Pond’s newly released album Terrestrials is a reminder that it’s time to be “f*cking angry”
Photo Credit: Kristofski
Think liberty spikes, shoulder pads, and youth-based leftist radicals. Think failing foreign relations, rising political division, men in eyelines, and the imperative need for powerful music. Australian psych-rock band, Pond, juxtaposes the central themes of 80’s New Wave against our current society with the release of their most recent album, Terrestrials.
Sonically, the 10-song album is heavy on synthesizers, electronic beats and spoken-world vocals. It is righteously true to the iconic late 80’s anti-culture movement. Thematically, the looming nihilistic overtone also stays close to the inspiration, however the contemporary replaying of the genre adds an inherent layer of significance.
The album stays admirably close to home, highlighting mainly Australian-based societal and historical issues. The message is clear: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This is especially exemplified in the fourth track on the album, “Two Hands”.
Speaking about the track, frontman Nick Allbrook stated: “This song is about when mining company Rio Tinto blew up Juukun Gorge in the Hammersley Range in Western Australia. They destroyed sacred rock shelters that were of the highest archaeological, cultural and spiritual significance. The rock shelters contained a cultural sequence spanning 46,000 years that had been taken care of by the local Indigenous communities.”
Allbrook continues, “I was wondering how the commentators around this country would’ve reacted if the shoe was on the other foot and someone had demolished the Vatican or Notre Dame or St. Paul’s because it was in the way of their corporate expansion.”
Like much of Pond’s work, Terrestrials is a forceful reminder to be critical and involved. The album speaks on dystopian futures, past blazing wildfires, and current questionable social practices that create “a confusing time for a confused people.”
Time and time again the musical group begs listeners to be analytical of themselves and the world around them, to see things as they are and more importantly, what they could be. But, nuanced as new creation is, this album gives a special permission to the listener that is altogether necessary in our highly exploitative world: get radical.
Allbrook spoke on this, stating simply, “it’s a little word of encouragement that you’ve got every right to be very fucking angry about this injustice.”
Terrestrials album artwork
The album release comes just ahead of Pond’s North American tour, starting in Atlanta, Georgia on July 10 and ending in Los Angeles, California on August 22. Many select shows in the tour will be played alongside musical artist Djo. Tickets can be purchased via the band’s website: https://pond.band/
Terrestrials will be released through Pond’s recently created imprint, Mangovision, via Secretly Distribution. A physical copies will be available June 26 in both a ‘Personal Hellfire’ variant of colored vinyl or CD. Both are available to preorder HERE!
