Hollandaze

Dean Tzenos—the force behind Toronto’s Odonis Odonis—is part of the surf‘n’noise brigade, joining bands like Wavves and (early) Surfer Blood in filtering the distortion and grit of shoegaze and industrial music into the twang of surf rock and the architecture of pop. The sound is cavernous and dark, menacing and dangerous, yet Tzenos creates nuance in places you wouldn’t expect. “Blood Feast” and “We Are the Leftovers” do a terrible job of snuffing the beauty out of what might be tales of murderous delight (even the horror-movie organs have an ethereal glow). The simmering, six-minute “Seedgazer” starts as a loopy drone (evoking a turntable needle stuck at the end of a Joy Division track) and ends in a psych-rock groove. The bubbling surf guitar on “Ledged Up” rings with surprising clarity as Tzenos’ shrouded vocals portend the ghostly, chain-rattling doom of the last third of the song. On “Hollandaze,” the intoxicating brew of staccato surf guitar and hiccupping drumbeats is wrapped in so much echo you fear the song will cease due to lack of air. (Spoiler alert: it survives.)