Odonis Odonis

Odonis Odonis, the project of Toronto's multi-instrumentalist Dean Tzenos Hollandaze (Fat Cat, 2011) concocted a furious sound bred out of juxtaposing surf guitar from the 1960s and dark-punk outbursts from the 1980s, like Dick Dale jamming with alternatively Big Black or Joy Division, a strategy best embodied by Ledged Up. However, that strategy also yields melody, as the old-fashioned voodoobilly of Busted Lip and the vintage psychedelic-pop of Handle Bars prove. If Blood Feast winks a bit too obviously at mainstream U2-esque arena-rock, and the hypnotic lullaby Seedgazer is too mellow to truly engage, a case of unrestrained madness fuels the pounding gargatuan (but way too brief) White Flag Riot and the gloomy garage rant of New World. Eccentric nuances pop up everywhere in the brutal and raw arrangements, bestowing a sense of maximum instability onto the songs.