Alias, Resurgam (Anticon, 2008)

MP3: “Well Water Black”

Young Brendon Whitney — aka Alias — cut his teeth musically on hip-hop. The tough part about that, especially when you’re from a backwoods/hillbilly fuck-town in Maine, is that all you’re doing is lining yourself up against the likes of Wu-Tang, KRS-One, Run-DMC, etc. Those are some tough shoes to fill. Had Alias been able to fast-forward eight years (thus skipping some fairly uninteresting attempts as a white boy MC), he would have seen that his true calling was in the production of tracks, and more importantly, as a solo artist. The brilliance of his new album, Resurgam, leads one to believe that there has to be something wrong in a world where there’s not more buzz about this release. In a nutshell, the album boasts slightly more lyrical content than DJ Shadow, less of a jazz overtone than DJ Spooky, and not nearly as much brass/horn work as RJD2. But overall, it holds it’s own against any of the best work of his contemporaries. Whitney left his Oakland, California home to travel back to Maine in order to craft this album; perhaps this homecoming was precisely what he needed in order to put together his first solo release in nearly five years. Album standout “Well Water Black” is a six-minute long venture through ambient sound, synthesizers, drum machines, with the roller-coaster vocals of Yoni Wolf (of labelmates and current indie darlings WHY?) taking it all home. Considering Alias has collaborated on countless projects (with Saul Williams, Ben Gibbard, and DJ Krush, to name a few) and performed alongside the Roots, Animal Collective, Buck 65, and the Beatnuts, it’s a little hard to say that he’s still undiscovered. Here’s hoping Resurgam can turn it all around. — Adam O’Connor