Odario (Garfield) Williams is a voice, a soothing set of frequencies, sometimes delicately spoken into the pop filter of a CBC microphone, allowing the proximity effect to fill your ears with the low register of the Guyanese-born, Winnipeg-raised raconteur’s scintillating afterdark program, or otherwise expounded to the back of the room as part of one of his bombastic hip-hop performances. Odario got his start in wintrous Winnipeg, rapping in the pop and dub influenced ensemble Mood Ruff, which received much acclaim from Much Music and CBC Radio 3 in the mid ‘00s, but whose website now redirects to a Chinese industrial glue brand. As Grand Analog, Odario became the sole frontman, moving deeper into rock and soul to carry his tongue-in-cheek socio-political commentary through the ‘10s, garning several western Canadian music award nominations. Looking more internally, Odario has set aside the band moniker and opened up the rolodex, collaborating and creating freely, recently channeling Gil Scott-Heron on ‘Low Light (In This Space).’ His latest is in collaboration with Edmonton’s jazz-hop ensemble Good Information. Nod your head sideways to this true hip-hop iconoclast.
Biography by Liam Prost