Indietronica from Odd Beholder

Swiss musician Odd Beholder, the electronica art pop project of Daniela Weinmann, brings us the new track “Disaster Movies”, an artistic extension of the artist’s political activism. Right after her debut album, she co-founded the Swiss branch of the international climate protection organisation “Music Declares Emergency”.

The track is a comment on our decadence and our destructive consumerism. Commenting on the single, she offers, “Two protagonists recall their teenage nonchalance, how they used to wish the whole damn town would burn down. They are now standing on the site of an actual catastrophe.”

Continuing, “Now that a monstrous flood has swallowed the entire town they don’t feel an inch of glee. Disappointed in their own premature disillusion, they feel like they have entered one of the disaster movies that they used to watch. What they quickly realise is that it doesn’t feel heroic at all. Instead everything seems dull and impractical, and terribly frightening.”

Sonically, “Disaster Movies” is rooted in bouncing arpeggios, it’s like a synth-pop soundtrack to a monstrous calamity unfolding in slow motion. The neon veneer of digital pop is being shredded before us by the brash reality of nature exhausted and drained.

The video is a collaborative effort of three women – dancer, director, musician – who allowed themselves the freedom of embracing every idea they come up during the ideation process; not questioning anything nor each other, and allowing the whole project to unfold organically, and joyously.

The protagonist wakes up in a strange and sterile world, an old ship of some sort. Although, at first, everything seems to be normal, it slowly becomes obvious that this place has absolutely no security to offer. Like objects excavated from a time capsule, everything in this video appears to be a relic of some bygone era.

Both the song and video are, of course, also a poignant comment on the entertainment industry, specifically its exploitation of eco disasters. This exploitation manipulates our fears and distorts our current reality by presenting simple solutions to complex problems, serving us happy endings that disarm our potential to actually mobilise to implement change. Tragically/ironically, film productions like this very video consume insane amounts of resources!

Watch the video for Disaster Movies below

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