Some say that computers are essential to music. Some say that all you need to make music is a computer. I have no idea if “Paracosmic Rendezvous” by South African duo The Vast Oddity was actually produced by a computer but I doubt it as no computer could create this concoction of rambling magnificence without herbal help. Sometimes you just need that herbal help.
The songs on this album – all gloriously murky and lo-fi – stretch out into the sunset with the kind of conviction you only find in avant-grade circles these days. Melody does, of course, make an appearance but is frequently sidelined by tempo shifts and jump edits. This is, however, more than the simple reassembly of soundbites into a beat coherent soundscape for we, the listeners, are undoubtedly being taken on a trip to somewhere far out there. Far out in the desert or far out in the ocean? That, I also do not know but there is, at the very least, some mystical sense of direction keeping The Vast Oddity on their chosen quasi-psychedelic track.
The Vast Oddity follow their own path and litter it with guitars, probably cryptic lyrics and their own concept of time and space. Sometimes you just have to ramble on down the road and, without doubt, The Vast Oddity can show you the way to go.