POND - Terrestrials

"Terrestrials" is the eleventh album by Pond, the Australian psych-rock outfit that, despite a loyal fanbase, remains best known to the mainstream music world for its ties to Tame Impala. Kevin Parker was once a member of the band and has collaborated, and still does, with several of its members, especially Jay Watson, who plays in his live band. The influences are roughly the same, but Pond have followed their own path, one that has never truly pulled them away from guitars nor truly drawn them toward the dancefloor - which, of course, can no longer be said of Tame Impala at this point.

Having moved past a "pop" phase in their career, between 2017 and 2021, during which Pond had some fun with synths and dancier rhythms, the band made a decisive return to rock (and to full-on Led Zeppelin style, no less) in 2024 with "Stung!" On this brand-new 2026 record, that direction is confirmed, though this time, according to the band themselves, the influences should be their fellow countrymen Church and Midnight Oil, with an eye on the post-punk and new wave Australian scene of the early '80s.

It's hard to call "Terrestrials" a post-punk album through and through, but the Midnight Oil influence - a criminally underrated band even today - certainly comes through: just listen to the first single, "Two Hands", an enthusiastic, truly throwback slice of rock; or "Roebuck Plains", with jangly arpeggios that decidedly recall certain '80s post-punk - perhaps closer to Teardrop Explodes or Dream Syndicate territory. "The Fatal Shore" is very different from the rest of the album, a dance-rock number with subtly electronic rhythms; and there's a reason for that: the track's producer and co-writer is none other than Tame Impala, making a guest appearance.

But despite the post-punk aspirations, the album's basic template remains that of a lively, guitar-driven psychedelic rock, as shown by opening track "Skyworks" and by "Casuarina", which seem to harken back to a specific era of Pond - that of "Man It Feels Like Space Again" (2015). The same goes for "Terrestrials", the fantastic (in every sense) title track, which channels an enthusiasm for purely instrumental, incisive rock, even leaning here toward prog, forgetting any so-called "commercial" impulse. It's Pond at their most typical, complete with the shrieks of the unstoppable frontman Nick Allbrook.

Ultimately, anyone looking for a listen that truly harkens back to that quintessential '80s Aussie post-punk sound might not find exactly that in "Terrestrials". But it's certainly another highly successful Pond album, a work in which the five Australian musicians once again display the full solidity of a style that has grown thicker and more refined over nearly two decades of evolution. An album that is certainly "rock" in more ways than one, but convincing above all in its refusal to compromise - not that they've ever needed to at this point - and in offering ideas that are, in most of today's psych (or even post-punk) output, rather hard to come by.

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21/06/2026