Terrestrials

Pond — 2026

“Pond simplify without standing still, making Terrestrials a leaner, jumpier entry in their catalog.”

Perth’s Pond came across my radar way back in 2012 when many music outlets gave acclaim to Beard, Wives, Denim. The band didn’t come across my ears until a year later with interstellar acid trip Hobo Rocket. As the album’s title suggests, that album was an interesting blast-off of Flaming Lips psych rock, David Bowie’s cosmic knowledge, and MGMT’s constellation pop.

Man It Feels Like Space Again left more of an impression with a stronger sense of sound coherence that drove the album to a more satisfying conclusion. My biggest musical regret of 2024 was not putting more time into Pond’s Stung!. This near hour-long monster took many fun sound ideas and threw them all at the wall—I’d say more stuck than fell.

The boys have now returned with their follow-up Terrestrials which they describe as “a cyclone of urgent, scorched earth rock’n’roll.” Mixing digital hellscapes and kaleidoscopic psychedelics, Terrestrials substitutes the grandiosity of previous records for the jumpy jams of new wave and goth rock to enforce paranoia and beauty in interesting ways.

“Casuarina” rips out of the gate with bursts of “Shit Luck” and the post-rock grind of shame. “Two Hands” takes ORB’s “It’s Your Right” and slows it to a funky goth rock hop. “Roebuck Plains” is a fun take on sunshine pop with a chorus that slips in a Thin Lizzy-style riff ripper.

Even though the group wanted to incorporate the influences of artists such as Church, Magazine, Midnight Oil, and the Sisters of Mercy, all the usual sounds are still here too. There is a deviation from the Tame Impala but only slightly. The other usual suspects can be heard here too. That includes artists such as “Cyboogie” and The Silver Chord King Gizz, Beans, Mink Mussel Creek, Jay Watson’s other project GUM, Temples, and MGMT.

Pond is in an interesting position. First of all there’s few bands that have been around for nearly 20 years. Secondly, I feel like there’s even fewer bands that have eleven full length albums. Terrestrials shows the band focusing and simplifying while trying to push in a slightly new direction against their expansive catalogue. The songs are fun but I feel like I’d see myself going to Man It Feels Like Space Again or Stung! before returning to Terrestrials. Fans looking for the theatrical bombast of previous LPs aren’t really going to find that here. This is an even listen that’s meant to feel immediate and if that sounds compelling to you, there is something to like here.