Bardo Pond - Dilate
(Matador)
The bio for Bardo Pond's new album Dilate consists of a one page photocopy of big
magic marker writing that says: "This album fucking rocks." That
statement sums up the album very well.
On this, Bardo Pond's sixth full length, they have branched out
remarkably. It seems their touring with Godspeed You Black Emperor! had
some effect, as heard on the opener "Two Planes" with the use of violin
(!) and a descending, minor chord progression not entirely different from
the sort Godspeed would employ. The song ends up as a wall of heavily distorted
guitars, drowning out the violin and rising to a plane only
inhabited by Bardo Pond.
Isobel's vocals are pushed up even more on this album, with the
occasional decipherable phrase on a few songs. "Favorite Uncle" is half
stripped down with only two acoustic guitars and a heavily treated vocal
line by Isobel. Drums and some distorted electric guitar fill in the
sound halfway through.
"Swig" has a heavy East Indian vibe. The guitar bangs away at a short
melody and hand drums pepper the background under a blanket of flute
tones.
"Inside" comes from way out of left field by going the opposite direction
Bardo Pond would usually be expected to go. It sounds like some kind of
mix between their blues-tinged songwriting and indie pop crossed with the
Yardbirds. Very strange. It sticks out among the rest of the songs, but
not as much as it would on any other Bardo Pond album.
"LB" is a heavy sonic attack harking back to the territory Bardo Pond
so frequently treads. It's the perfect marriage of their last two album's
opening tracks, "Tommy Gun Angel" and "Walking Stick Man," by combining
thick school-of-Sabbath riffs and chords that have nearly lost their
tonal qualities under the weight of distortion the brothers Gibbons are
so fond of piling on their guitar's sound.
The 12 minute "Ganges" wraps up the album and is arguably the best track
on the album, if not among Bardo Pond's better songs. It is a
glacially-paced reminder of Bardo Pond's beauty. It lies very close to their track
"Sangh Seriatim" on the Harmony of the Spheres box set.
The songs on "Dilate" vary quite a bit, and the album's continuity suffers a little
because of it. However, the songs all maintain their footing in
the world of Bardo Pond. The band seems to have gotten comfortable
enough with writing blues drone jams to feel free enough to branch out,
achieving much of the same thing thorugh different means. Though,
when they use the standard tricks they've done before, the songs have an
added sense of mastery, however sloppy and random it may sound.
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