at this time, after releasing Psychedelic Mango,
Pond as a band was a freeform project, with the idea that they could get anyone they wanted
to play whatever the hell they wanted in jolly musical collaboration.
the direct result of this ethos is 2009's Corridors of Blissterday, recorded live with an EIGHT-PIECE band in 5 days.
this is by far their least popular album, i at least used to hear about the two other albums not on streaming services (Psychedelic Mango and Frond) every now and then, but this one? radio silence.
and there's very much a reason for that, it's easily their most frenzied and disjointed effort. the album is made up almost entirely of very long freeform jams. not that there's anything wrong with that; in fact, i quite dig it at times, but not a lot of it feels very "solid", if you will. it's like some sort of shapeshifting goo in your hands, struggling to keep form.
nonetheless, it doesn't fail to deliver on that psychedelic "fuzz" that's to be expected, and at times is pretty good at enriching it further. no more is it just two guitars and a set of drums, you can hear an organ, a flute (i think), and for the first time in the bands' history, synthesizers, though used very sporadically.
expectedly, the songwriting on the mostly instrumental jam album isn't of much note. if vocals are present, it's mainly the same deal as on Psychedelic Mango, words stringed together to sound cool.
like this verse, from the title track:
"i wrote on a corridor of blissterday
'listen to the beast say:
it's okay to dream of daisy chains in pain' "
99% sure this means absolutely nothing, but it sounds cool. fun to scream along to in my experience.
highlights on the album include:
"Corridors Of Blissterday",
"Sweet Loretta"
and "Mist In My Brainforest"
my favorite track must be the closer, "Ascending". it's this very repetitive droning sound that puts you in sort of a trance, until mid-way the track combusts in a fantastic explosion of fast drums and loud guitars. very fun to listen to with a visualizer!
in the end, it's understandable that Corridors Of Blissterday is as overlooked as it is. frankly, was it not for my dedicated effort to try and click with the album, i would not have thought much of it. but now that i've given each song the needed time and space in my brain, i fuck with it.
as for the band? well... let's just say that they definitely had a lesson to learn. a lesson indeed.
next up: Frond