Cargo Records

Bufo Alvarius

Vinyl with CD.

Bardo Pond, a wide-eyed Philadelphian psychedelic rock unit, exist as a shining point on a graph. A scintillating cross drawn on a celestial arc, marking their place among the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Calico Wall, The Stooges, Lift To Experience, Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine, Mercury Rev and, more recently, Jackie O Motherfucker and MV&EE. Explicitly narcotic – there’s no room for coyness or prissiness in space rock!

This was the album that saw them graduate from cult local concern to cult global passion, stepping out from the monolithic shadows cast by their influences. It is difficult to pick out individual high points on something so clearly designed to be listened to as a whole but the lysergic ebb and flow of ‘Capillary River’, the aqueous beauty of ‘Absence’ and, of course, the half hour long centrepiece of ‘Amen’ demand full attention from the listener. The never released before ‘Fixed’ rounds off an album that is transcendent in all the right meanings of the word.