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ODONIS ODONIS

Odonis Odonis

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    Odonis Odonis have proven time and time again that they’re not interested in doing the same thing twice. Since their beginnings, the Toronto outfit led by core duo Constantin Tzenos and Denholm Whale, have put out five full-length albums, and played countless shows and festivals across North America and Europe, all while following their musical instincts. In the past eleven years, they’ve thrillingly explored genres including post-punk, EBM, industrial, shoegaze, pop, and surf rock. For their next evolution, Odonis Odonis are shifting from the grind of the traditional music industry with its unsustainable physical and psychological demands, to strictly focus on meaningful creative endeavors. These include releasing music, album production, and event production, and draw on Tzenos and Whale’s collective talents and experience. From producing, scoring, and mastering at Tzenos’s new studio After Hours, to countless curated shows through Whale’s co-run concert company Transmit Presents, these past and forthcoming projects were chosen selectively, and with the intention of working with individuals they respect and admire.

    The duo describe their collaborative EP ICON as a “calling card,” and it perfectly encapsulates the new iteration of Odonis Odonis. Following their 2021 album Spectrums, they started working on this collection of five songs, writing them geared towards some of their favorite veteran and up-andcoming artists. “We wanted to bring out what we admire in them and prove that we can do a variety of styles,”explains Whale.

    Some like New York noise rock mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers, Pittsburgh experimentalist TOBACCO, and Vancouver post-punks ACTORS, they’ve previously shared stages and tour vans with, while others like Vancouver darkwave singer and pianist Terror Bird and Los Angeles industrial pop project Patriarchy, are more recent discoveries. The striking artwork comes courtesy of New York-based noise artist Dreamcrusher, another act who shares Whale and Tzenos’ community-minded ethos. Somewhat ironically, by shedding their skin as a band, the duo have embraced the individual spotlight more, and ICON marks the first chapter (with further collaborations to come) of this new Odonis Odonis era.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. X
    2. Model (feat. A Place To Bury Strangers)
    3. Beast (feat. TOBACCO)
    4. Brilliant Things (feat. Terror Bird)
    5. XX
    5. No One Left (feat. Actors)
    6. Passing Us By (feat. SUUNS)
    7. Scapegoat (feat. Patriarchy)
    8. XXX

    Odonis Odonis

    Spectrums

      On Spectrums, Odonis Odonis showcase the extreme ends of their musical margins. Embracing a love of ‘80s goth and darkwave melodicism while maintaining an industrial strength intensity, the dualities of their sound are revealed in a striking new light. With four albums under their belts, the Toronto based duo of Dean Tzenos and Denholm Whale have always followed creative impulses wherever they might take them. Yet while tracing their earliest experiments with surf-rock and shoegaze into more recent dabblings in abrasive EBM, they have never sounded as sonically boundless as this compilation of tracks. Beyond their recorded output, Odonis Odonis have earned a reputation for the ferocity of their live performances, combining cathartic aggression with danceable beats set to pulsating strobe lights and the addition of live drummer Phil Wilson.

      Their 2017 album No Pop was described by Pitchfork as “ claustrophobic electronic music that sounds like the end of the world ,” while they have earned praise from influential sources such as NPR, FADER, Stereogum, and The Needle Drop. Odonis Odonis began as a solo recording outlet for Tzenos in 2010 before evolving into a noisy rock band formation. They have now stripped down to a core duo as the project celebrates a decade of activity. The social limitations of the pandemic found the pair of multi-instrumentalist producers forced to work completely from home for the first time, challenging themselves to step outside of the box and create music they may have shied away from in the past.

      Tzenos describes their newfound process as cherry-picking elements from the angry and occasionally antisocial sound of past releases, but applying an extroverted approach. “This project is the start of the third chapter of the band's evolution,” says Tzenos. “I still feel like we have a lot more to explore musically and writing these songs lit the spark for a lot of new directions. The idea of doing something poppy is a stark contrast to our last record, but as long as the project remains fun and experimental it will keep growing. We’re more like the weird goth kids in the back of the club now.”

      TRACK LISTING

      01. Trust
      02. More
      03. Shadow Play
      04. Impossible
      05. Laced In Leather
      06. A Body
      07. Get Out
      08. Slow Drip
      09. In The Fire
      10. Salesmen

      RIYL: D.A.F., Nine Inch Nails, HEALTH, Metz. Toronto underground staple Odonis Odonis broke out in 2011 with their scrappy, blown out debut, Hollandaze. The dynamic trio instantly began turning heads with their signature "industrial surf-gaze" sound.

      On their Polaris Prize nominated follow up, Hard Boiled Soft Boiled, Odonis Odonis masterfully crafted a sonically divergent record that pushed their sound into new territory. Odonis Odonis' latest epic, Post Plague, delivers a powerful blend of industrial, electronic and Sci-Fi. Odonis Odonis' post--apocalyptic anthems construct scenes of sci-fi horror and saturate them with industrial strength synth beats. Dean Tzenos' vocals sit clear and upfront, delivered with a foreboding intensity accented by his synth motifs and soundscapes. Denholm Whale's carefully crafted bass figures / electronic percussions are strategically placed like demolition charges throughout the sonic foundations of each track that Jarod Gibson, like some futurist architect, constructs.

      On Post Plague, Odonis Odonis delivers the kind of hypnotic, pulsing destruction that you can't wipe away. Post Plague inhabits that impending reality of synthetic experience which forces us to realize what we are: vulnerable, frantic creatures yearning for an authentic present / future. Jeff Goldblum, in the acclaimed motion picture The Fly, reminds us that we must take a “deep penetrating dive into the plasma pool,” and take stock of ourselves before we lose something profound. Something that may be necessary to ward off a pending anthropogenic apocalypse. Recognize and take pleasure in our fucked up place in time as we have so many new worlds possible at once.

      TRACK LISTING

      01. Fearless
      02. Needs
      03. That’s How It Goes
      04. Nervous
      05. BLTZ
      06. Pencils
      07. Game
      08. Vanta Black
      09. Betrayal
      10. Lust


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