BARDO POND レコード& CD

Review: Bardo Pond's extensive archive recordings series opens up once again with Volume 9, an incisive journey into their hypnotic sound. Recorded in the early 2000s, this one's a heady mix of acoustic ambience and menacing distortion. Infamous purveyors of longform stoner rock, Bardo Pond embrace their sludgestorms with graceful nods to Hawkwind, Earth and My Bloody Valentine. For anyone uninitiated with the band's tranquilizing sound, Volume 9 leans into their mesmeric practise with reckless abandon. Featuring two tracks recorded with ace percussionist Michael Zanghi and the seminal two-parter 'War Is Over', a lilting Floydian strum that's invaded - quite literally - by unreconstructed noise. The Zanghi collaboration, meanwhile, is an Eastern-facing mantra with percussive flurries and distorted modal shifts.