Clouds"

BARDO POND Peri (Three Lobed) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Peri is a companion of sorts to the earlier Bardo Pond release Batholith, which itself was a compilation of rare and unreleased tracks. The wealth of material compiled for Batholith resulted in this, a second volume of rarities, culled from the last almost 15 years. It includes some old fan favorites, and we have to say this is the sort of Bardo Pond we love, so sludgey and murky and psychedelic and raw, the band seriously HEAVY, their psychedelia dark and drone-y and intense, the guitars thick and gnarled, the vocals ghostlike and buried in the mix, lots of fluttering flutes, thick squalls of wild guitar freakout, the drums a pounding thud. Just check out the opener "Karwan", a slithery sprawling sludgey groove, the guitars thick and cloudy, the drums more of a slow motion tribal pulse than a rhythm, the main riff loping and woozy and druggy, the vocals laid back and weary, the whole thing sounding like it's being broadcast through a haze of pot smoke.
"The Path" is short and more delicate, the vocals and flutes way up front, but fiery guitars buzz just below the surface, the vibe almost folky, which perfectly segues into "Libation" a way more laid back space jam, the drums skittery and spare, the guitars spidery and crystalline, the vocals again buried in the mix, and a wicked psych blowout outro.
"Chicken Gun" was a live staple from the nineties, and features a bad ass main riff, lots of wah wah, thick distorted guitars, cool chanteuse like vocals, strange atonal flute freakouts, and a sound that just gets heavier and heavier and more dense as the track progresses. Finally, the record closes with "Silver Pavillion", another classic Bardo oldie, tripped out and dreamy and druggy, more krautrocky than anything, the guitars unfurling soft shimmery buzz, but again with an explosive climax, wild intense drumming, and some intense tangled psych guitar dueling. Total space rock / drone rock / krautrock nirvana.
Weirdly, the vinyl is limited to 1640 copies, while the cd-only version is limited to a mere 350 copies, so those will most likely be gone before the lps. But heck, you might as well buy the lp, since not only does it ALSO come with a cd anyway, it comes in a gorgeous ultra heavy, super swank and super deluxe gatefold jacket!
MPEG Stream: "Karwan"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Pavilion"

BARDO POND Peri (Three Lobed) lp + cd 25.00
Peri is a companion of sorts to the earlier Bardo Pond release Batholith, which itself was a compilation of rare and unreleased tracks. The wealth of material compiled for Batholith resulted in this, a second volume of rarities, culled from the last almost 15 years. It includes some old fan favorites, and we have to say this is the sort of Bardo Pond we love, so sludgey and murky and psychedelic and raw, the band seriously HEAVY, their psychedelia dark and drone-y and intense, the guitars thick and gnarled, the vocals ghostlike and buried in the mix, lots of fluttering flutes, thick squalls of wild guitar freakout, the drums a pounding thud. Just check out the opener "Karwan", a slithery sprawling sludgey groove, the guitars thick and cloudy, the drums more of a slow motion tribal pulse than a rhythm, the main riff loping and woozy and druggy, the vocals laid back and weary, the whole thing sounding like it's being broadcast through a haze of pot smoke.
"The Path" is short and more delicate, the vocals and flutes way up front, but fiery guitars buzz just below the surface, the vibe almost folky, which perfectly segues into "Libation" a way more laid back space jam, the drums skittery and spare, the guitars spidery and crystalline, the vocals again buried in the mix, and a wicked psych blowout outro.
"Chicken Gun" was a live staple from the nineties, and features a bad ass main riff, lots of wah wah, thick distorted guitars, cool chanteuse like vocals, strange atonal flute freakouts, and a sound that just gets heavier and heavier and more dense as the track progresses. Finally, the record closes with "Silver Pavillion", another classic Bardo oldie, tripped out and dreamy and druggy, more krautrocky than anything, the guitars unfurling soft shimmery buzz, but again with an explosive climax, wild intense drumming, and some intense tangled psych guitar dueling. Total space rock / drone rock / krautrock nirvana.
Weirdly, the vinyl is limited to 1640 copies, while the cd-only version is limited to a mere 350 copies, so those will most likely be gone before the lps. But heck, you might as well buy the lp, since not only does it ALSO come with a cd anyway, it comes in a gorgeous ultra heavy, super swank and super deluxe gatefold jacket!
MPEG Stream: "Karwan"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Pavilion"

