Amanita (album)

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Amanita

Studio album by Bardo Pond
Released	April 1996
Genre	Space Rock, Psychedelic rock
Length	70+ mins.
Label	Matador Records (CD, cass.)/ Drunken Fish Records (2xLP)
Producer(s)	J. Cox and Bardo Pond
All Music Guide link
Bardo Pond chronology
Bufo Alvarius, Amen 29:15 (1995)	Amanita (1996)	Lapsed (1997)

Amanita was the third album by Bardo Pond, released in 1996. It was released as a double vinyl LP on Drunken Fish Records, as well as a single CD and cassette on Matador Records; it was their first release on Matador. (The vinyl version has two bonus tracks.) Counting their four early self-released cassettes, this is the band's sixth or seventh album, but is generally viewed as their third officially-released album.

The album title refers to the highly-toxic Amanita genus of mushrooms, a few of which have hallucinogenic properties. (The pre-release cassette was entitled The High Frequency, causing the album to occasionally still be called this.) "RM" is named after one of the band's father figures and collaborators (as Hash Jar Tempo), New Zealand guitarist Roy Montgomery.

A Drunken Fish mail-order catalog described the album thusly:

"As the resin oozes on, sticking everything in its path to the couch, Bardo stumbles into the 2nd phase of a full length zone-out. Limp-lidded guitars are in more abundance than ever, courses are being plotted with the controls set for the heart of the bowl, and somewhere deep inside a 'rock' band has emerged... however baked it may be."

All lyrics were written by Isobel Sollenberger, and all music by Bardo Pond.