Video: Odd Nosdam: "Kill Tone"
Anticon instrumental music that favors thick atmospheres, repetition, and dramatic tension over structure doesn't always withstand scrutiny on its own terms, but it makes for an effective soundtrack. This, of course, is not a bad thing, and in the case of label vet Odd Nosdam (né David Madson), it almost seems like a pre-compositional consideration. "Kill Tone", from his latest record Level Live Wires, mixes dreamlike plucked strings atop a dissonant sound-bed suggesting factory ambience sent through a patchy cell-phone signal, slowly building toward a frantic climax.
The crisp, well-produced video takes the opposite tack of the song's title, imagining the cycle of life through the tale of an infant doll running through what appears to be a desolate snow-globe, guided by a bee. The nature-oriented symbology is as obvious as the digitized camera-shakes moving along with the throbbing drums, and just as rewarding. The superimposed stomach cell-division toward the end is a bit forced, but I'd be lying if I denied feeling a little touch of sentimentality at the conclusion, when the baby takes flight, leaves appear, and, I'm assuming, the cycle starts anew. Ravi Zupa directs.