BARDO POND s/t (Fire) cd 16.98
We've long been fans of Bardo Pond, but this new record definitely took a few listens to get into. The response everyone seemed to have was "this sounds really WAY out of tune", and it does, sort of. Right from the outset, the group unfurl some woozy warbly strummy twang flecked psych folk, the strings buzzing and tangling, the melodies, shifting and intertwining, the vocals sounding sort of out of sync with the music, the bassline warped and underwater sounding, the drums an abstract scatter of beats, but as that first song continues, the vocals sink into the mire, harmonica begins to wheeze, the sounds of birds (?) surface, and the guitars, gradually grow more and more intense, first smoldering, before gradually catching fire, and finally exploding, and then the band are KILLING it, a huge squall of swirling, super distorted, wild and loose and chaotic druggy droned out psych guitar freakout, the drums pounding, everything twisted and sprawling and lit from within like some sort of sonic supernova, revealing the group's true purpose, the vocals returning, now sounding perfect, multitracked and nestled within the coruscating sheets of crumbling distortion and pealing blown out leads. The sort of epic dreamlike drugged out jam you never want to end. And that's how the band introduce their latest full length, their self titled their eighth proper full length, nearly two decades into their career, and they still sound as loose and free and psychedelic and heavy as ever. If not more so.
The rest of the record follows suit, "Don't Know About You" launches into a thick crusty chunky bit of riffage, the vocals witchy and snarly, the perfect match for the group's super distorted groove, everything still wreathed in streaks of effects and guitarnoise, and like the track before it, blossoming into some seriously heady psychedelia, surprisingly melodic too, the guitar tone epic, thick and blown out, almost Kyuss-y, that same sort of fuzz and crunch, and the more we listen, the more this sounds like BP at their most songy, sure most of the record is spent unfurling epic space out mega jams, but they're wrapped around dirgey downer pop, some weird hybrid of the Stooges, the Velvets and Crazy Horse, but dosed and doused and let loose, to billow up in great clouds of heaviness, of swirling trippiness. "Sleeping" offers a little respite, all hazy acoustic guitars and warm fluttering flutes, some woozy, acid folk drift, but it's not long before the band launch into the 21 minute "Undone", a warbly slow build, backwards guitars and angelic vox, all over simple folk strum, the track gradually expanding, the drums not even entering the picture until more than halfway through, but when they do, and the guitars finally let loose, it's glorious, the vocals crooning beneath clouds of lightning bolt guitar, and jagged shards of effects drenched melody.
"Cracker Wrist" might be the heaviest of the bunch, but it starts out deceivingly dreamy, all layered drones and gauzy shimmer, but after a few minutes, the riffs come fast and furious, locked tight with the pounding drums, a mesmerizing bit of krauty drone rock heaviness, again the guitars going wild, and wrapping everything in tangles of melody and fragmented drug drenched shred. "The Stars Behind" is another ballady number, but it wouldn't be BP if it too wasn't eventually enveloped by ropy blasts of grinding guitars, and soaring sheets of blown out psych swirl, the record finally finishing off with the comparatively tame "Wayne's Tune", all warbly melodies, angular guitars, shuffling drums, no big build, no explosive catharsis, instead, just hazy and droney and dreamily druggy.
After some initial (and unfounded it seems) trepidation, this is turning out to be one of the best Bardo Pond records in ages. Killer, very metal, cover art too, all black and silver with some strange black shapes and a new spidery drippy BP metal style logo!
MPEG Stream: "Just Once"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Know About You"
MPEG Stream: "Undone"

BARDO POND s/t (Fire) 2lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL!! (In case you missed it on our Vinyl A-M inbetween list last week...)
We've long been fans of Bardo Pond, but this new record definitely took a few listens to get into. The response everyone seemed to have was "this sounds really WAY out of tune", and it does, sort of. Right from the outset, the group unfurl some woozy warbly strummy twang flecked psych folk, the strings buzzing and tangling, the melodies, shifting and intertwining, the vocals sounding sort of out of sync with the music, the bassline warped and underwater sounding, the drums an abstract scatter of beats, but as that first song continues, the vocals sink into the mire, harmonica begins to wheeze, the sounds of birds (?) surface, and the guitars, gradually grow more and more intense, first smoldering, before gradually catching fire, and finally exploding, and then the band are KILLING it, a huge squall of swirling, super distorted, wild and loose and chaotic druggy droned out psych guitar freakout, the drums pounding, everything twisted and sprawling and lit from within like some sort of sonic supernova, revealing the group's true purpose, the vocals returning, now sounding perfect, multitracked and nestled within the coruscating sheets of crumbling distortion and pealing blown out leads. The sort of epic dreamlike drugged out jam you never want to end. And that's how the band introduce their latest full length, their self titled their eighth proper full length, nearly two decades into their career, and they still sound as loose and free and psychedelic and heavy as ever. If not more so.
The rest of the record follows suit, "Don't Know About You" launches into a thick crusty chunky bit of riffage, the vocals witchy and snarly, the perfect match for the group's super distorted groove, everything still wreathed in streaks of effects and guitarnoise, and like the track before it, blossoming into some seriously heady psychedelia, surprisingly melodic too, the guitar tone epic, thick and blown out, almost Kyuss-y, that same sort of fuzz and crunch, and the more we listen, the more this sounds like BP at their most songy, sure most of the record is spent unfurling epic space out mega jams, but they're wrapped around dirgey downer pop, some weird hybrid of the Stooges, the Velvets and Crazy Horse, but dosed and doused and let loose, to billow up in great clouds of heaviness, of swirling trippiness. "Sleeping" offers a little respite, all hazy acoustic guitars and warm fluttering flutes, some woozy, acid folk drift, but it's not long before the band launch into the 21 minute "Undone", a warbly slow build, backwards guitars and angelic vox, all over simple folk strum, the track gradually expanding, the drums not even entering the picture until more than halfway through, but when they do, and the guitars finally let loose, it's glorious, the vocals crooning beneath clouds of lightning bolt guitar, and jagged shards of effects drenched melody.
"Cracker Wrist" might be the heaviest of the bunch, but it starts out deceivingly dreamy, all layered drones and gauzy shimmer, but after a few minutes, the riffs come fast and furious, locked tight with the pounding drums, a mesmerizing bit of krauty drone rock heaviness, again the guitars going wild, and wrapping everything in tangles of melody and fragmented drug drenched shred. "The Stars Behind" is another ballady number, but it wouldn't be BP if it too wasn't eventually enveloped by ropy blasts of grinding guitars, and soaring sheets of blown out psych swirl, the record finally finishing off with the comparatively tame "Wayne's Tune", all warbly melodies, angular guitars, shuffling drums, no big build, no explosive catharsis, instead, just hazy and droney and dreamily druggy.
After some initial (and unfounded it seems) trepidation, this is turning out to be one of the best Bardo Pond records in ages. Killer, very metal, cover art too, all black and silver with some strange black shapes and a new spidery drippy BP metal style logo!
MPEG Stream: "Just Once"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Know About You"
MPEG Stream: "Undone"

