If something seems odd to you, maybe that’s not in the nature of the thing, but because of your own perspective. Maybe oddity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Sometimes the two go together, like in the music of Odd Beholder. The Swiss duo plays ethereal pop music that makes you want to daydream, but in their best songs there’s an odd detail that makes it even more beautiful.
In “Landscape Escape“, it was the one 5/4 bar at the beginning of every verse, an example of how a song’s structure can be adapted to the rhythm of a melody. In “Gravity“, only the vocals are present on a lot of the first beats of a bar, which creates a free-falling sensation.
These two songs were released last year on Odd Beholder’s first EP, the six-song “Lightning“. Half a year later, the band followed it with a second one called “Atlas“. Among the five tracks was “Coins”, whose video explores the relation between an ironworker/dancer and her night-time customer.
In “Coins”, the oddity is subtler. The underlying pulse is hectic at first, but after the beatless second verse, the simple use of a snare slows it down into a half-time version of itself.
In parallel to the lyrics about the value of money, the music seems to try and teach us to see things from a different perspective. Take a step back and see the real colour of notes and musical form.
You may find that what at first seems natural is really an oddity, and that the oddity is the true beauty.
Stream “Atlas” EP on Bandcamp.
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Photo: Christian Neuenschwander
