Benjamin Verdoes’ latest EP The One and the Other drips like the steady precipitation of his native Seattle. It’s melancholy and moist, with recordings of chirping birds and nighttime city sounds. Verdoes has tamed these eerie textures with soothing vocals to create a definite style of clean, concise wistfulness.
Starting with the somewhat jarring sound of a car driving by, “Highly Emotional” portrays alienation in a place that seems lively and urban. Verdoes uses dark, electronic texturing and echoing vocals to render a humanistic, raw, internal loneliness that’s imprinted on the rest of the EP.
“Night Walk” commences with a similar sound of a car kicking up rainwater from a curbside puddle, but the rhythm on this track is groovier, more dense, and bewitching. The percussion remains hauntingly steady, the synth creeps, and the whole mood is so darkly ambient, I expected to hear an owl hooting in the background.
One of the more upbeat tracks, “Above Ground,” culminates in a strange, circus vibe as the vocals soar and sweep along high notes. The mood reminded me of The Internet’s “Cocaine,” because of the similar dreamlike quality that Verdoes portrays. “It’s too beautiful to argue/You forgive me, and I’ll forgive you,” the male vocalist sings warmly. A sudden, beautiful interruption of R&B then elevates the instrumentation, and a swirl of that carnival techno pulses even harder.
Tracks such as “Is This All That We Are” and “Eight Oh Eight” are patient and calculated. “Is This All That We Are” utilizes a gorgeous touch of piano and horn, while “Eight Oh Eight” plays on bursts of vocals. But “Beautiful Dying World” is the most angelic, sounding like a big-bodied choir singing a church hymn. Strumming guitar builds up to a celestial drop, which– while not as earth shattering as an Odesza drop–has a parallel euphoric rush.
These six tracks are united in their darkly contoured style, haunting vocals and R&B tendencies, but they each offer something different in terms of tempo and shades of fragility and seriousness. The One and the Other is an EP to digest solo, with only the rain-washed walls of your city to keep you company. —Rachel Haney