BARDO POND Selections : Volumes I-IV (ATP Recordings) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hard to believe Bardo Pond has been around for over 15 years, and even harder to believe that they continue to create slab after slab of gorgeous drug soaked psychedelia far better than their more well known and more prolific psychedelic brethren. The tracks on Selections were culled from a series of cd-r's recorded and released over the last 5 years or so, and sold only on tour, not proper records per se, but more snapshots of works in progress, songs in the early stages, random recordings from the practice space and all manner of sonic experiments. Which is maybe why this stuff sounds so visceral and intense. Druggy hippy blues guitar, lazy and languorous with shuffling simple percussion over slow flowing waves of buzzing distortion, thick layered drones and swirling psychedelic swoosh. Occasional melodies materialize as ethereal flute drifts by like smoke from a hookah. Bursts of chaotic and stumbling propulsive space-psych dissipate into haunting and slow building ambient post rock epics a la Mogwai or Godspeed, occasionally stretching out into simple and insistent reverb soaked Krautrock style jams. All these musical ideas and almost-songs nestle within thick washes of cascading feedback and sheets of dreamy wah guitar. We kind of wish they had decided to make this a quadruple cd instead of a double, as this collects only about half of the material on the original cd-rs, but even so, this is most definitely some of the most mind blowing, soul soothing psychedelic space rock you're likely to hear EVER.
MPEG Stream: "Sit Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "Cymbals"

BARDO POND Slab (Three Lobed Recordings) 10" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ten-inch vinyl-only release from these Philadelphia psychedelic rockers. Three songs: "Off The Prepice","Hit", and "The Deak". Limited and numbered, 500 made, silkscreened sleeves, very stoned.

BARDO POND Ticket Crystals (ATP Recordings) cd 15.98
Wow! Somehow Bardo Pond just keep getting better and better and with Ticket Crystals we're pretty dang sure they've made their best record yet! Everything we love about Bardo Pond all wrapped up in one surprisingly coherent album. Expansive guitars, dusty clouds of sonic whir, grungy outbursts, spaced out jams, metallic undertones, deep in the woods folk wanderings (yes, of course there's ultra warm flute on display!), and some mysterious pop sensibility to boot! Ticket Crystals is to Bardo Pond what Feathers was to Dead Meadow, the perfect culmination of years of songcraft and sonic experimentation resulting in both bands best records ever. Fans of Dead Meadow will indeed eat this up (some folks here think this record might even top all time AQ fave Feathers) as will long time BP fans. And any one into the whole blown out psych rock thing, a la Loop, Spacemen 3, Telescopes, etc, NEED THIS. How the heck you missed out on Bardo Pond in the first place we'll never know but c'mon, dig in!!
Ticket Crystals is the kind of record that you can get completely lost in, a wild dreamlike psychedelia that pulls you in deeper and deeper as it unravels. A slow burning spacerock equal parts drone and drift. A record that manages to be totally heavy, beautifully abstract, completely catchy and so so lovely all at the same time. SO RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: "Destroying Angel"
MPEG Stream: "Isle"
MPEG Stream: "Moonshine"

BARDO POND Yntra (Latitudes) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The latest in the ongoing Latitudes series, in which bands pop into Southern Studios in the UK and capture a session live to tape, comes from long time aQ faves, Philly psychedelic space rockers Bardo Pond. And while lots of Latitudes releases are anxiously anticipated, often from the second they're announced (which is often months and months before they're released), we can't remember one that had people in as much of a tizzy as this one. But the wait was well worth it. Three extended jams, everything we love about these guys (and gal) present and accounted for, brooding hypno rock mesmer, churning squalls of psychedelic guitar noise, driving rhythms, swirling ethereal vox, all blurred into heaving expanses of dense, droned out psychedelia. Opener "The Cawl" finds the band immediately launching into a sprawl of heady kraut-psych, the guitars whipping up clouds of caustic crunch and swirling layered riffage, there is a groove, but it seems to bleed into something much more amorphous, wreathed in tangles of distortion and melody, all smeared into a drone-like churn, anchored by some kick ass drumming, over which ghostly vocals drift and shimmer. Like all the best BP jams, it could have stretched out way longer than its 7 minutes.
The second track, "Side To Side" is a bit more riffy, with some swagger to it, seeming to channel Flower Travellin' Band, Hawkwind and Godspeed, all soaring and epic and bit swaggery, with a crazy catchy vocal refrain, and a lurching almost doomy groove, as the track progresses the guitars get a bit more wild, and the vocals drift to the fore, but that roiling main riff drive the track throughout, very metallic mantra like.
And finally, the session ends with the epic 20+ minute "A Crossing", which is of course where a band like Bardo Pond really shine, and shine they do, stretching out a softly psychedelic, ethereally propulsive space psych sprawl, the drums skittery and loose, the bulk of the track multiple guitars swirling and cascading, coalescing into proper riffs, but just as quickly dissipating into whirling clouds of ambient psychedelic shimmer and prismatic sonic swirls. The track manages to be gloriously dynamic as well, the band building up to some serious sonic heft, the guitars exploding into wild tangles, the drums pounding away, but always slipping right back into a more mesmerizing, woozily rhythmic soft psych tranced out krautgroove, and even at 20 minutes, WAY too short.
As always, most definitely recommended for fans of White Hills, The Heads, Carlton Melton, 3 Leafs, and similarly minded psychedelic space rock explorers.
Packaged as usual in that distinctive Latitudes packaging. Both the lp and cd in a brown and white origami style sleeve, with a cool silver metallic embossed print on the front, the vinyl with a super elaborate die cut cover, and a full color insert inside with liner notes. BOTH LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "The Cawl"
MPEG Stream: "A Crossing"

