My first exposure to Ponies in the Surf was at one of their recent shows. They played a small dive bar with a short platform in one corner; Alex McGregor sat hugging his classical guitar to his chest, his sister Camille standing beside him, swaying gently and snapping her fingers. Their graceful demeanor alone was captivating enough, and the sound they created was quietly stunning and surprisingly rich for their pared-down approach. It's something I wish everybody could see.
Their 2004 EP, A Demonstration, faithfully captured the experience with almost no instrumental accompaniment to Alex's deft, mature, classically-informed guitar playing and the siblings' unique voices: Alex's, a sharply nasal chirp almost like a reed instrument; Camille's, a tender, breathy coo. With Ponies on Fire, things have changed considerably.
Their live performances and earlier recordings are skeletal but dense, fully capable of standing on their own, but opening vast and multiple avenues for reinvention — in the case at hand, this has come to dousing them in reverb and augmenting them with ornamental, psychedelic flourishes such as a church organ, Pink Floyd-esque drumming, tape loops, birdsong, and the stumbling, mildly atonal waltz of "Piano Intermission," all while maintaining the duo's understatedness.
But this is more than just dressed-up, affected folk-pop. Ponies have created an idiosyncratic logic that takes some getting accustomed to. These songs are often complex and prismatic, twisting key and rhythm on a dime in moments that can appear clumsy or arbitrary at first glance, but are in fact pretty damn clever at times. Their lyrical content is unapologetically sweet, a typically risky approach that they manage to pull off in a totally disarming way. Literal imagery like "Pair of brown couches we picked up off the street/ It's all my friends need to come curl up and sleep" are peppered with playful surrealisms like the dual-vocalled "Young Mr. Fallwell, he's on the street/ We both want to attend your next gone show/ And we'll take notes like everyone," as well as frequent staccato "ba-dum bum pum pum"s.
What's especially exciting about Ponies on Fire is its indication that we can expect only more surprises from these two. Nothing resembling a fixed course has been established, and the plasticity of their songwriting provides a kind of perennial clean slate. And for now, this is an utterly satisfying gem of a record.
1. Joe
2. Part One
3. Little Boy Lost
4. Too Many Birds
5. Fairy in My House
6. Slow Down Sugar
7. New Century Program
8. Piano Intermission
9. Mimi Come Home
10. Gov't Brand #2
11. Sing My Lord
12. Casey
13. Aviary
14. Untitled