Jul 28, 2009

ilyas ahmed


Portland, OR. bedroom wanderer Ilyas Ahmed emerges from the shadows and offers up his first new batch of songs in some time. Over a year in the making, ‘Goner’ sees Ahmed telescoping his previous acoustic wanderings into fuzzed out rockers and a hypnotic set of beautifully tight knit nocturnes. The whole things kicks off with a massive rush to the head called ‘Earn Your Blood’ which has Ilyas effortlessly channeling any number of stoned out trajectories found in a Topanga Canyon ditch circa mid 70’s. Massive waves of hiss still penetrate the mix, and so do the smeared vocal trails, it’s just that it’s all a little more in focus this time around. The comedown into ‘Exit Twilight’ with Grouper at the helm is a haunting broadcast that will for sure knock around in your skull for days. Edition of 1000 CD's in an offset buff case with maroon ink.

Warm tape distortion casts a little grime over the jangling arrangements, with Ahmed's swirling acoustic and electric guitars taking up the most space in the mix, providing a bluesy lynchpin for the recordings.organic percussion and filtered out vocals also adorn these songs, but you get the impression that Ahmed is first and foremost a guitarist - certainly that's how the album's been mixed, and it's always great to hear such a florid and accomplished musician rising out of the lo-fi dirge of underground Americana. With great songs like 'Some Of None' and 'Love After Love' Ahmed proves himself as a writer in the traditional mode, while 'As Another' finds him in Loren Connors mode, taking off with ether-dwellng lead guitars and spine-tingling, weightless melancholy. boomkat

4 comments:

ana said...

siempre me impacta ver esa portada, y del disco poco puedo decir...uno de mis favorindos de este año.

por cierto, cómo me gusta volver a leer tu lista de imperdibles, a ver si este año hacemos una :)

adrián said...

últimamente le había perdido un poco la pista, lo cierto es que cada disco del pakistaní es una nueva sorpresa. sus portadas uf, la de 'between two skies'... no sé si la palabras es inquietud.

http://static.boomkat.com/images/128028/333.jpg

sí anita :) a ver si este año entre todos hacemos una de esas listas interminable que tanto nos gustan.

ana said...

adrianus, esa portada de between two skies nos encanta a todos, creo que a mar y caro también. no estaría mal una lista con las portadas más bonitas (o inquietantes) :)

Carolina said...
This comment has been removed by the author.