BARDO POND Yntra (Latitudes) lp 32.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The latest in the ongoing Latitudes series, in which bands pop into Southern Studios in the UK and capture a session live to tape, comes from long time aQ faves, Philly psychedelic space rockers Bardo Pond. And while lots of Latitudes releases are anxiously anticipated, often from the second they're announced (which is often months and months before they're released), we can't remember one that had people in as much of a tizzy as this one. But the wait was well worth it. Three extended jams, everything we love about these guys (and gal) present and accounted for, brooding hypno rock mesmer, churning squalls of psychedelic guitar noise, driving rhythms, swirling ethereal vox, all blurred into heaving expanses of dense, droned out psychedelia. Opener "The Cawl" finds the band immediately launching into a sprawl of heady kraut-psych, the guitars whipping up clouds of caustic crunch and swirling layered riffage, there is a groove, but it seems to bleed into something much more amorphous, wreathed in tangles of distortion and melody, all smeared into a drone-like churn, anchored by some kick ass drumming, over which ghostly vocals drift and shimmer. Like all the best BP jams, it could have stretched out way longer than its 7 minutes.
The second track, "Side To Side" is a bit more riffy, with some swagger to it, seeming to channel Flower Travellin' Band, Hawkwind and Godspeed, all soaring and epic and bit swaggery, with a crazy catchy vocal refrain, and a lurching almost doomy groove, as the track progresses the guitars get a bit more wild, and the vocals drift to the fore, but that roiling main riff drive the track throughout, very metallic mantra like.
And finally, the session ends with the epic 20+ minute "A Crossing", which is of course where a band like Bardo Pond really shine, and shine they do, stretching out a softly psychedelic, ethereally propulsive space psych sprawl, the drums skittery and loose, the bulk of the track multiple guitars swirling and cascading, coalescing into proper riffs, but just as quickly dissipating into whirling clouds of ambient psychedelic shimmer and prismatic sonic swirls. The track manages to be gloriously dynamic as well, the band building up to some serious sonic heft, the guitars exploding into wild tangles, the drums pounding away, but always slipping right back into a more mesmerizing, woozily rhythmic soft psych tranced out krautgroove, and even at 20 minutes, WAY too short.
As always, most definitely recommended for fans of White Hills, The Heads, Carlton Melton, 3 Leafs, and similarly minded psychedelic space rock explorers.
Packaged as usual in that distinctive Latitudes packaging. Both the lp and cd in a brown and white origami style sleeve, with a cool silver metallic embossed print on the front, the vinyl with a super elaborate die cut cover, and a full color insert inside with liner notes. BOTH LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "The Cawl"
MPEG Stream: "A Crossing"

BARDO POND + TOM CARTER 4/23/03 (Three Lobed Recordings) 2lp 28.00
Originally released in 2004 on cd and long out of print, this killer collaboration between Charalambides guitarist Tom Carter and Philly psychedelic space rockers Bardo Pond finally gets the deluxe vinyl reissue treatment, which includes a bonus track not on the original cd version. And, as well, it now comes with a bonus cd containing a live set recorded just days after this record was recorded.
The sound here is about as epic and awesome as you might expect, but what you might not expect is there are no psychedelic freakouts, each sidelong track is not a slow build to a heavy super rocking climax, instead, Carter and Bardo Pond explore a sound much more dirgey and bluesy and droney, smoldering and darkly propulsive, the music organic and alive, constantly shifting, and definitely dynamic, but more meditative and hypnotic. The first track sets the mood the multiple guitars all piling on tangles and spidery melodies, deftly woven into something much more raga-like, droney and mesmerizing, a sort of slow burn late nigh jam session vibe which suits both parties perfectly.
The B side is even more murky and minimal, abstract and atmospheric, super spacey and dreamily psychedelic, lush layered drones shift and shimmer, the band drifting druggily through space, which leads right into side C, also muted and minimal, but this time laced with some awesome processed psych guitar filigree, little swoops and shards, all beneath hazy ethereal vocals (their first appearance) and fluttering flute, the sound here the most Bardo Pond-like of the bunch, with Carter sounding right at home (so much so that it's hard to tell which guitar player is which). The final side is the most hushed and laid back of the bunch, meditative and tranquil, a sort of drifty dark folk, skeletal and softly reverbed, the song just shimmers contemplatively, total late night, come down psych drone bliss for sure.
The packaging is gorgeous, fancy two color silkscreened heavy jackets, included is a download coupon, and the live cd in its own sleeve with its own cover. LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!

