By Josh Hughes
This week’s top album at KUGS, to no surprise, is the latest record by hometown heroes Odesza, “A Moment Apart”. Complete with the usual aural assault of vocal splices, pounding drums and eternally uplifting chords, the album signifies Odesza’s second phase as a now bigtime EDM act.
Curiously opening with a quote from Mike Cahill’s 2011 emotionally gripping sci-fi film, “Another Earth”, “Intro” posits the album as a sonic journey through the cosmos. The quote, which retells the story of a Russian cosmonaut falling in love with the sound of an incessant clicking outside his spacecraft, inadvertently suggests that Odesza’s own music is like falling in love with an annoying, repetitive sound. Huh.
I’m only half joking here— “A Moment Apart” achieves many of the production goals it sets out for itself and serves as quite a listenable experience chalked full of guest vocalists and instrumental interludes. Likely named after one of Bellingham’s most populated streets, “Meridian” blends children’s vocals with lower range chanting and string segments with a level of expertise rarely seen in this genre of mild mannered electronica. Regina Spektor’s vocal turn on “Just A Memory” hauntingly centers around Odesza’s unusually spare production to culminate in a well executed ballad. However, in certain stretches of the album songs bleed into each other too indistinctly where tempos do not vary much and vocal samples start to sound eerily familiar.
Curiously opening with a quote from Mike Cahill’s 2011 emotionally gripping sci-fi film, “Another Earth”, “Intro” posits the album as a sonic journey through the cosmos. The quote, which retells the story of a Russian cosmonaut falling in love with the sound of an incessant clicking outside his spacecraft, inadvertently suggests that Odesza’s own music is like falling in love with an annoying, repetitive sound. Huh.
I’m only half joking here— “A Moment Apart” achieves many of the production goals it sets out for itself and serves as quite a listenable experience chalked full of guest vocalists and instrumental interludes. Likely named after one of Bellingham’s most populated streets, “Meridian” blends children’s vocals with lower range chanting and string segments with a level of expertise rarely seen in this genre of mild mannered electronica. Regina Spektor’s vocal turn on “Just A Memory” hauntingly centers around Odesza’s unusually spare production to culminate in a well executed ballad. However, in certain stretches of the album songs bleed into each other too indistinctly where tempos do not vary much and vocal samples start to sound eerily familiar.
This being said, Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight have, by all means, broken outside of their niche in the electronic scene. Now that they’re headlining stadiums and performing with renowned drumlines, Odesza have, by necessity, shied their sound enough beyond the one-trick pony of some of their earlier work. Without falling into electronica oblivion or opting into Chainsmokers’ KraMac N’ Cheese EDM, “A Moment Apart” sees a band at the crux of probably the biggest moment of their career.
While it has its drab moments, the album achieves much of what it sets out to do, and functions more efficiently as a compilation of singles— something perfect for KUGS. Use this record sparingly for best results. When “La Ciudad”, the thirteenth song on a sixteen track album, plays by itself, there’s a much fresher immediacy and uniqueness that dissipates when played in the tracklist.
“A Moment Apart” is not the annoying repetition of sounds that ultimately become peaceful as much as it is a long melodic drone that eventually becomes white noise. When the cosmonaut wakes up from naps every now and then, however, he might pay attention to the sound and experience the most cathartic of feelings.
“A Moment Apart” is not the annoying repetition of sounds that ultimately become peaceful as much as it is a long melodic drone that eventually becomes white noise. When the cosmonaut wakes up from naps every now and then, however, he might pay attention to the sound and experience the most cathartic of feelings.