Bardo Pond
Set And Setting
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Bardo Pond
Set And Setting
Matador, 1999
RiYL: Ash Ra Temple, early Pink Floyd |
The first step is the production -- vocals buried, rhythms huge, all sorts of frightening noises lurking subliminally and poking out every now and the many tentacles of a mythical underwater beast. Next, we have song length. Three minutes is not going to be enough to explore every possibility. Six is more like it, or eleven if that can be managed. Third is arranging. There's a singer, and a drummer, and guitarists like a lot of bands you're probably familiar with. Here, however, it's not quite lead-bass-rhythm. It's more like drone one, drone two, and horrible evil noise from outer space three.
Set And Setting is not melodyless, however. There's a certain odd bluesiness to these lengthy lopes, particularly in the majestic opening "Walking Stick Man" and the beautiful slide guitars of the appropriately titled "Lull." Isobel Sollenberger's vocals are quite pretty and soulful, when you can hear them. There's a definite My Bloody Valentine influence at work here, especially in the way enormous, monolithic single guitar chords loom over nearly everything else in the mixes, and the way the vocals serve less as focus then as distraction. Bardo Pond aren't quite as interested in what the song does besides club you over the head with its loudness, and they don't have the effectiveness of MBV in getting the point across in three- or four-minute blasts.
The violin on "Cross Current" is somewhat obnoxious (not to mention unnecessary, given the absurd amounts of sustain and distortion applied to all the guitars on the record), and after "Walking Stick Man," nothing on the record really has the same impact. Fans of the abstract, and especially Loveless-heads, however, will find plenty to get lost in on Set And Setting.
WESTERN HOMES |