Odd Nosdam – T.I.M.E. Soundtrack

West-coast trio cLOUDDEAD certainly brought a lot to the hip-hop table. They supplemented stomping beats with long-form ambient textures, distorted rap into a series of abstract flows and obscure vocal harmonies, and, in the process, gave the hip-hop underclass of skinny white kids a sound to call their own; however nerdish and abstruse that sound was.Fitting, then, that this record from the now disbanded collective’s Odd Nosdam (born David Madson) was conceived as an accompaniment to that skinniest and whitest of pastimes; skateboarding. As the name would suggest, the album is the soundtrack to an Element Skateboards film - with each track corresponding to a single skater - in a collaboration which is allegedly the first of its kind. No pressure then. The beats - coated in the standard Nosdam layer of industrial grime - show initial promise in opener 'Zone Coaster', where the familiar terrain of filthy lo-fi breaks shuffling over degraded audio detritus is explored; nothing groundbreaking, but a satisfying listen all the same. Another highlight is 'Ethereal Slap'; a slightly thwarted attempt at a cinematic sound which is redeemed by the late appearance of throbbing sub-bass.Still, both of these tracks are far from perfect. There’s a sunniness in the music - more overt in the country twang of 'One for Dallas' and 'Fly Mode' - which seems to have partly replaced Nosdam’s usual brooding, quasi-shoegaze tendencies. Don’t get me wrong, sweetness in hip-hop can go down a treat - take the light-footed jazz breaks of Madlib or Jay Dilla’s skittering soul - but here the choice of samples feels too one-dimensional, and repetitions become inane, not mesmeric.Not only that, but the album quickly develops a recurring habit of infuriating stop-starts and clumsy song structures which can make for frustrating listening - most jarringly on 'We Bad Apples', where abrasive samples are repeated ad nauseam over an unsettlingly folksy double-time. After the fourth or fifth awkward-silence-followed-by-aimless-repeat, it begins to feel like Nosdam is determined to keep the album as simply a soundtrack; an audio document which is utterly unfulfilling without its visual companion.As closing track 'T.I.M.E. Out' kitsch tremolo guitar fades to silence, it’s easy to feel disillusioned; the image of a once great innovator hounding their creativity into an early grave isn’t exactly a new one. But allow the optimist inside you to pipe up (unless you haven’t got one, you cynical beast); T.I.M.E. Soundtrack is an experiment - and not a particularly successful one. Yes, it is lacking in nearly all of Nosdam’s original virtues - dense, psychedelic tangents, eerie crunching beats etc. - but perhaps these absences were concessions to the skate video format, rather than potentially repeatable errors of judgement on the part of the producer. To paraphrase Yoda, there may yet be hope for us - and for him. For now, though, I think I’ll be sticking with Ten. 59%Odd Nosdam on Myspace