Tag: Pond Psychedelic Mango

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Pond Releases a Trippy and Contemplative Visual for “The Boys Are Killing Me”

I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering the acclaimed Perth, Australia-based sych pop act POND over the past few years. And as you may recall, the act, which is led by its mastermind, multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer Jay Watson, along with Nicholas Allbrook, Shiny Joe Ryan, Jamie Terry and Jamie Ireland released three albums —  2009’s Psychedelic Mango, 2010’s Frond and 2012’s Beard, Wives, Denim — that found the band’s moving from straightforward psych rock to a decidedly pop-leaning sound. 

Since then Watson and company have released a series of critically applauded albums, including 2017’s The Weather. Interestingly, The Weather continued the band’s ongoing collaboration with Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker — and a run of trippy yet accessible pop. 

Released earlier this year, the Perth-based JOVM mainstays latest effort Tasmania was conceived as a sort of sister missive to its immediate predecessor. Thematically, the album is a dejected and heartbroken meditation that touches upon planetary discord, water, machismo, shame, blame, responsibility, love, blame and empire. And while accurately capturing the undercurrent of the restless, anxious dread that many of us currently feel, the material rather than wallowing in self-pity, encourages the listener to celebrate the small things of life — frolicking in the ocean, rolling around in the grass, the sweet feeling of being in love and so on, while we still can. Over the past couple of months I wrote about, the expansive, Pink Floyd’ “Shine on You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V and VI-IX”-like  “Burnt Out Star,” and the shimmering, synth pop-led power ballad “Daisy,” a track that’s emotionally centered on the idea of bitterly retreating and licking one’s wounds before everything gets completely fucked up. 

“The Boys Are Killing Me,” Tasmania’s latest single continues on a similar vein as its most immediate predecessor, as it’s a slow-burning and atmospheric track centered around some dramatic and forceful, Phil Collins-like drumming, shimmering synths, plaintive vocals and a soaring and infectious hook. But at its core is an overwhelming sense of crushing defeat and an inability to move forward from it. The recently released video for  Tasmania’s new single was filmed by the band’s Jay Watson on Super 8 film while test band was touring across Sweden, the UK and France — with the video’s coda filmed by Julien Barbagallo and edited by Jamie Terry and the band. Interestingly, the video manages to be both trippy and contemplative, which evokes the eerie vibe of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Pond’s Bittersweet Ode to Small Pleasures When the World is Ending

Over the past handful of years of this site’s almost nine-year history, I’ve written quite a bit about the acclaimed psych pop act POND fronted by its Perth, Australia-based mastermind, multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer Jay Watson, along with Nicholas Allbrook, Shiny Joe Ryan, Jamie Terry and Jamie Ireland. With the project’s first three albums —  2009’s Psychedelic Mango, 2010’s Frond and 2012’s Beard, Wives, Denim found POND’s sound moving from straightforward psych rock to a decidedly pop leaning sound.

Since then, Watson and company have released a series of critically applauded albums include 2017’s The Weather, which both continued the project’s ongoing collaboration with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and further cemented the band’s reputation for crafting trippy yet accessible pop. Now, as you may recall, Watson and company released “Burnt Out Star,” the first bit of new material from the Perth Australia-based psych pop act in some time and the expansive track managed to nod a bit at at Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V and VI-IX” but centered around the aforementioned shimmering synths and propulsive beats, making it deceptively arena rock friendly. Interestingly, that track was informally, the first single off POND’s forthcoming album Tasmania, an album conceived as a sort of sister missive to its predecessor. 

Slated for a March 1, 2019 release through Interscope Records, the new album is reportedly a dejected and heartbroken meditation on planetary discord, water, machismo, shame, blame and responsibility, love, blame and empire. And while coasting on an undercurrent of the restless, anxious dread we’re all desperately feeling, the material instead of wallowing in self-pity also reportedly encourages the reader to celebrate the small things — frolicking in the ocean, rolling around in the grass, the sweet feeling of being in love and so on, while we still can. “Daisy,” the album’s latest single and opening track beings with a mournful string-led introduction, before the curtain is opened, and the track turns into a shimmering, synth pop-based, power ballad centered around a sinuous and propulsive bass line and Allbrook’s ethereal falsetto. The track sees Allbrook imagining his childhood friends and family in the Kimberly region in chains — whether rightfully so or not, is up to the listener; but the track toys with the idea of bitterly retreating to Tasmania to lick their wounds. But there’s also the recognition of retreating just before everything gets fucked up beyond recognition. 

