Ponytail - Ice CreamSpiritual

Mon 11th May, 2009 in Music Reviews

Coming across like a tsunami of colour and rapturous eclecticism, Ponytail rose from the ashes of an art school project. They were able to harness their schizophrenic live sound and wrestle it onto their second full length, Ice Cream Spiritual.

Dropping the bass, Ponytail are twin guitars, drums and the enigma that is Molly Siegel. She is the focal point of the band with her lurching yelps and squealing incantations that many would dismiss as annoying or grating. In any other band that would be a fair accusation, but in Ponytail her voice is merely another instrument. It acts like the top E string on a guitar, bending notes and wailing solos, or the scattershot rhythms of the drum kit fed through a vocal processor. The closest comparison to her style (if that is possible) is Sue Tompkins from the now defunct Life Without Buildings. Siegel’s energy and projection is what brings Ponytail to life on Ice Cream Spiritual, delivering the icing on the already impressive cake.

Beg Waves opens proceedings with a psych electronic sounding loop and Siegel’s chirps and grunts, before opening out into a wide field of pounding drums and incessant post-punk riffage. The guitar melodies cascade and tumble over one another, fighting for air. It is a truly invigorating start to the album. Where to from there? G Shock is like all the Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs played at the same time, while 7 Souls sounds like a lost – œ60s garage classic in a post-hardcore blender trying to control its limbs on some alien dancefloor.

Celebrate The Body Electric (It Came From An Angel) is the centrepiece of the album, summing up the best of what Ponytail do. Hard and chiming Sonic Youth guitars surge onwards, while a half-time melody lulls you into a false sense of calm. They then chop it all up into a collage of chants and free jazz skronk. Seven minutes later you have been loved and beaten into a delirious state of submission.

Many bands have attempted to create the noise pop template. Bands like Wolf Eyes and Lightning Bolt have stepped to the noise side of the room. No Age does many similar things to Ponytail, though in a more mannered form. Dan Deacon is a fellow Baltimore musician who provides inspiration to the band and you can hear the repetition and ecstatic elements of his music across this album.

Ponytail have delivered a record of such unbridled chaos and celebration that you can’t help but keep coming back to it, finding new hooks and melodies to smile to each time. Where they go to from here is anyone’s guess. However, once Ice Cream Spiritual gets inside your head it is hard to ignore that this may well already be their defining document – a gloriously unhinged Technicolor cartoon of sound.

Ice Cream Spiritual is out now on Popfrenzy Records.