Forever cited as the space rock band that deliver everyone’s fix of drug-inspired psychedelia, Bardo Pond land on earth to fill a gap in our Latitudes series. It’s safe to say this quintet come out in full force to deliver lengthy, calculated soundscapes luxurious in distortion and noise. It all began by two brothers, Michael & John Gibbons, sharing their interest in free-form noise, spreading the enthusiasm to an array of instrumentalists and vocalists.

Their sound snowballed taking in musical roots from the realm of jazz and blues structures, not to mention New York\’s No Wave movement and the downtown Knitting Factory scenes. Now after eight acclaimed full-length albums, the band that often dabbles in an eclectic range of side projects have regrouped for another stormer.

“Bardo Pond are a band who don\’t so much let their music wash over you in all its beauty as tangle you up in it to the point where you become completely eclipsed by them. When I first saw them live I was pretty unprepared for the enormity of what I was about to experience. The ensuing combination of their psychedelic guitar trail-blazing with Isobel\’s flute solo suspended above it was nigh on perfection that left my mind in a state of near meltdown. Suffice to say, I was smitten. When news later reached me through the Southern grapevine that the Pond had graced our studios I was more than a little excited. The resulting session seems to tie up everything I love about them so much; from the elaboration of the densest, textural landscapes to moments of pure, ecstatic clarity. Yntra is a brilliant distillation of what the band do best into just three epic tracks. Still incredibly thick with their battery of guitars and unrelenting signature groove riding merrily along underneath, Bardo, true to their name, manage to balance their sound exquisitely between polar extremes.” – Lizzy Huthwaite, July 2012 File Under: Psychedelic Rock / Shoegaze For Fans of: Jessamine, Barn Owl, Spacemen 3, Windy & Carl, Magic Lantern, Amon Duul II, Ash Ra Temple, Hawkwind.

“…for Bardo Pond, throwing everything at the wall makes for a kind of coherence; from their small-run experimental discs to their semi-formal proper LPs, their slowpoke psychonaut scuzz has floated into all sorts of strange places, with a low to match every high.” – Pitchfork