Dan Goldman goes by the name Luxury Pond. He has a new self-titled album out and he appears to have a My Little Pony tattoo. He has also taken time out to answer the Suitcase Orchestra Q & A.

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Boulders

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin

What was the last album you bought?

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle by Bill Callaghan
Tell us an interesting fact.

According to the book Tree by David Suzuki, it’s still not known exactly how a tree pumps water from its roots to its leaves. Some say surface tension, some say osmosis, but “the currently favored hypotheses is that evaporation from the leaves creates a vacuum behind it, and the vacuum draws water up through the xylem.”

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.

Snowblink

What film would you be a character in?

Crossroads and/or the Karate Kid

Recommend a book.

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCuller

What’s the worst record in your collection?

Well, they’re all pretty great, but I think there may be a Plastic Ono primal therapy one in the bunch.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.

I’ll offer a question you should never ask instead:

What comes first, the lyrics or the music?

FInd out more about Luxury Pond HERE.

Hot on the heels of Andrew Morgan’s ‘Please Kid, Remember’ comes another contender for most autumnal record of the year. Play this outdoors and mists will descend and leaves will turn golden and fall like teardrops.

Essentially a folky collection of songs, the sound is given a richer texture through the use of sound washes and the St. Kitts String Quartet. Strings have been arranged by Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy who has previously written arrangements on both of the Arcade Fire albums as well as on Luxury Pond’s debut, ‘Through A Revolution’. His work here complements singer Dan Goldman’s plaintive vocals perfectly, adding strength and light to songs such as ‘Caving In’ and ‘Truest Nature’, which from hushed beginnings swells to sounding positively cacophonous in comparison to the rest of the album.

Similarly, the vocals provided by Daniela Gesundheit (from Snowblink) add an element of ether to the outstanding ‘The Bones’ and ‘Clay’.

Recorded in a single day, perfectionists might gripe at the occasional cracks in Goldman’s vocals but such glitches add something to the mix. All too often, records like this can sound over produced and sterile. ‘I went into the process willing to trade the idea of perfection for a feeling of honesty,’ he explains. Mission accomplished then.

Goldman describes his lyrics as having a skewed perspective and across the album plays with ideas about prehistoric sharks, Moses and making portraits from clay, though it isn’t clear whether or not this is a response to Lionel Richie’s video for ‘Hello’.

‘Luxury Pond’ is available to download here for eight Canadian Dollars and eighty eight cents. That’s a mere five quid to those of us this side of the Atlantic.

Or you can have a listen first here.