Album artwork for 9 by Pond
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
Album artwork for 9 by Pond

In Pond’s universe nothing stays still for long. Although no one who heard 2019’s “Tasmania” could possibly describe its pulsating psych - pop as straight, Pond wanted to try a more spontaneous way of working for their next record.

Taking a leaf out of krautrock outliers Can’s book, at the start of 2020, Pond embarked on a series of totally off-the-cuff jam sessions from which songs and ideas could be pulled out.

Given the pace at which ideas whizz past your head, it makes for a dizzying listen. Opener Song For Agnes explodes out the speakers like an intergalactic rock opera, running a synapse-tingling gauntlet through bubbling synth pop, 80s hair metal and blissed out saxophone before you know what’s hit you.

It’s an apposite curtain-raiser for an album that can encompass pounding techno (Human Touch), elastic hipped robo-funk (America’s Cup), tripped out motorik (Czech Locomotive) and acres more besides without even topping for breath. Take lead single Pink Lunettes, which opens up thumping like ESG eight hours into a session at Berghain before climbing aboard a gargantuan synthship and disappearing off over the horizon.

Lyrically, too, 9 takes Pond into uncharted territory. Allbrook’s songs here take a more impressionistic tack than before, resulting in both the hilarious one-liners within Human Touch’s gonzoid thrash (sample lyric: “she was jacking a car but she seemed quite nice so I let her use the toilet in my place”) and the social and environmental concerns of blissed out closer Toast, which addressed both last year’s bush fires and the appalling wealth divide in Allbrook’s childhood home in Western Australia.

Above all though, what you get from 9 is a sense of creative abandon and just plain fun. If it was only a fraction as enjoyable to make as it is to listen to then they must have been having a hoot.

Pond

9

Spinning Top Records
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
LP +

$25.99

exclusive

180-gram vinyl.

Clear Green Vinyl

Rough Trade Exclusive
Limited to 500 copies
Includes download code
Released 10/08/2021Catalog Number

STR025lp-C5

Learn more
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
LPx2 +

$49.99

Deluxe Edition

Metallic Silver Vinyl

Released 07/15/2022Catalog Number

STR025DLX

Learn more
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
LP

$25.99

180-gram vinyl

Black
Includes download code
Released 10/29/2021Catalog Number

STR025lp

Learn more
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
LP +

$25.99

Indie Exclusive. 180-gram vinyl.

Coke Bottle Vinyl

Includes download code
Released 10/22/2021Catalog Number

STR025lp-C1

Learn more
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
CD

$14.99

Released 10/08/2021Catalog Number

STR025cd

Learn more
Pond

9

Spinning Top Records
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
LP +

$25.99

exclusive

180-gram vinyl.

Clear Green Vinyl

Rough Trade Exclusive
Limited to 500 copies
Includes download code
Released 10/08/2021Catalog Number

STR025lp-C5

Learn more
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
LPx2 +

$49.99

Deluxe Edition

Metallic Silver Vinyl

Released 07/15/2022Catalog Number

STR025DLX

Learn more
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
LP

$25.99

180-gram vinyl

Black
Includes download code
Released 10/29/2021Catalog Number

STR025lp

Learn more
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
LP +

$25.99

Indie Exclusive. 180-gram vinyl.

Coke Bottle Vinyl

Includes download code
Released 10/22/2021Catalog Number

STR025lp-C1

Learn more
Album artwork for 9 by Pond
CD

$14.99

Released 10/08/2021Catalog Number

STR025cd

Learn more

In Pond’s universe nothing stays still for long. Although no one who heard 2019’s “Tasmania” could possibly describe its pulsating psych - pop as straight, Pond wanted to try a more spontaneous way of working for their next record.

Taking a leaf out of krautrock outliers Can’s book, at the start of 2020, Pond embarked on a series of totally off-the-cuff jam sessions from which songs and ideas could be pulled out.

Given the pace at which ideas whizz past your head, it makes for a dizzying listen. Opener Song For Agnes explodes out the speakers like an intergalactic rock opera, running a synapse-tingling gauntlet through bubbling synth pop, 80s hair metal and blissed out saxophone before you know what’s hit you.

It’s an apposite curtain-raiser for an album that can encompass pounding techno (Human Touch), elastic hipped robo-funk (America’s Cup), tripped out motorik (Czech Locomotive) and acres more besides without even topping for breath. Take lead single Pink Lunettes, which opens up thumping like ESG eight hours into a session at Berghain before climbing aboard a gargantuan synthship and disappearing off over the horizon.

Lyrically, too, 9 takes Pond into uncharted territory. Allbrook’s songs here take a more impressionistic tack than before, resulting in both the hilarious one-liners within Human Touch’s gonzoid thrash (sample lyric: “she was jacking a car but she seemed quite nice so I let her use the toilet in my place”) and the social and environmental concerns of blissed out closer Toast, which addressed both last year’s bush fires and the appalling wealth divide in Allbrook’s childhood home in Western Australia.

Above all though, what you get from 9 is a sense of creative abandon and just plain fun. If it was only a fraction as enjoyable to make as it is to listen to then they must have been having a hoot.