BARDO POND / 500MG / DECHEMIA / TAKEDA Sublimation (Three Lobed Recordings) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is not a Bardo Pond record proper (although this disc does include one lengthy Bardo Pond track), but instead is a cd collecting some Bardo Pond related outings by various members and offshoots of this Philly psych rock combo, released as a special limited edition to celebrate the recent Terrastock 6 festival held in April in Rhode Island. Sublimation features all new music from Bardo Pond and Bardo satellites 500mg, Dechemia and Takeda.
We can't get enough of fuzzy soft focus druggy spacescapes and Bardo Pond as always deliver just that with the epic 17 minute long "Dual States", a slow burn, blissed out meander, shuffling rhythms, and all sorts of tangled effects-drenched guitars, a warm wash of tripped out loveliness. 500mg, who you might remember from a super limited 12" we carried a while back, is Michael Gibbons on guitars and effects, and explores a much more abstract world of sound, here it's a thick wall of crumbling distorted guitars, fuzzy intercepted radio broadcasts that drifts and breaks apart into soft tendrils of dreamy sunbaked guitar sparkle and warm warbly low end, a washed out shimmery swirl of Sonny Sharrock, Kyuss and Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain". Dechemia is Isobel Sollenberger and John Gibbons and their 4 minute track is a brief gypsy raga, shuffling percussion, simple Eastern guitars, and droning Tony Conrad like violins (played impressively by Sollenberger who usually handles the flute in BP!). So lovely. Finally, a twenty minute track from BP guitarist Clint Takeda, a massive, lumbering, rumbling slow burn, thick distorted guitar, spread out in a thick layer of barely shifting, resonating shimmer, peppered with brief stretches of soft melodic whisper, but for the most part a thick flow of throb and crunch, rumble and keen, mumbled vocals and murky riffs surface, but are quickly dismantled, and stretched out to become more layers, in Takeda's tarpit symphony. Awesome.
Limited to 500 copies, most of which were sold at Terrastock, but we managed to get a bunch for the store, although it's unlikely we'll be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: 500MG "Descent"
MPEG Stream: BARDO POND "Dual States (For HST)"

BARDO POND / BUCK PACO Bog / Pushed Out Into The Sun (split) (Black September Press) 12" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ultra limited, LP only, space-psych match up between Philadelphia's masters of druggy space rock and Detroit's psych sludge outfit Buck Paco. Bardo Pond are on fire here, heavy and huge and super intense, a blurry, dense, buzzy, drugged out, psych-space freakout. Super distorted and dizzyingly shambolic and so utterly divine. Spiky tendrils of squirming feedback, droning buzz guitar, simple motorik drumming, all slithering and convulsing, before about halfway through everything slows down to lurching acid drenched krautrockiness, pounding and pulsing, beneath tangled squalls of freak-psych guitars. Definitely one of the 'Pond's wildest and heaviest recordings.
We had never heard of Buck Paco before, but they manage to kick up quite a shitstorm. A murky and drone-y and relentless dirge, with an ultra distorted, repetitive rhythm beaneath churning rumbles and a creepy minor key guitar figure looped and repeated endlessly. The second half of Buck Paco's side (just noticed both bands start with BP, and they sound a bit similar, could Buck Paco actually BE Bardo Pond? Hmmm....) does away with the drums completely, or at the very least buries them way way back in the mix, adds a bit of sitar, and turns their drone-y sludge into some sort of free-guitar-psych / Appalachian folk hybrid, with strange distorted melodies over simple strums and mournful riffing, all smothered in layers of amp buzz, tape hiss and instrument hum. Pressed on 140 gram virgin vinyl, packaged in beautiful hand screened covers and limited to 600 copies!

BARDO POND / CARLTON MELTON split (Agitated) lp 15.98
BACK IN STOCK!!!
What we said last year on list 388 when we made this a Record Of The Week: One of two splits on this week's list from local psychedelic space rockers and aQ faves Carlton Melton, both amazingly appropriate team-ups. The other one is a super limited 7" with UK space rockers Mugstar [sorry, out of print now], and then there's this, a vinyl-only split with legendary Phillie psych rockers Bardo Pond, who prove to be the perfect match for Carlton Melton slow burning laid back psychedelic drift.
CM's side-long "Slow Growth" (a title by way of an early AQ Carlton Melton review by our very own Scott) definitely describes CM's sidelong jam here, easily one of their best, and most musically cohesive, finding sharp sonic focus even amidst the seemingly freeform drift, the track beginning as a soft hazy swirl, softly churning guitars over what sounds like whipping wind, the vibe tense and ominous and darkly dreamy, it takes a few minutes for the song proper to kick in, but when it does, the guitars immediately swoop in and distort, blossoming into massive crumbling swells, heaving and howling over delicate crystalline strum and simple propulsive motorik drumming. The drums eventually drop out, leaving the sound to slowly implode, growing muddier and murkier, stretched way out into muted drones, laced with shards of feedback and little fragmented melodies, all before another slow build, back into a seriously dense sonic squall, still muted and murky, but seriously black hole dense, a roiling cloud of blackened psych, which billows wildly until the drums gradually return, offering a rhythmic anchor and guiding the track to its final resting place.
Bardo Pond counter with one of the best tracks we've heard from them, the sound fierce and epic and lush and SO heavy, launching immediately into a gorgeous sprawl of free form psychedelia, clouds of swirling guitars, tangled melodies, the drums loose and free and awesomely wild, but still managing to somehow hold everything together, but just barely. The vibe is blissed out and druggy, it's the sort of jam, that could go on forever, and sort of does, and is somehow simultaneously static and hypnotic, but also impossibly active and constantly shifting, a swirl of melodies and textures, the guitars unleashing some seriously kick ass leads, filling the sky with sonic contrails and swirling chordal clouds, the flute shows up late, and flutters subtly beneath the ever intensifying guitar freakouts, the vocals come in even later, and then only briefly, but add the perfect sort of gauzy / ethereal vibe to the proceedings, the song seeming to just organically wind down, leaving us to imagine that somewhere else there's a version, that does in fact go on forever.
LIMITED TO 800 COPIES!!!

