“Ohio experimentalist Todd Tobias goes back to the old school soundtracks of Western and Sci-fi movies on his new album Gila Man. Like the undisputed master of the genre, Ennio Morricone, he enlisted the aid of a female singer to add wordless vocals. Cloe March’s dreamy approach is a nice contrast for the dark nnd foreboding ambient mood of the tracks.
Don’t count on the good guys to win and the villains can’t be indentified by wearing a black hat. This is a soundtrack for a movie without clear winners or losers, but the imaginary travelogue of people trying to survive in an unforgiving environment. Gila Man is an ambiguous tale, in the vein of the works of author Philip K. Dick. Tobias used his compositions as pointers for the scenes for the drama to unfold.
Tipping his toe in psychedelic post-rock he created a labyrinth in which it’s east to get lost. Press repeat the find another route to the maze of possibilities. Since Stanly Kubrick is no longer with us, it would be up to Ridley Scott or Duncan Jones to turn Gila Man into a movie.”