2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Never At This Length Before, But The Length Was Needed, January 22, 2011
This review is from: Selections 1-4 (Audio CD)
No one who has ever listened to Bardo Pond's seven previous full-length releases can argue that the Brothers Gibbons have always enjoyed dialing up the most heavily warped setting on their effects pedals; the result is that their guitar lines, aurally overpowering, have an almost visceral feel to them, and over time, have called up associative images in my mind as I cue up track after track from each release.
Selections 1-4 is a collection of material that for one reason or another never made it onto those proper releases. For the most part this collection is very strong; I suspect the reason that it wasn't released as a full-length is due to the average running time of each song, most of which take in excess of seven to nine minutes to unfold, with at least two cuts clocking in at about sixteen and nineteen minutes, respectively. I find that it's especially capable of calling up vivid mental images for me (and possibly for others who might be listening to it in a more opiated or hallucinogenic state of mind).
"Sit Sleep", the opening track, sounds as if rain is coming down in sheets through the booming of heavy thunderheads. "Cymbals", a heavy drone meshing guitar and keyboards, channels the background hum of the universe . "Before" is a centrifugal maelstrom of heavy distortion, putting me in mind of the drop-off from an event horizon into its black hole. "Precious Metal" flows like the distillation of one of those elements from a solid into liquid state. "Alien Heat" (along with "E-Dub" and "Take What You Need") seem to channel a subterranean discharge of electricity comprised of heavy amplitude and a sinuous, nearly infinite length, accompanied by a heavy burbling bassline. "Montana Sacra" revolves around guitar work that puts one in mind of the levels of ascension required to scale a holy mountain, complete with swirling winds and gravel flung from footfalls on the upward traverse. My favorite cut after "Sit Sleep" and "Alien Heat" is the delay and reverb-driven "Heaven", which sounds as it could be the language that honeybees use to communicate while seemingly levitating in the air around the blossom of a flower before each one takes its turn to gather pollen. Sounding like a mosquito buzzing loudly enough to universally pester the ears of every creature nearby possessing them is "Lomand" `s first guitar line, while the other guitar is reminiscent of every strand of a spider web pulsating with the vibration of its struggle after it's been captured within it. Sap-heavy, gummier and grittier than all of the other cuts, the guitars on `Tanked" hit with such pulverizing force that it puts me in mind of massive pressure rods being driven successively into the foreheads of an infinite herd of cattle at some kind of universal abbatoir. "New Drunks" contains a guitar line that buzzes with the intensity of a savage, livid hornet until it is hit with a burst of insecticide that causes it to splutter in flight until it finally drops out of the sky. "Narmada" , a track defined by a sustained explosive build, gathers strength like a hurricane sucking moisture from the warmer waters of lower latitudes, occasionally lapsing then gaining until it breaks on land. "Pangolin Dance", the only forgettable track, is just some twiddling with effects.
And, yes, Isobel Sollenberger, while her vocal contributions are very minimal, does bring flute and viola into passages during several of the tracks, lending a transcendental beauty to the often primeval sound. I don't usually attempt a track-by-track description of a CD, but "Selections" is unusually synaesthetic , and to me just demanded this kind of description. It's a release worth getting at twice the price. Recommended.
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