Nodalus and Barbour concert at the Spanel Planetarium
By Josh Hughes
As part of the ongoing concert series at the Spanel Planetarium, Bellingham bands Nodalus and arbour will be performing on December 3 at 7:30 p.m. The last Planetarium show of the quarter, both artists provide original music and video art for the performance.
Nodalus, aka Troy Bohman, hails from Kenmore, WA, and considers himself a “bedroom beat junkie”. In vein with Flying Lotus, Madlib, or J Dilla, Bohman’s beats have a jazzy, off- kilter vibe to them that you might consider instrumental hip hop or the treaded term “trip hop”. His most full project, “that secret shit”, which came out in 2015, takes his most close-to-finished instrumentals to culminate in something like a mixtape. He says he may rework some of these pieces to eventually create an official album, but until then he’s content dropping Soundcloud gem after Soundcloud gem.
His beats range from mellow, keyboard driven grooves to upbeat, bassy motifs that recall Thundercat. The drum machines boom and snap with the grit of 90s hip hop, and the synths wash over everything like a silky waterfall. Tracks like “The Best Part of the Bigger Picture” combine all of his best assets into fully formed tracks that don’t sound too far off from a BADBADNOTGOOD groove session. Every song is dusted in late night smoke, sounding like the aural equivalent of a hazy drive down Ii-5 at midnight. A veteran in the Washington beat scene, expect Nodalus’ set to make your head drift into the cosmos, or at least the ceiling of the planetarium.
Hans Watkins, who goes by the moniker arbour similarly makes lo-fi beats with intricate rhythms and bass heavy grooves. Yet where Nodalus finds more inspiration in jazzy hip hop beats, arbour takes cues from the smoothed out soul of King Krule and Bon Iver by crafting warm, fluid beats.
Another artist who has existed in and around the Bellingham scene for half a decade, arbour’s music finds a soft spot between some of the spaciest contemporary EDM and the ambient folk roots of S. Carey.
arbour’s beats usually find solace in heavy reverb and slightly delayed drums, while different types of organic sounding synths warp in and out of focus. Like Nodalus, most of arbour’s discography lies in the depths of Soundcloud one-off, but he also has multiple full length albums available online. This year’s “Old Growth” has many of the same characteristics of his previous releases, but here some of the tracks deal more with the ambient side of electronic music, recalling Blithe Field’s mellow, drugged out sampling. Saxophones and dark wurlitzers line the edges of the tracks, and the cohesive project is a calming, hypnotic experience.
While previous shows at the Spanel Planetarium have included a variety of genres and bands, Nodalus and arbour lend themselves well to the atmosphere of the space. Each artist will provide their own visuals to fill the dome while 45 lucky audience members get to indulge in the intimacy of such a venue.
Tickets are $3 and can be purchased online or at the WWU Box Office. There are only 45 spots available in the Planetarium, so nab your tickets before the night of the show. The Spanel Planetarium is located on the third floor of Haggard Hall.