Beginning with soft, dreamy synths, the first song from Qualia At Odds — the seventh album in nine years from Melbourne-based musician Vilde (known to his mates as Thomas Savage) — starts gently.
The synths are soon joined by additional electronic textures, stuttering percussion and fluctuating, floating vocals that remind us of Bombay Bicycle Club and Harry Heart. “Barren Still” is silky smooth but it’s also not without an edge. There’s a feeling about the pairing of voice and music that evokes a sense of warmth and comfort but also something more. It’s a quality that’s hard to define but — for want of a better expression — we’re going to go with “off-kilter”.
“Isle” starts with a persistent beat and feels warped and woozy as it opens up. Musically it comes across a bit like The Postal Service, with perhaps a touch of a more subdued Miike Snow thrown in for good measure. As the song progresses, it gets bassier and darker and comes into its own. Charming and endearing in a way not unlike early Hot Chip, there’s a naivety to the music here but it’s also, quite quietly, a bit of a banger.
With it’s retro-sounding electro tones, “Slow Dance Into Limbo” feels something like synthwave as it begins, but over time, with the addition of further elements, it balances itself out and blossoms into something more. Towards the middle of the tack the woozy feeling that first appeared in the first song is back. A bit like Boys Age, the instrumentation feels wet, warm, and wobbly. It’s a unique experience and not one we encounter very often. The guitar parts in the later half of the song are a particular highlight.
Up next is “Free & Frightened”, which employs the beefiest percussion we’ve encountered so far. The drums pound and the synths swirl around them and the vocals come in and add to the audible haze. The song has us feeling foggy until the acoustic guitar cuts through. But this respite is only momentary. A twinkling electric guitar comes in and takes us back down into the bubbly bog. We drown in a sea of melody and we stare into a mirage of sound. The bass notes that appear at about half way though are a nice change of pace and feel like they bring us back to the surface. As the song reaches its apex, we can’t help but notice slight peaking in some places that sound like a crackling fire. The song ends with a combination of acoustic instruments being gently strummed and picked. This sudden burst of momentary musical minimalism feels at odds with the technological technicolour that came before it, and the contrast works beautifully.
“Austral” is another wonky one. Starting with an assortment of conflicting guitars that sound a bit like synths (we think?), it is a relatively abstract piece, at least for the first minute. It takes a sharp left turn and becomes much more conventional in its arrangement, but only for a matter of seconds. Laid back Bonobo-style beats and bubbly synths provide a gap in the clearing before we’re immersed again in the quirky undergrowth. It’s quickly followed by “Quale”, a brief atmospheric interlude. At only 54 seconds long, it builds an audible world in a remarkably short space of time. Dark, haunting, and brooding, the use of what sounds like a polyphonic octave generator pedal adds a nice additional dimension to the overall palette of the album.
“Strewn River” reintroduces the well-established sonic identify of the album. That is to say: It’s cool, calm, and a little bit crooked. We’re getting laid back Metronomy vibes on this one. As with a lot of the songs on the album, there’s a whimsy to the songwriting here that also feels underpinned by an indistinct contravening anxiousness.
“Skirting The Boards, Skirting The Leather” opens with a keyboard sound that sounds a bit like a siren. It’s joined by some pared back electronic percussion and is instantly vibey. The vocal comes in and they’re the sweetest they’ve been thus far. The song is comforting, meditative and extremely disciplined. It’s followed by “At Odds”, which has the most conventional-sounding instrumentation on the whole album. Comprised entirely of a solo piano, it brings to mind the beautiful work of Dustin O’Halloran. Another very short interlude (52 seconds, to be precise) it doesn’t hang around long, but what there is of it is startlingly beautiful.
“Insofar” is up next, and reminds us a bit of the songwriting of Swedish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Loney Dear. There’s an endearing fragility to the vocal on this track that is charming and arresting. There’s also some killer saxophone courtesy of Sydney musician Sean Gage.
“Sunblush” rounds off the album with a minimal, almost trip-hop-like beat coupled with some beautiful keyboard parts on the verses in particular. This song comes across as epic and intimate at the same time; it could work stripped back, played to a stunned, silent audience in a 100 cap room, but it could also be reworked as a soundtrack a dramatic scene in a blockbuster movie. You don’t get that very often.
An experienced world traveler and an avid music-maker, Thomas appears to have taken his lived experiences, environments and their influences and rolled them into one easy to listen to package. Treat yourself and get to grips with Qualia At Odds below.
Written by Kinda Grizzly
