Kings of the Otherworld

Odelia
The Angel as an Imposter
(9-song CD)

Fullerton's Odelia aren't a band as much as they're sonic constructionists, mood-setters and atmosphere-crafters—four guys who operate in swaths of mystery and melancholy, with a unique canon of otherworldly instrumentations and electronic diddling à la Grandaddy. You often don't have a clue how they're making certain sounds, but you're too enraptured to care much anyway. The Angel as an Imposter is a fine extension of their previous disc, Argyplanischa, but with a bit more of everything. The bass and drums are more prominent and the guitars are crankier—even uncharacteristically loud and speedy, like three minutes and 40 seconds into their dumpster-diving mini-opera "I've Come to Realize That I Know Nothing About Everything, and Everything About Nothing," and yeah, that's the title. Almost all nine tracks here are laden with heavy echo effects, disembodied, barely-there vocal trickery and obtuse-but-dreamy lyrics. We still don't know if "Cutting Diamonds in the Night" is a love song, a suicide song or something else entirely. "Wake" is gauzy and airy, like your cerebrum on painkillers. "Cloud Trumpet" comes off like their attempt at Big-Banging a new aural universe, where the cymbals roll around as if Zeus was trying to bugger your eardrums. Odelia make lovely music—beautiful, but occasionally disturbing. Not a band you'd want to hire for a wedding or mitzvah, but they'd provide the perfect soundtrack for a David Lynch movie.

Contact: (714) 334-6624; odeliamusic@yahoo.com.

OC and Long Beach bands and musicians! Mail your CDs and tapes (along with your vital contact info, plus any impending performance dates) for possible review to: Locals Only,OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627-0247. Please let us know if you'd like us to post your mp3 on ocweekly.com/records.