Friday Mixtape: Pond’s mix of “powerful and cool as hell” songs

Date
5 May 2017

This week’s mixtape is curated by Nick Allbrook of Pond, whose album The Weather is out today!

We love Pond at It’s Nice That with their brilliantly silly personalities, endless music videos to gawp at, and the otherworldly narrative displayed in each album. This release, produced by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, sees the band channelling its creativity into a statement of intent. It features “the band’s most direct pop moments, while retaining Pond abstract outlook and propensity for experimentation”.

Nick’s mixtape spans an amalgamation of genres, the songs that sneak their way into his daily life and tracks that the band have been listening to while recording their new album. Over to Nick, and happy release day Pond…

Why have you picked these songs?

Well, I chose Gloria because it was playing in the supermarket recently and I was dancing around the store looking for whatever I was looking for, let’s say salt. So I was looking for salt, see, and the shop lady and her shop friend were singing full voice along, so I asked who it was, and they didn’t know who it was. It’s Laura Branigan and it is amazing. Similar thing happened with Prince, but it was just me at my house and it was amazing also.

There are some which are simple and meditative, or at least obtuse enough for reverie. Boots of Spanish Leather by Bob Dylan, I dunno, it’s beautiful. And I truly can’t comprehend his, or Kendrick Lamar’s grasp on the English language – or more specifically – making the English language sound powerful and cool as hell. Zelé is just the hardest thing ever. Watch the clip please.

Where should this playlist should be listened to?

Hmmmmm… first travelling to a destination… bus and walking and afternoon dapple niceness. And then listen to all the heavy party when you’re coming home high later on.

What have you been listening to whilst making your latest album?

We listened to lots of things. Arthur Russell and FKA Twigs, The Life Of Pablo by Kanye and lots of J Dilla at the beginning. Prince. Robert Wyatt. Suicide. Primative Calculators and Foxygen, Can and John Maus. For me, a helluva lot of D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill.

If a feature film was to be made about Pond, what song would play on the trailer?

Shit, I’d LOVE to say something beautiful and poignant but it’d probably just end up being Close to the Edge by Yes. In its entirety.

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About the Author

Lucy Bourton

Lucy (she/her) is the senior editor at Insights, a research-driven department with It's Nice That. Get in contact with her for potential Insights collaborations or to discuss Insights' fortnightly column, POV. Lucy has been a part of the team at It's Nice That since 2016, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication.

lb@itsnicethat.com

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