BARDO POND / PRE Keep Mother Split (Fire) 10" 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BARDO POND / TOM CARTER 4/23/03 (3 Lobed) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BARE WIRES Artificial Clouds (Tic Tac Totally) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
First long player from Bare Wires, a band best known around these parts for being the OTHER band of the guy from Snake Flower 2, whose recent full length knocked us on our asses with it's wild hybrid of distorted garage rock and drone-y druggy FX drenched space rock. Bare Wires are a whole different beast, less heavy, less spacey, but way more poppy, and garage-y, and thankfully equally as catchy. Where SF2 reminded us of a garage rock Hawkwind or Monster Magnet, Bare Wires are all classic garage and power pop, but with just enough of that modern warp-age to keep it interesting.
Record opener "Artificial Clouds" pretty much sets the tone, and in the process, sets itself up as another contender for jam of the year, total tripped out effects wrapped around some seriously rocking lo-fi twisted garage noise pop, with some incredible guitar parts and a main hook to die for. A record full of tracks like this should have Thee Oh Sees, the Fresh & Onlys and the rest of that crowd sweating it big time. And that's exactly what this is, hooky, jangly, melodic, frenetic, catchy as fuck, a little spacey and druggy for sure, but way more heavy on the classic power pop and sixties garage jangle, which is just fine by us!

BARE WIRES Artificial Clouds (+) (Southpaw) cassette 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW AVAILABLE ON CASSETTE! With TWO bonus tracks, not on the lp...
First long player from Bare Wires, a band best known around these parts for being the OTHER band of the guy from Snake Flower 2, whose recent full length knocked us on our asses with its wild hybrid of distorted garage rock and drone-y druggy FX drenched space rock. Bare Wires are a whole different beast, less heavy, less spacey, but way more poppy, and garage-y, and thankfully equally as catchy. Where SF2 reminded us of a garage rock Hawkwind or Monster Magnet, Bare Wires are all classic garage and power pop, but with just enough of that modern warp-age to keep it interesting.
Record opener "Artificial Clouds" pretty much sets the tone, and in the process, sets itself up as another contender for jam of the year, total tripped out effects wrapped around some seriously rocking lo-fi twisted garage noise pop, with some incredible guitar parts and a main hook to die for. A record full of tracks like this should have Thee Oh Sees, the Fresh & Onlys and the rest of that crowd sweating it big time. And that's exactly what this is, hooky, jangly, melodic, frenetic, catchy as fuck, a little spacey and druggy for sure, but way more heavy on the classic power pop and sixties garage jangle, which is just fine by us!

BARE WIRES Cheap Perfume (Southpaw) 10" 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest blast of kick ass hook heavy garage pop from Mr. Matthew Melton and company, and it's another doozy, ditching the reverb and low fidelity that so many of their sonic brethren rely on, in favor of some KILLER songs, as well as a sound and production that sounds like it was transported here direct from the sixties. Opener "Don't Ever Change" was the A side of a single we were never able to get, and it's an impossible (and impossibly kick ass!) blend of glammy T.Rex stomp, fuzzy sixties pop and Beach Boys surf rock, all crunchy jangly guitars, lots of oooh's and aaah's, a hook to die for, and some super strange production with the second guitar swooping in from one channel, way louder than the rest of the mix, adding a strange bit of psychedelia to the proceedings. Once we got past that first track (after listening to it about a million times), the rest of the record unfolded similarly, Melton's knack for conjuring up classic pop unmatched these days, and the sound, we can't help but think we're listening to some lost collection of sixties Nuggets or something. As always, regardless of the sound, or the production, it's all about the songs, and BW are tough to beat when it comes to classic hooks, just check out the title track, fuzzy, jangly, a little bit surfy, a little bit rockabilly, bur pure pop at its core, and that coupled with the weird mix, the vocals panned hard right, the drums panned hard left, only makes it that much cooler and weirder. As the record progresses the sound gets a bit heavier, and the Who vibe that was all over past records resurfaces here big time (check out "Sweet Little Stranger), as does some Stoogesy swagger.
As always, killer stuff, and like with past records, we find ourselves not really wanting to listen to anything else!
MPEG Stream: "Don't Ever Change"
MPEG Stream: "Dirt Beach"
MPEG Stream: "Cheap Perfume"

BARE WIRES Cheap Perfume (Southpaw) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Recently listed on 10" vinyl, NOW ALSO ON CD-R (not sure why it's not a proper cd, but alas, it's not...)
Latest blast of kick ass hook heavy garage pop from Mr. Matthew Melton and company, and it's another doozy, ditching the reverb and low fidelity that so many of their sonic brethren rely on, in favor of some KILLER songs, as well as a sound and production that sounds like it was transported here direct from the sixties. Opener "Don't Ever Change" was the A side of a single we were never able to get, and it's an impossible (and impossibly kick ass!) blend of glammy T.Rex stomp, fuzzy sixties pop and Beach Boys surf rock, all crunchy jangly guitars, lots of oooh's and aaah's, a hook to die for, and some super strange production with the second guitar swooping in from one channel, way louder than the rest of the mix, adding a strange bit of psychedelia to the proceedings. Once we got past that first track (after listening to it about a million times), the rest of the record unfolded similarly, Melton's knack for conjuring up classic pop unmatched these days, and the sound, we can't help but think we're listening to some lost collection of sixties Nuggets or something. As always, regardless of the sound, or the production, it's all about the songs, and BW are tough to beat when it comes to classic hooks, just check out the title track, fuzzy, jangly, a little bit surfy, a little bit rockabilly, bur pure pop at its core, and that coupled with the weird mix, the vocals panned hard right, the drums panned hard left, only makes it that much cooler and weirder. As the record progresses the sound gets a bit heavier, and the Who vibe that was all over past records resurfaces here big time (check out "Sweet Little Stranger), as does some Stoogesy swagger.
As always, killer stuff, and like with past records, we find ourselves not really wanting to listen to anything else!

