Customer Reviews

Set & Setting

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The boys and gal from bardo do it yet again. Dropping a slab of brillant sonic sludge. "Walking Stick Man" is reminicent of there early bluesy stuff. Isobel plays violine instead of the flute. They have also added another drummer and a harmonica to the mix. Joe Culver is still in the band and his drumming is as brilliant as allways. There is also Ed Farnsworth on drums his style is a little more straight forward but still great. Brothers Mike and Jon's guitar work is more spacy and dense. The violine is a great new sound for the band. I do wish there was still a flute. "AGain" is a real rocker in a Dead C kinda way. Isoble's vocals is as incomprahensibal as ever and thats why we all love her. Clint and joe still provide the structure for the waves of noise to live in. When we look back at the 1990's Bardo Pond has proved to be one of the most interesting bands this decade has produced.

Sifting through heavy particulates to find a flow of moisture underneath provides me with a visual image of the aural impact of this release. "Set and Setting" was the first Bardo Pond CD that I had issues with, primarily because the moments of saturating, heavily processed guitar riffing is so deeply embedded within a denser, grittier, gummier, more propulsive, almost molasses-heavy guitar tone. "Lapsed" provided a blueprint for "Set And Setting", with its over-driven distortion and puddling feedback, but still retained a sinuousness about it (especially on "Green Man" and "Aldrin") that hearkened back to "Amanita". But on "Set And Setting" it's almost a sound that in some places seems trapped in amber. Not to say that it was all structured this way - "Datura" and "Lull" each feature a looser, liquidy sound, more expansive, less compressed than "Walking Stick Man" and "Again". But acclimating myself to the direction they were choosing to take here was not something that it was easy to make a positive adjustment to - gone was the flute, to be replaced with harmonica and viola, and, it seemed, a new aggressiveness added, replacing the subtler wrinkles of tracks such as "Amanita"'s "The High Frequency".

My perspective on what they were attempting to accomplish here changed in time, and I grew to appreciate "Set and Setting" on its own thick, sludgy, less expansive terms, rather than those of the releases preceding it. It'll never be my favorite 'Pond CD, and is probably the one that I play the least - but given how much time I spend listening to their output, "least" is a fluid, more relative term. I just recently replaced the original copy and have been struck by how prescient some of the tracks, when broken into constituent parts, were as transitional pieces. Nevertheless, I was glad when Isobel picked up her flute again on "Dilate"!

"You're nothing but a baby wrapped in skin," croons lady Isobelle in a seasick sound. But nausea is only a part of the all-consuming fun of Set & Setting. Quite appropriate that the album would begin with the sound of a helicopter taking off. Where this album is headed, a parachute may be required. Make certain that it is made out of slow-motion flash paper and set it aflame upon release. Don't worry, the trees have hands and they will cushion your fall.

"Walking Stick Man" is the tale that these seasick trees start you off with. But the words are confusing, full off wonderful nonsense, and claim in an askew yet friendly voice, "Delirium welcomes you!" Sliding melodies swimming at the surface of the pummeling dirt compliment earthy beats on our bones. One can hear the sleepy grass growing from their skin. It's quite frightening however heavenly. That gives you a rough idea of the first track.

And the quicksand only eats us deeper from there. This album is very strange, sickly disturbing, yet wholly euphoric. It digests your soma kindly. Oh, and keep in mind that these soundscapes are raw, natural, and organic. Dirty, even. It's not "cerebral" in any form. Sure, it hypnotizes the mind, but that's nothing in comparison to the orgasmic astonishment that comes from the large, shapeless tongues licking every nerve of your body. The Mind is only a side character; Dissolution is the main event. So, when listening to Set & Setting, disregard the "cerebral"! Betray your "precision psychedelia"! Tool's Lateralus is NOT authorized on these premises!

That's as far as I'll let myself try to describe the album. I will share my opinion in that it is the best Bardo Pond album you can buy, and it's worth every cent, though I would buy it along with their album "Lapsed" which is a little less seasick and a little more blissful. Also good albums to buy alongside it are Electric Wizard's "Let Us Prey", ISIS' "Panopticon", and Melvin's "Bullhead".