Released: 7th November 2011
Label: FatCat Records
Genre: Surf-pop/punk/garage
TL;DR: Pretty good. 7/10
Hollandaze is the new album by formerly solo-turned-band Odonis Odonis. This is an album comprised of ideas recorded by leader Dean Tzenos during the months of January 2009 and September 2010 in a tiny home studio, before turning to the city of Chicago and rerecording with Colin Stewart of Black Mountain fame.
The crash of drums and the harsh garage tones which swell each of the 11 tracks featured certainly force the listener’s attention towards them. The Jesus And Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine-styled acoustics make Hollandaze a very exciting and full sounding record. Full of great riffs, Bauhaus-like personalities and a need to be played over and over, it’s a very enjoyable listen.
We begin with the title track. It introduces the listener to the sound of Odonis Odonis: clangy, distant guitar riffs tear through while other sounds are smothered against one another, while drums occasionally break through. All of this chaos is seemingly controlled by the atmosphere of highly reverb-enhanced vocals from Tzenos.
While the description brings upon connotations of a sound which is bloated and overbearing, Tzenos does a great job of filling it out equally through the track’s allotted timeslots. Listen to Bauhaus’ The Sky’s Gone Out for a true example of this.
There are a lot of directions taken in Hollandaze, producing both exciting and relaxing results. Though some of the tracks sound as if they have been held back slightly, there are definitely moments where Tzenos truly lets some off the chain and run around for a minute or so. Such as the track White Flag, it’s under 2 minutes of pure hard-edged rock, all encased by the aggressiveness behind Tzenos’ voice.
Hollandaze is certainly a great listen. It has everything needed to make an impression on the listener: A slightly different sound, unique vocalist, great mixing, great ideas, and fantastic riffs with even better manipulation of tempo too. It can make a listener feel amped up and ready to punch something one track, and then pleasantly relaxed the next.
YOUR COMMENTS
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