Hobo rocket. Pond

New psychedelia is on us from all sides. From Australia, to Hoorn, to the U.K. and San Francisco bands and acts spring up or on the band wagon. Pond is a band from Perth, Australia and perhaps more a collective than a real band, as it has more past members than current ones. The centre of the band are Nick Allbrook and Jay Watson known from Tame Impala, a band that I so far did not get, with Joseph Ryan. Pond goes a step further than Tame Impala does and has a thick soup of psychedelia cooked up in which the music wades around. Sounds and rhythm changes pop up out of the soup to disappear again, while the background noise, the soup, continues to cook at loud and wild volume.

Seven songs and Hobo rocket is all over. Point made. In the end I’m not a fan of psychedelia. There has to be a song, a melody to hang on to. Something to hum to or sing along with. A song that is able to get into my head and not go away. (Although there are some songs I just hate if they turn up in there. I’m sure you know what I mean.) Pond offers this on Hobo rocket. There are songs that may disappear into the soup every once in a while, but songs. ‘Xanman’ has a refrain like that. Simple and effective. No matter what’s going on around it.

It is quite clear that Hobo Rocket is not an album to listen to under all circumstances. On ear plugs with outside noise seeping through it does not work. If I'm too tired or have to concentrate? Forget it! Only if I have the time and listen intensely to the music Pond presents it makes sense for me to take it all in. In all other circumstances it is nothing but noise. All the subtleties worked around the soup disappear, leaving this mull of noise that goes around and around. In all songs there is things going on in the back or the foreground, even in the mellow 'O Dharma', that dominate the overall atmosphere of the song. It is over this "ground" Pond creates the song, the melody and the vocals.

The last category is not the strongest point of Pond. Not unlike Foxygen, Pond is. The vocals are all treated in one way or another, never a clear voice. However, this adds to the psychedelic atmosphere of Hobo rocket. To go back to 'O Dharma', this songs shows how a Pond song can evolve and take a few unexpected curves, in this case easy to follow, changing the whole face and mood of the song. The melody changes, totally other instruments are added and a point of rest in the noise eruptions on the rest of Hobo rocket, where Pond changes a song all the time, but from under the soup. Harder to detect when not really listening.

Hobo rocket is not your every day record. Experimental, but coming from a song and from there takes off in different direction. Some in the 1967 pop variety, others more modern and noisy. But, perhaps oddly after what went before here, there are some progrock elements as well. The dreamy elements and the loud rocking elements of a band like Yes can be found on Hobo rocket if you care to find them. (Hint? 'Giant tortoise. One of the better songs on the album.) It makes Hobo Rocket worthwhile to explore and not to be put off at first listen.

Wo.

You can listen to 'O dharma' here.