odawas - in blue depths

Odawas – In Blue Depths
[Inertia: 2009]
Like a lot of people, one of the main reasons I am such a fan of listening to music can be traced back to sifting through my parents’ record collection as a kid.
Putting on record after record (usually based on how cool the cover looked) introduced me to the sunny Californian sounds of the Beach Boys and the metal wailing of Black Sabbath, and for that I thank my parents. What I don’t thank them for is introducing me to “Relaxation Music”. Every night for years I could hear it down the hall: the whip bird, the water fall, and the eerie cry of the humpback whale. You remember those Rainforest whales…
If only I had ‘In Blue Depths’ back then.

Filled with slow building ambient layers that accompany the haunting and beautiful vocals of Michael Tapscott, this record could be mistaken for the alternative soundtrack to Twin Peaks. There is definitely a lot of synthesized sound throughout, but there is also a strong presence of stripped-back strings and acoustic guitar melodies that are heavily laced with the folk sound of the 1960s. Let me put it this way: if Fleet Foxes got together with M83 and made an album produced by Sigor Ros you would have something very similar to what Odawas has created with ‘In Blue Depths’.
It’s subtle, lush and very effective; and without having to summons the cry of a whale ‘In Blue Depths’ is the closest version of “Relaxation Music” it gets.




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