Reaching Quiet is a relatively obscure cLOUDDEAD era collaboration between Yoni Wolf and Odd Nosdam. Veering away from cLOUDDEAD’s ambient, almost drone take on alternative hip-hop, towards a sound more focused on sample collages. Nosdam and Wolf use a larger selection of instrumentation than previously, for example “Me and the Pea Coat” is built around a rattling drumkit, flute and very damaged sounding guitar. One of the highlights”The Vowels” (the precursor to “The Vowels Pt. 2″ on Why?’s Alopecia) features some quality lyrics: “Somebody paints a wall white with a roller, bright white…then he shoots his brains out onto it”. The album’s frequent flights of fantasy/pretension (for example “Your Fish” is a three minute long faux advertisement) can be grating but would nevertheless be interesting to Anticon diehards. In The Shadow Of The Living Room is a marathon of avant-garde hip hop (I could write a book examining every track on here), walking the line between brilliant and ridiculous. It is perhaps best interpreted as a middle ground between Why?’s pop sensibilities and cLOUDDEAD’s blatant experimentalism, while serving as a fantastic example of Wolf’s oft forgotten verbal gymnastics (on “She Ain’t Gonna Call You Back” he switches from hushed rhymes to Beach Boys aping harmonies at the drop of a hat). Highly recommended.
