Spyrodon creates music which is quixotically classic, not because it plays by the rules, but because the composition choices they’ve made lie outside of the era and trends that they were created in without the burden of melodic nostalgia or predictable fan service requirements. At first glance the 2021 release “Sanctimonium” shares more in common with European Progressive Rock from the likes of Jean-Pierre Massiera and Tito Schipa Jr. than the twangy Psych Rock of the 2020’s. Small nods to 80’s bands B52’s, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Gary Numan can be also heard in places, but those ephemereal moments come and go quickly like a Jazz quote of Monk or Dizzy. What excites me about this album is how nimble it all feels, even on the slower ethereal tracks. Spyrodon’s forward-leaning instrumentation are driven towards a percussion/rhythm mode of play which keeps the songs on their toes intead of droning and dragging into sustained doom guitar quicksand. Topping it all are the personal, edgy, folk, and raw vocals. Tara Foley and Alex Theodoropulos have found the sweet spot in tag-teaming female and male vocals that creatively interact within a rich sonic landscape that produces concrete and rewarding music from the interplay of live song as heard echoing and spiraling in the distance.

~Written by music collector and writer, Three @SpelloftheBlackSpiral

In this time of disease, civil unrest, and corporate domination, Spyrodon, the potent musical duo of New York visual artists Alex Theodoropulos and Tara Foley, have unleashed their debut album, Medusa Pond. A fast-moving amalgamation of LSD drenched garage rock with a pounding post punk pulse, Spyrodon’s Medusa Pond is a call to arms for artists and an album’s worth of sonic support for French poet Baudelaire’s theory that “strangeness is a necessary ingredient in beauty.” Kicking off with a massive bass rumble and a tumble of drums, “Pouring Mud”’s fevered noise rock sets the stage for over a half hour of frantic rockers, off kilter jams, and moments of unexpected tranquility. An early highlight, “Middle Man” is an immediate art damaged rocker imploring people to hop off the fence and join the fray, while on “Time Honored Lips,” Foley comes on like the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s Karen O over a sped-up post punk maelstrom. A direct rebuttal against artistry being smothered by commerce, “Genius People” is a protest against what places like San Francisco have become delivered over a bedrock bassline and detonating guitar. The lyrics announce that “your domination is killing my sensation now/ You might be genius people, but you’re boring me foul.” Later, “Time Bomb” finds Theodoropulos and Foley singing together over boiling kettles of guitar. It’s a song that recalls Carrion Crawler/The Dream-era Thee Oh Sees when Brigid Dawson was onboard to add her vocals to the great California garage rock band. On Medusa Pond, Spyrodon don’t stay in one lane. “Vaseline Smear” is fractured New Wave with Foley’s glammy vocals and Theodoropulos’ otherworldly guitar lines. “Millions of Miles in My Head” sounds like The Jesus Lizard hitched a ride through a Texas Hellscape with the Butthole Surfers at the wheel. The storm clouds lift for the gorgeous “Angels Tongue,” the musical equivalent of a desert night under a sky of cooling stars. With liquid guitar and lyrics that seem to tell a timeless story, the song is a balm, a dispatch from the heavens, and a moment of earned peace. By the time of Medusa Pond’s closing jam, Theodoropulos is singing “I don’t even know what to say” over a tornado of soloing guitar. No worries as he’s already said enough on this powerful, feverish debut.

~Written by music critic and travel writer Stuart Thornton
~For more writing by Stuart Thornton, please visit www.stuartthornton.com