SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JD PINKUS & TALL TALL TREES – PONDER MACHINE

JD Pinkus & Tall Tall Trees
Ponder Machine
Shimmy Disc

Telling you that this is a collaboration between Butthole Surfer’s bassist, JD Pinkus, and Tall Tall Trees (Mike Savino) is only scratching the surface of this collaboration titled Ponder Machine. 

Even knowing that banjos are in the main instrumental role here doesn’t go far enough. You would have to take into consideration the fact that these guys have covered so much musical ground (with or without their banjos), as well as the fact that the album was produced by one and only Kramer, artist/producer who is always somehow involved in the music he produces, but always underlines the main act.

And yes, the banjos are prominent here, but their use is defined not by the instruments, but by the music Pinkus and Savino are trying to create here, and that is spaced-out, psych-heavy space bluegrass of sorts, that starts seemingly innocuously enough with “Sourdough Rag” turns into a full vocal psych-out of “High On The Mountain” (with the accent on high), goes full spaced-out on “Mad County”, and then combines all of the above on the title track, taking another set of rounds on the rest of the 10 or 13 tracks, depending on the physical or digital version.

Simply put, spaced-out in the right way.

JD Pinkus Links

Tall Tall Trees Links