On Brendan Whitney's latest release as Alias, he's brought in kid brother Ehren to
collaborate, and together they have produced an album that is lush and
ethereal with a dream-like groove. Wide spaces of silence separate the
tracks, giving a feeling of moving from one dream to another. Anticon
The songs on Lillian are largely instrumental, with the only vocals heavily distorted samples. Drum loops provide a grounding backbeat on many tracks, including the opening track "Eman Ruosis Iht" ("This is our name" backwards). Erhen brings in a distinct eastern influence with flute and clarinet on "Most Important Things" and others, and he winds his sax through a framework of samples on the title track.
A pair of minute-long tracks, "Sunfuzz" and "Moonfuzz," give atmospheric vignettes relating to their respective heavenly bodies. "Sunfuzz" brings to mind a hot afternoon, vibrant and bright, with a shimmer like heating rising from baked pavement. "Moonfuzz" has a cool, quiet feel and conjures up a late night walk around a dark lake with a cool wind coming off the water.
A hidden track at the end of "Netting Applause" comes as a bit of a shock after the dreaminess of the previous 13 tracks; it's a scratchy distorted piano with an unaltered sax accompaniment, giving the impression of someone playing along with an old record of old west saloon music. It adds a bit of a surreal (though lovely) aspect to the album, just like any dream has.
samples:
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