Poi Dog Pondering

December 1 - 7 , 1 9 9 5

*** Poi Dog Pondering

POMEGRANATE

(Pomegranate Records/Bar/ None)

The first release from Poi Dog Pondering in three years is a joyous celebration of just how varied and colorful rock music -- if in fact this is rock -- can be. PDP, now a 12-piece group fronted by founder Frank Orrall, have always been about eclectic experimentation with feel-good multi-instrumentalism. And much of Pomegranate sounds like a wild party, a place where big horns compete with strings and bleeping synths, and yet somehow everything fits.

But this time around PDP have incorporated a contrasting side, introducing Pomegranate with the graceful orchestrated jangle and picaresque imagery of "Catacombs" ("Words are like a stream pouring out of my mouth," sings Orrall) and the title track's sinewy, bass-driven whisper. Then, slowly, the album builds momentum, the songs warming up into funkified freedom, full of ballast and bravado, from the Kraftwerk-meets-disco of "Chain" to the sleek harmonies and '70s guitar of "Diamonds & Buttermilk." PDP's pairing of seeming opposites -- getting them not only to work but to groove -- makes this party something to remember.