BARE WIRES Let Down (Milk 'n' Hepes Records) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We all went so totally crazy for Snake Flower 2, so we were psyched to discover that the dude from SF2 had another band, a more old school garage rock combo called Bare Wires, which as we might have expected, is just as kick ass. Imagine SF2 with less of a Hawkwind / Monster Magnet vibe, and more of a Lyres / Gories sort of sixties garage vibe. Jangly, lo-fi garage punk with lots of jangle guitars, reverbed snotty vox, simple stripped down rhythms, and best of all some super blown out, in-the-red psychedelic leads, so loud they nearly blot out the rest of the song.
The flipside is way more poppy, a sweet slice of classic AM radio power pop jangle, lo-fi, and sing songy, catchy as hell, still stripped down, but less distorted and more melodic. Folks into current garage rock revival weirdos like Thee Oh Sees and the Fresh & Onlys will definitely dig this, same overall sonic vibe, just way more fuzzed out and retro and genuinely garage-y.

BARE WIRES Seeking Love (Castle Face) cd 13.98
We love Matthew Melton, we love his Band Snake Flower 2, and we love these guys, Bare Wires. Melton is a master of pop songs, no matter how they're presented, whether as the druggy heavy Hawkwind / Monster Magnet space rock of Snake Flower 2, or the classic sixties garage jangle of Bare Wires, every song is perfectly crafted, melodic, catchy as fuck, super rocking. Even totally stripped down the songs get lodged in your head like crazy.
So here's the latest from Bare Wires, and Melton and Co.'s influences are even more obviously on display this time around, the Kinks, the Who, the Flamin' Groovies, classic seventies power pop, the Shoes, the Nerves, the Diodes, all bands we've referenced before with Melton, but considering how many modern retro garage rock outfits there are, it's a little fascinating that so many rely more on sound and production and attitude and vibe, than on songcraft, so when someone is approaching garage rock with impeccable songcraft, well, it doesn't take much to leave the rest of those bands in the dust, which these guys most certainly do.
On Seeking love, not only are the songs great, but the sound and the production seem totally vintage, if you played this for some garage rock collector and told them this was some lost 7" from some unknown group in the seventies, they would absolutely buy it. And the thing is, the sound suits the song. Sure, someone could have recorded these songs on a boombox, and run the whole thing through a million distortion boxes, and buried the vocals in reverb, and mastered it so all the levels were WAY in the red, and the legions of modern warped garage pop obsessive would be flipping their lids, but at the risk of sounding like your mother, why go to such lengths to disguise a fantastic song, and fuck all that noise, any on can spit out some generic by the numbers rock and roll, and fuck it up enough that it sounds twisted and far out and innovative, and probably people won't notice the lack of songs, but with a batch of songs this catchy, and groovy and jangly and goddamn great, well nothing to do but strap on the headphones and rock the fuck out!
MPEG Stream: "Seeking Love"
MPEG Stream: "Young Love"
MPEG Stream: "Romantic Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Family Heat"

BARE WIRES Seeking Love (Castle Face) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We love Matthew Melton, we love his Band Snake Flower 2, and we love these guys, Bare Wires. Melton is a master of pop songs, no matter how they're presented, whether as the druggy heavy Hawkwind / Monster Magnet space rock of Snake Flower 2, or the classic sixties garage jangle of Bare Wires, every song is perfectly crafted, melodic, catchy as fuck, super rocking. Even totally stripped down the songs get lodged in your head like crazy.
So here's the latest from Bare Wires, and Melton and Co.'s influences are even more obviously on display this time around, the Kinks, the Who, the Flamin' Groovies, classic seventies power pop, the Shoes, the Nerves, the Diodes, all bands we've referenced before with Melton, but considering how many modern retro garage rock outfits there are, it's a little fascinating that so many rely more on sound and production and attitude and vibe, than on songcraft, so when someone is approaching garage rock with impeccable songcraft, well, it doesn't take much to leave the rest of those bands in the dust, which these guys most certainly do.
On Seeking love, not only are the songs great, but the sound and the production seem totally vintage, if you played this for some garage rock collector and told them this was some lost 7" from some unknown group in the seventies, they would absolutely buy it. And the thing is, the sound suits the song. Sure, someone could have recorded these songs on a boombox, and run the whole thing through a million distortion boxes, and buried the vocals in reverb, and mastered it so all the levels were WAY in the red, and the legions of modern warped garage pop obsessive would be flipping their lids, but at the risk of sounding like your mother, why go to such lengths to disguise a fantastic song, and fuck all that noise, any on can spit out some generic by the numbers rock and roll, and fuck it up enough that it sounds twisted and far out and innovative, and probably people won't notice the lack of songs, but with a batch of songs this catchy, and groovy and jangly and goddamn great, well nothing to do but strap on the headphones and rock the fuck out!
MPEG Stream: "Seeking Love"
MPEG Stream: "Young Love"
MPEG Stream: "Romantic Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Family Heat"

BARE WIRES Young Love Keep Your Cool (Southpaw) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another blast of killer garage-y power pop from Oakland's Bare Wires, whose lp Artificial Clouds we raved about a while back (which was reissued on TAPE, and is reviewed elsewhere on this list) and which just so happens to be the work of the same guy behind Snake Flower 2, who were responsible for one of our favorite records of the last few years...
Anyway, these two short sharp bursts of jangle and twang are total sunshine-y old school power pop, sounding like they were transported straight from the early eighties, heck the late seventies, these two jams could just as easily have come off one of those Yellow Pills comps, Dwight Twilley Band, The Only Ones, the Nerves, The Flamin' Groovies, the Diodes, gone is much of the garagey grit and grime, although the sound is still rough around the edges, but both tracks here sound totally classic and vintage. Bouncy and hooky, jangly and catchy, killer guitar melodies, dreamy vocals, the B side is even poppier, with a distinctly sixties pop vibe, super stripped down, still jangly, revved up a bit it could be a lost Ramones Bside, but strip it even further down and it's some classic jukebox jam. So awesome. Surprised Bare Wires (and Snake Flower 2 for that matter), haven't yet been pegged as the next big thing. We can't imagine that time is very far off though...

