The veteran Chicago-based indie label Thrill Jockey has been snapping up Baltimore bands left and right as of late, including Thank You and most recently Double Dagger. And earlier this year, Pontiak made their Thrill Jockey debut in a rather interesting format: a split album with hometown labelmates Arbouretum, released not on CD but on vinyl and via digital release, each band contributing both original material and covers of solo material by John Cale of the Velvet Underground.

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Arbouretum opens Kale ambitiously with the longest of its three songs, “Time Doesn’t Lie,” which clocks in at nearly ten minutes. It’s also far and away the album’s highlight, with a chorus full of soaring harmonies that eventually gives way to a long, slowly dissolving instrumental coda. The two songs that follow, “Flood of Floods” and the Cale cover “Buffalo Ballet,” are by comparison mellower and less striking, but still carry Arbouretum’s strangely bewitching sense of grandeur. After the somewhat muted and austere atmosphere of Arbouretum’s half of the album, Pontiak comes storming in quite abruptly with “Dome Under The Sky,” although they too lead with their most aggressive song, and finish Kale with quieter material.

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However mellower they are compared to “Dome Under The Sky,” Pontiak shine most brightly on their two Cale covers. “The Endless Plain of Fortune” in particular feels fairly epic, with two lengthy guitar solos reminiscent of Neil Young. The entire album, recorded at Pontiak’s home studio, is about as cohesive as a split album by two separate bands could be, and in some ways it feels like Arbouretum and Pontiak are two sides of the same coin, kindred spirits who decided to highlight their similarities and contrasts on record instead of merely playing shows together.