alias continues his inspired trip through wordless soundscapes with his third full-length and first collaborative instrumental album, Lillian. With his Eyes Closed EP and Muted LP (2003), Alias turned a corner, from sample-based beatmaking and introspective raps to live instrumentation and electronic songcraft. Blindly and with his mouth shut, he'd taken a giant leap of faith and landed, strangely enough, square in his own shoes. Swelled up all warm and fuzzy with pride, Alias (born Brendan Whitney) sent the first copies of those records to his family back home in Maine.
Ehren Whitney: 11 years the younger, was only 3 when big brother Bren started plastering the walls of their room with posters of screw-faced rappers; hence, rap's crotch-tight grip never quite got ahold of him. In fifth grade he started playing saxophone and found out he was a natural. Dad was a jazz drummer and would bring Ehren with him on gigs; pretty soon the boy was jamming along with the old-timers. Word spread through the extended Whitney clan, and before long, a pile of old high school band instruments had amassed on their porch. Ehren learned each in no time at all.
The day that Muted reached Hollis, Maine, Alias's phone rang and plans were made: Ehren would fly out the Oakland for two weeks, with flute, alto sax, soprano sax, and clarinet in tow, and they would press record. With only a few basic tracks laid down in advance, the brothers layered sounds, improvised, and built from scratch what they now call Lillian, a warm and wonderful album inspired by (and named for) their grandmother. Alias' trademark sounds are here - crunchy fuzz, bassy cut up drums, filtered pop-and-click percussion, atmospheric synth, ghostly guitars, but they're made bright and buoyant by Ehren's ear for melody, all of which makes Lillian a fitting tribute to the postmodern American musical family (Lillian herself even makes a cameo). Think Boards of Canada sitting down for dinner next to the Avalanches, waiting for Daddy Eno (in one of his ambient moods) to pass the peas, while Aphex Twin brood in the corner and a vintage boom box plays upstairs.
