13.

Bardo Pond – Lapsed

The first time I heard this album in Rough Trade it did not make any sense, it just sounded like a block of massive distorted sound. A few months later a friend of mine played ‘Tommy Gun Angel’ – the first track from Lapsed‘. This time with the aid of some pot, the block transformed for me into complex layers of constantly mutating sound all wrapped around a gorgeous song. I loved the balance of muscular psychedelic heavy guitars against lead singer and flautist Isobel Sollenberg’s soft feminine intonations. There is a strong emotional aspect to this band that a lot of other experimental rock acts lack.