Directed by Jesse Taylor Smith and featuring aerial cinematography by Joseph Ryan, the recently released video for “Daisy” was shot in the lands of the Kulin and Nyoongar Nations — but it suggests the ruins of a country and civilization from its hubris and greed with the bandmembers enjoying some small pleasures — playing with a beloved dog, daydreaming on a lazy summer day. Sometimes small pleasures are the only thing we can cling to when everything is on fire. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: POND Releases a Lysergic Ode to the Holiday Season

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site for some time, you’ve come across a handful of posts featuring POND, the recording project created by Perth, Australia-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer Jay Watson — and that the project features Watson collaborating with a rotating cast of local musicians, including Kevin Parker, the multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer behind the acclaimed psych pop project, Tame Impala. And with through the release of his first three albums — 2009’s Psychedelic Mango, 2010’s Frond and his 2012 breakthrough effort Beard, Wives, Denim — the Perth-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer found his sound moving from straightforward psych rock to a decidedly pop-leaning sound. Coincidentally, Watson’s breakthrough album was released around the time that Parker released his own breakthrough effort, Innerspeaker and with growing buzz around Australia’s psych pop and dance pop scenes, Watson and his touring band had found themselves on a busy international touring schedule that included an appearance at that year’s SXSW and a one-off show with CAN‘s Damo Suzuki, a major influence on Watson and his sound.

The Weather, which was released earlier this year continues Watson’s ongoing collaboration with Parker, and as you would have heard on album single “Colder Than Ice,” Watson’s sultry falsetto was paired with a production consisting onsisting of icy and shimmering synths, stuttering beats and a motorik groove in what may arguably be one of the more dance floor friendly tracks they’ve released in some time. Interestingly enough, the album’s material finds Watson managing to balance being deeply engaged with our tumultuous world while offering a much-welcomed respite and escape from it — and the album’s latest single “All I Want For Christmas (Is a Tascam 388) is a mischievous and hazily lysergic ode to the season that features Watson’s dreamy falsetto paired with tweeter and woofer rocking boom bap beats, layers upon layers of synths that’s then given an easy-going dub-like sheen. 

The recently released and appropriately kaleidoscopic video was directed by the band’s Jamie Terry and features band member “Shiny Joe Ryan” hanging out in Fremantle, Australia in a Santa suit and sunscreen, drinking beer, driving around and breakdancing until he arrives at the studio to see his new Tascam 388, which he can’t wait to play with. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Aptly Psychedelic Visuals for POND’s “Colder Than Ice”

Founded by frontman, primary member and creative mastermind Jay Watson POND is a Perth, Australia-based psych rock project that features a rotating cast of musicians and collaborators including Tame Impala frontman and primary member Kevin Parker. The project’s 2009 full-length debut Psychedelic Mango was much more psych rock and psych pop-leaning but with 2010’s Frond, Watson and company had increasingly taken up a much heavier pop sound. 2012’s Beard, Wives, Denim was an international breakthrough and was released to critical praise. 

Interestingly enough, the material on Beard, Wives, Denim was written and recorded around the release of Tame Impala’s critically applauded breakthrough effort Innerspeaker and with the growing buzz around Australia’s music scene, the members of Pond found themselves touring internationally to support the album — and it included an appearance at that year’s SXSW and a one-off show with CAN‘s Damo Suzuki, a major influence on Watson and his sound.

Watson and company’s latest effort The Weather continues their ongoing collaboration with Kevin Parker, and the album’s latest single “Colder Than Ice” pairs Watson’s sultry falsetto with a production consisting of icy and shimmering synths, stuttering beats and a motorik groove in what may arguably be one of the more dance floor friendly tracks they’ve released in some time; but underneath the swaggering surface is a trippy, kaleidoscopic vibe. 

Co-directed by the members of POND and George Foster, the recently released visuals feature members of the band in gritty, Eastern European-like environs and stars Kirin  J. Callinan as a dancing cowboy — and naturally, it’s a trippy accompaniment to the song. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Australian Psych Pop Act Pond’s Tame Impala-Channeling, New Single

“Sweep Me Off My Feet,” is the first bit of new material from the band since last year’s Man, It Feels Like Space Again and interestingly enough the single sounds as though it could have been a Tame Impala B side — and that’s not a terrible thing, really. Sonically speaking, the band pairs boom-bap like drums, layers of buzzing synths, chiming percussion, plaintive falsetto vocals, buzzing yet bluesy guitar solo and an anthemic hook in a slow-burning and trippy bit of psych pop that possesses an urgent, carnal need and vulnerability underneath it’s arena rock swagger. Unsurprisingly, “Sweep Me Off My Feet” is also the first single from the band’s forthcoming, Kevin Parker produced, untitled full-length album slated for release in early 2017.