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Bardo Pond
Lapsed
1997

The story goes that Clint Takeda, bassist of Bardo Pond, christened the band after a Tibetan Buddhist idea about some interstitial realm where, upon death, people just mull about like some kind of sedated doctor's office waiting room (I'm pretty sure I gathered that information at Wikipedia). And, for a while there, Bardo Pond fit the description. Prior albums, like "Bufo Alvarius" and "Amanita," rested on that idea of stasis. Each session became successively better; however "Lapsed" is EXCESSIVELY better. Every single instrument is amped up to levels even Spinal Tap couldn't conjure. Yet "Lapsed" isn't an album to make one's ears bleed. It is an album where the louder the volume, the more open the sound gets. Oppressive squelches of feedback, plodding rhythms, and incoherent vocals reveal themselves to be expressive members of an open dialogue. At loud volumes this album is transcendent. Track 3, "Flux", gives me "goose flesh" to this very day.
As a side note, I once moseyed up to "B.P." CEO Isobel Sollenberger at Terrastock 5 in Boston, MA before Tom Rapp hit the stage. I tried to strike up a conversation but she was on another plain.

Nevermind all that! "Lapsed" is an honest description of what this record IS. To take a step back to see the bigger picture.

Choice selections:
Tommy Gun Angel, Flux, Aldrin


Bardo Pond (site)
Matador Records