Odd Nosdam

<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Anticon%22">Anticon</a> co-founder Odd Nosdam is a prolific beatmaker known for his atmospheric, pastoral productions that draw from shoegaze and ambient as well as hip-hop and dub. Initially surfacing at the end of the 1990s with a series of self-released beat tapes, he first earned recognition for his work as part of psychedelic hip-hop trio <a href="spotify:artist:5LNpPvvMgrH9lgJLFa1uev">cLOUDDEAD</a> during the early 2000s. Continuing to produce hazy, tape-saturated beats for rappers like <a href="spotify:artist:7JfsqT3StNdmVbK7vM4xgh">Sole</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2E78kTKamtXgdRkK1jrc0f">Sage Francis</a>, he released ambitious, collaboration-heavy albums like Burner (2005) and Level Live Wires (2007) through <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Anticon%22">Anticon</a> before issuing music through other labels beginning in 2009. His work during the 2010s drifted between beat-driven material (Sisters, 2016) and ambient works (LIF, 2017).

Born David Madson in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1976, he started experimenting with looping as a teenager, which eventually led to the purchase of a Dr. Sample and eight-track player while he was a student at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. He began issuing limited cassettes (and eventually CD-Rs) of material recorded at his mother's house, starting with 1998's Anecdoticselfportrait. Soon he was working with future labelmates <a href="spotify:artist:5sEAp7hSgvYjKIEd9r2zBc">Doseone</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0d7aBBLFcc4dlETnae6zcH">Why?</a>, co-producing the latter's Slow Death (The Permanent Cry), and collaborating with both MCs as avant-rap trio <a href="spotify:artist:5LNpPvvMgrH9lgJLFa1uev">cLOUDDEAD</a>. The group signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mush+Records%22">Mush Records</a> and began releasing a series of groundbreaking 10" EPs in 2000, which were compiled as a well-received self-titled full-length in 2001. That same year, the label also reissued Odd Nosdam's Plan 9: Meat Your Hypnotist, originally a self-released tape from 1999.

Odd Nosdam then moved to California to become part of the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Anticon%22">Anticon</a> team, producing albums for many of its members, sharing a split EP with <a href="spotify:artist:0d7aBBLFcc4dlETnae6zcH">Why?</a> in 2001, and self-releasing his own No More Wig for Ohio in 2002 (with a more widely available <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Anticon%22">Anticon</a> reissue in 2003). His next album, Burner, appeared in 2005, and was far more focused than his previous scattered, collage-like releases, featuring guest musicians and vocalists including <a href="spotify:artist:34Ai24gPz5YJ8NbksiNFef">Mike Patton</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4DjufFYghjnOyYcM7EeyQB">Jessica Bailiff</a>, Martin Dosh, and others. The dreamy "Untitled Three" with <a href="spotify:artist:4DjufFYghjnOyYcM7EeyQB">Bailiff</a> was released as a single from the album. Level Live Wires followed two years later, with returning guest <a href="spotify:artist:4DjufFYghjnOyYcM7EeyQB">Bailiff</a> as well as <a href="spotify:artist:3HJIB8sYPyxrFGuwvKXSLR">TV on the Radio</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:3and7uje1nuMnKJczCKox9">Tunde Adebimpe</a>. Pretty Swell Explode, an album of remixes and rarities, followed in 2008, containing remixed versions of <a href="spotify:artist:2VAvhf61GgLYmC6C8anyX1">Boards of Canada</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2zBENk8LtANz3cNlE9suSb">Serena Maneesh</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:4UHzJP2iKVf0RhKIv7ZE2l">Black Moth Super Rainbow</a>, as well as some of his own unreleased work. In 2009, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Anticon%22">Anticon</a> reissued T.I.M.E. Soundtrack, a CD of Odd Nosdam compositions used to score a 2007 Element skateboarding video.

Following this release, Odd Nosdam continued working with some <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Anticon%22">Anticon</a> artists, particularly <a href="spotify:artist:5F3fDx84RYnmx0FGZeRtSF">Serengeti</a> (as part of the rapper's Kenny Dennis series of releases), but he no longer issued his own music on the label. Instead, he continued self-releasing digital mixtapes as well as cassettes on smaller labels like <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sanity+Muffin%22">Sanity Muffin</a> and Baro Records. Swedish Fish, a split tape with <a href="spotify:artist:4KKx8fVJ0y7EcpmYZ42jPc">Matthewdavid</a>, arrived on the latter's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Leaving+Records%22">Leaving Records</a> in 2011. Trish, a tape dedicated to the late Trish Keenan of <a href="spotify:artist:0WtTGUjbur1R1cNzBvbsMU">Broadcast</a>, appeared on Baro in 2013 (with a vinyl release on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sonic+Cathedral+Recordings%22">Sonic Cathedral Recordings</a> three years later). Following several more low-key digital releases and remixes for artists ranging from <a href="spotify:artist:0d1j4VJ7gzAJaDslzmjTF0">El Ten Eleven</a> to <a href="spotify:artist:2L2unNFaPbDxjg3NqzpqhJ">Teebs</a> to <a href="spotify:artist:3uOCouLFR4bVx0XeiQJSbl">Harold Budd</a>, Odd Nosdam returned to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Leaving+Records%22">Leaving Records</a> in 2016 with Sisters, released as a VHS tape as well as a vinyl LP. A subsequent EP featured a remix by <a href="spotify:artist:2VAvhf61GgLYmC6C8anyX1">Boards of Canada</a>. Ambient tape Music for Raising appeared on Baro the same year, and 2017 release LIF (on Sound in Silence) continued in this vein. He returned to beat-driven productions with 2018's Like When You Ain't. Mirrors was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Alien+Transistor%22">Alien Transistor</a> in 2019, and double LP Flippies Best Tape, compiled from a series of beat tapes, was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Home+Assembly+Music%22">Home Assembly Music</a>. ~ Marisa Brown & Paul Simpson, Rovi