Every Odd Nosdam, or should I say David Madson release should be greeted with a certain reverence. Life, his latest release is no exception. After all, there are so many people who have in many ways revolutionized aspects of beats/hip-hop music, and Odd Nosdam is certainly one of them.
Bringing about such labels as Anticon and acts like cLOUDDEAD, all the production he has done, but when you add to that the extensive catalog of albums he came up with under his name since 2001, gives him a special place in the beat pantheon.
The problem “true” beat lovers always had with Odd Nosdam is that his music could never be easily put into any strict category. Yes, the beats were always there, but then there was always something else - pure ambient, dub, shoegaze, even noise. Yes, you could even dance to all of this, of course, if you had a somewhat different concept of what dance is, but it could be done, nonetheless.
But the thing with Madson and any of his 16 or so releases so far is that he turned the music for the body into the music for the mind too. It could be melancholic, even bleak at times, but it was never boring or dull. It constantly made you wonder where Odd Nosdam is taking you to.
No exception here. If the cover of LIF reminds post-rock lovers of the cover of Labradford’s E Luxo So, in some ways so does the music in the sense of the atmosphere it creates. It is all monochrome black and white spaces, with the accent on spaces. But then, as with other Odd Nosdam albums, the shifts and innovations are there, but moving like the liquid in those ink-blot bags - slowly and I’m unpredictable directions.
This time around Nosdam, like with the title of the album and all the songs, seems to hide a certain element (letter), letting the listener guess what and where it is. But are the beats there? Don’t be fooled, they certainly are. But like in the title track, they’re simply slowed down and drawn out like a “Double Bubble” chewing gum and taking you into completely new directions. An essential release.
