Pond Share “Hand Mouth Dancer” Music Video from Forthcoming Live Album

Pond’s enchanting, often experimental approach to modern psychedelia has been expanding minds since their inception in 2008, but the group’s live approach has shown that their songs are far from static. Instead, Pond’s music has grown and transformed over many tours and lineup changes. Coming off their release of Tasmania this year, the Aussie rockers are sharing a studio session collection of their finest recordings titled Sessions in November. So far they’ve released a single, “Don’t Look At The Sun,” and today (Oct. 15) a music video for “Hand Mouth Dancer,” which is featured on the release.

The Elliott Arndt-directed video for “Hand Mouth Dancer” opens with a group of white hands waving inside a set of lips—the titular “hand mouth”—then cuts to frontman Nick Allbrook as he sings the verse. Between verses, the video gives us brief interjections of surreal stages like two straight-faced men being wrapped in plastic and others sitting on geometric pillars in flowing Buddhist-like robes. The entire video has a druggy, dreamlike air that only heightens at the closing jam, showing Allbrook dancing with outstretched arms while an oversaturated scene glitches around him.

Pond’s instrumentation has never been straightforward, with mind-bending synthesizers and effect-laden vocals defining their ever-shifting sound. Since so much is left open to experimentation, Sessions is given ample room to display how Pond’s music changes when outside of the studio.

Jay Watson, a multi-instrumentalist member of Pond, sees Sessions as a way to capture the evolution of the band’s songs over time:

We wanted to capture how the band has been playing live lately and commit that to tape while we were in the middle of a long tour. As you play the same song for years, or even as a single tour rolls on, the way you play the songs mutates. Little inflections and fills become part of the song, and the structures and even the overall feeling and intent of the songs change. I always loved listening to my favorite bands’ Peel Sessions and wanted something of our own in that vein.

Sessions is out Nov. 8 on Spinning Top/Interscope Records and will be available on vinyl at the band’s shows. You can watch the video for “Hand Mouth Dancer” below, and hear a cut from Pond’s 2012 Daytrotter session and find their upcoming tour dates further down.

Pond Tour Dates:

October
26 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Loppen
27 – Berlin, Germany @ Bi Nuu
29 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg SOLD OUT
30 – Brussels, Belgium @ Orangerie Botanique
31 – Paris, France @ Elsyee Montmarte

November
02 – Birmingham, U.K. @ The Crossing
03 – Glasgow, U.K. @ Saint Luke’s
04 – Manchester, U.K. @ Academy 2
05 – Leeds, U.K. @ Brudenell Social Club
06 – London, U.K. @ Electric Brixton
10 – Melbourne, Australia @ Festival Hall *
11 – Sydney, Australia @ Hordern Pavilion *
15 – Brisbane, Australia @ Fortitude Music Hall *
18 – Perth, Australia @ Red Hill *

(* = supporting Mac DeMarco)