From magnificent altitudes the techno-pop pulses and crystalline synths of Odd Rumblings beckons, almost like an undercurrent or an impending force that is rousing yet unfamiliar. Their songs become physical anecdotes; icy landscapes unthreatening; terrains limitless. And through this escapade into the wilderness, the holy vocals of Audrea Lim and Gabriel Sedgwick summon through the veils of snow and ask us to pause for breath during the “stormy white-noise of modern life”.
- ODD RUMBLINGS -
Gabriel: Audrea has a strong sense of discipline, which spills over into the band work practice itself. She also goes to a lot of parties, and there's an undercurrent of danceability to much of the material. I spent many years singing in a choir in my native Sweden, and also played in a metal band…like every Swede does, basically.
Audrea: If you had asked me a week ago (what my influences were), or were to ask me next week, the answer would probably be different, but right now I'm reading Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, and it's making everything I'm creating a little apocalyptic-feeling and weird.
- THIEVES -
Audrea: Ice Floe was written after a trip to the Canadian Arctic; the vast open spaces and starkness of the landscape stayed with me. I wrote Mister Frosty as an antidote to a Mister Softee ice cream truck that parked outside my window every evening for what seemed like hours, for an entire summer, with its tinny song playing over, and over, and over, and over again. It was an especially hot New York summer.
"Modern War was written during Hurricane Sandy when I was trapped in my apartment and going stir-crazy, sort of like how I imagine drone operators who are secluded in a tiny room all day surrounded by nothing but computer monitors through which they watch unsuspecting people."
Gabriel: Most of the songs have fairly dense layerings of both vocals and instruments. We usually structure them around at least two or three synths, laying down harmonic pads and patterns, with percussion and sometimes double bass lines over it. Then we both sing in harmonies over that – in some songs, we have three harmonies each. Often, vocals mimic and replace synths via big reverbs and long delays, so that vocals and instruments blend together to become indistinguishable
- LISTENING EXPERIENCE -
Audrea: I actually don't listen to music very often in a closed off space. I listen to music on the subway, or while walking, or while doing other things.
Gabriel: I listen in all settings – often like Audrea mentions above – and feel consequently guilty over my increasingly restless attitude towards the listening process itself. In some ways I'd like to program my music players to only be able to press the “skip” button every twenty minutes so as to re-install some patience for the very act of it.
Thieves, the debut EP release from Brooklyn duo, Odd Rumblings, will be released through Public Information on the 10th November 2014.
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