BARK HAZE s/t (Important) lp 14.98

BARK HAZE, THE Total Joke Era (Important Records) cd 14.98
While you just blinked or checked your email or watched some clips on YouTube, Thurston Moore released another record! Just kidding, but really, Moore shows no signs of slowing down his prolific pace, but as long as he keeps coming up with records as pretty and stoned sounding as this, we're not even the slightest bit anxious for him to slow down. Teamed up with Andrew Macgregor of Gown, they use their guitars to create gorgeously languid, slow shifting sonic landscapes reminiscent of Loren Mazzacane Connors, Roy Montgomery or that great Tom Carter / Bardo Pond collaboration from a few years back. Two long tracks that slowly unfold, beautifully and delicately...
Fans of Sonic Youth's more wandering and sprawling guitar passages will find much to love here. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Total Joke Era One"
MPEG Stream: "Total Joke Era Two"

BARK PSYCHOSIS Hex (Vinilisssimo) lp 27.00
This is an album that should have been huge, or at least an album that should sit next to Slint's Spiderland or My Bloody Valentine's Loveless as a seminal record from the early '90s. In fact, this was THE record that inspired music critic Simon Reynolds to first coin the term 'post-rock', when reviewing this record back in the day. But as it happened, Bark Psychosis was perhaps three or four years ahead of the curve, with Tortoise really stealing all of Bark Psychosis' thunder through the sculpted sounds melded by exquisite engineering, spacious arrangements, and careful consideration of forms past (e.g. that aforementioned Slint album, Miles Davis' more contemplative moments, and for Bark Psychosis, the latter day Talk Talk albums). Bark Psychosis also disbanded shortly after the release of Hex, which never really helped their cause in achieving greatness through this record.
That said, the band's beginnings were quite interesting, as they started out aping Napalm Death, whose short blasts of grindcore are the absolute antithesis of what Bark Psychosis would be known for - subtle, quiet, and beautiful scores of nocturnal music. Where their first handful of singles (which were later collected on the Independency compilation) pushed a post-punk intensity that was considerably effective (and still miles away from Napalm Death), they reached a whole new level on Hex with a lush atmospheric moodiness that's quite special.
A somber piano interlude starts the album off on "The Loom" which shifts into dubbed out orchestration for strings, electronics, and Graham Sutton's emphatic whisper of a voice. "A Street Scene" opens with one of those intricate bass / guitar concoctions that Pinback would lay out on Blue Screen Life, but with more of a cinematic, noirish approach to the construction of a sad pop-tune. "Fingerspit" opens with a graceful Durutti Column-esque melody settling on top of a slinky, deconstructed rhythm section skitter for piano, bass, and drums that erupts with a very Slint like jangled chord emphasizing Sutton's maudlin vocals. The bright ringing guitars cycle through a hypnotic chord on "Eyes & Smiles" as the rest of the band builds the tension upon Necks-style rhythmic crescendo. For all of the jazz conceits on the album, Bark Psychosis never faltered like so many of the British post-punks who attempted to dabble in the cool waters of jazz (e.g. Dif Juz, A.R. Kane, etc.), and it's pretty much because they realized that they needed to keep it as simple as possible in terms of the flourishes and let the complications speak through their songwriting and not a desire to jam. Yeah, it's an album that's definitely a precursor to Tortoise's Millions Now Living Will Never Die and Village Of Savoonga's Score. Brilliant.
MPEG Stream: "The Loom"
MPEG Stream: "A Street Scene"
MPEG Stream: "Eyes & Smiles"

BARKER, KEVIN You And Me (Gnomonsong) cd 13.98
Former Currituck Co. frontman Kevin Barker's debut release under his own name marks a slightly different direction for the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter. For the last few years, he's been a phenomenal touring musician for Joanna Newsom (who lends a hand on piano and organ here), Vashti Bunyan and Vetiver. His past releases had more of a raw back porch quality, his vocals more urgent and less refined, but here he takes on a more laidback and expansive approach. The production is more lush and warm and his vocals have more of a soft and sweet quality similar in vibe to Vetiver, MV & EE or Cass McCombs, channeling that seventies West Coast sound. While it's a nice little record, the price of admission comes form the three included bonus tracks, which have more of a deeper epic folk quality than the breeziness of the songs on the album proper.
MPEG Stream: "I Will Fly"
MPEG Stream: "Ten Toes To Sister Sky (Bonus Track)"

BARKER, KEVIN You And Me (Gnomonsong) lp 13.98
Former Currituck Co. frontman Kevin Barker's debut release under his own name marks a slightly different direction for the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter. For the last few years, he's been a phenomenal touring musician for Joanna Newsom (who lends a hand on piano and organ here), Vashti Bunyan and Vetiver. His past releases had more of a raw back porch quality, his vocals more urgent and less refined, but here he takes on a more laidback and expansive approach. The production is more lush and warm and his vocals have more of a soft and sweet quality similar in vibe to Vetiver, MV & EE or Cass McCombs, channeling that seventies West Coast sound. While it's a nice little record, the price of admission comes form the three included bonus tracks, which have more of a deeper epic folk quality than the breeziness of the songs on the album proper.
MPEG Stream: "I Will Fly"
MPEG Stream: "Ten Toes To Sister Sky"

BARLOW / PETERSEN / WIVINUS The Transparent World (Hand/Eye) cd 14.98