Philadelphia’s Bardo Pond is the little engine that could, going 15 years strong with its drone-heavy monolith rock. The band is about as consistent as they come, not only releasing records with metronome-like precision nearly every two years, but also changing its sound so little since the first record, Bufo Alvaris Amen, 29:15.
Ticket Cystals marks the band’s fifth full-length release, and they make new with the same distinctively brooding psych-riffs. If anything, it’s clear by now that Bardo Pond aren’t interested in shifting trends or the desire to grow their sound. Rather, they dive deeper into the pool, finding the smallest wrinkles along the cliffside of their towering guitars.
With this release, the most noticeable increment is Isobel Sollenberger’s heighten presence in the din that is “Lost Word” and “Destroying Angel” In past releases, both her voice and flute were texture to Michael and John Gibbon’s electric adventures. On Ticket Crystals, Sollenberger is high in the mix, her voice and flute casting a somnambulant net over the rolling leviathan.
The most striking track on the record is a cover of “Cry Baby Cry” where the band plays it safe for the first three minutes, only to unrepentantly drop a mountain of guitars on the unsuspecting Beatles. This sonic atom-bomb is an idol killer by the sheer weight of its reverence for the source material.
With such determined reliability, one has to wonder wow long can Bardo Pond keep treading the same ground without thinning the grass? If Ticket Crystals is any indication, the band still has plenty of path to wonder.
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