Galaxies vinyl

Rome-based combo Odeon is an interesting proposition. Basically two sets of musician brothers brought together by mutual friend (and Mondo label boss) Francesco De Bellis, their debut recording is a pleasingly hard-to-pigeonhole affair. Sometimes psychedelic, often dreamy and always atmospheric, the album's 12-tracks variously draw influence from odd Italian library music, eccentric synthesizer soundtracks, Talk Talk, the Cocteau Twins, shoegaze and the heady, E'd-up sound soup of ambient house. In fact, one of the tracks even sounds a little like REM if Michael Stipe and company had necked a bunch of disco biscuits and moved to Ibiza. While the unique and intoxicating sound is clearly theirs, you can hear the guiding hand of De Bellis, who acted as producer throughout.