Formed in 1991 in Philadelphia, PA, the enduring heavy psych specialists Bardo Pond have amassed a substantial and consistently rewarding discography on a variety of physical formats in the years since. A significant portion of that output is a series documenting assorted jam sessions; Volume 9 is the latest entry, available on vinyl with accompanying download card February 23 through Fire Records. The sounds captured will appeal to lovers of drone-friendly psych at its most raw and fans of stoner-sludge-doom at its most expansive. Noise hounds and La Monte Young heads should find much to dig, as well.
For this record, recorded by Bard Pond in 2005–2006 in their compound-studio-warehouse space The Lemur House in Philly, the band consisted of Isobel Sollenberger on flute and viola, John Gibbons on guitars, his brother Michael Gibbons on guitars and synth, and Michael Zanghi on drums and percussion. Known for his work with Kurt Vile and The War on Drugs, Zanghi is something of a guest collaborator here, deepening an already rigorous sonic approach.
Bardo Pond began documenting their sound with the self-released cassette Shone Like a Ton in 1992. Although Fire is the band’s current and longtime label (others have included Drunken Fish, Siltbreeze, Three Lobed Recordings, ATP Recordings, and Matador), much of their output has been assembled by the band themselves, in large part because they excel at raw outward bound abstraction rather than trad song variations and innovations. Structure is part of the Pond’s equation, but it never dominates and often fades into the background.
The band’s growth coincided with a sort of renaissance in self-releasing. During this period the CDr joined the cassette and lathe-cut vinyl as options for underground bands grappling with inspiration that exceeded the norms of music distribution. The series that continues with Volume 9 began in 2000 with a CDr titled (what else?) Vol. I. The first installment to get the vinyl treatment upon release was Volume 8 in 2018 (Vol. I, Vol. II, and Vol. 3 have been reissued on wax, all by Fire).
The promo text for Volume 9 cites that Bardo Pond’s attack is inspired in part by Hawkwind, Earth, and My Bloody Valentine; as the album progresses all three are discernible, though the dark atmosphere particularly strengthens the association to Earth and some of that band’s experimental doom contemporaries.
But the record’s first piece “Conjunctio” presents something of an acoustic undergirding amid the sustained resonances of gnawing distortion, along with the emergence of flute that’s way back in the mix. Eventually, these temperate elements get submerged by the layered amp rumble. The racket rises to a level that’s almost jet engine-like, plateaus, and then subsides like a departing spacecraft.
“The Nine Doubts” wastes no time rising back up as a swirling maelstrom of slow-motion scorch follows. As mentioned above, the contents of the series and this album are the byproduct of jam sessions, but the contents here avoid the bad connotations of those sort of undertakings, even as the two-part “War Is Over” (divided for vinyl) spreads out to nearly 25 minutes.
Instead of a mish-mash of mismatched, poorly executed ideas, there is focused determination to push their psych orientation, calm but serrated, as deep into the noise realm as possible. A comparison has been made to Pink Floyd, and it’s certainly there, but understand that it’s the Floyd that soundtracks the big explosion at the end of Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point. That’s nice. But “War Is Over” and Volume 9 as a whole pushes even further out. Even nicer, baby. Here’s hoping Bardo Pond extends this archival series to another nine volumes.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
