If you're a fan of experimental Aussie wizards Tame Impala then you may have already discovered this Pond. A four-year-old offshoot featuring the band's former bass player Nick Allbrook, plus Impala touring members Cam Avery and Jay Watson, they're an even farther-out proposition than their chart-tickling sibling. The Beatles motifs are ditched here and in their place are full-on psychedelic rock blow-outs in the vein of Radio Moscow, Wolf mother and Dead Meadow. Pond get stick for not being 'focused', but theirs are records to turn off your mind, relax and float downstream to.
Whatever Happened To The Million Head Collide takes Sabbath’s Sweat Leaf and smokes it, and the Bolanesque garage grower Xanrnan is a real stand-out. Aloneaflameaflower can be an annoying dirge trip, but has its place in this seven-track package, cleansing the palate for spacey rift monster Giant Tortoise. The awesome title track - a psych-pop hipshaker sung by real-deal, gravel-voiced ‘street mystic’ Cowboy John - is mad and silly, and only topped by the wayward Rundgren wig-out of Midnight Mass (Al The Market St. Payphone). Not perfect then, but intriguing, colourful and explosive.
