Alias — The other side of the looking glass
The Anticon guys call him “the godfather of goth-hop” but what the fuck is it? Dark and somewhat cold, that’s for sure. Though never chilling and always enjoyable.
Originally from Maine were he performed together with Sole and Moodswing9 in Live Poets (later to become So Called Artists), he moved to California where all the Anticon members decided to hook up. He was also involved in Deep Puddle Dynamics (whose album has just been re-released).
Alias produced and wrote the whole album by himself, except two tracks on which he was helped by Dose One and DJ Mayonnaise respectively.
As we all should know by now, Anticon means unconventional hiphop so it shouldn’t surprise any of us that the first real song of the album (Jovial Costume) as more to do with... Drum’n’Bass than hiphop. Uptempo track with fast rapping, something to get you in the mood to jump all around the room. However things really calm down with the following song, the aptly titled Angel of solitude, a very quiet hiphop piece with some melancholic piano bits and a voice closer to spoken-words than to rapping. There are quite a few of those quiet, melancholic moments: the superb Arrival, the wonderful Watching Water and the absolute gem Slow Motion People. This tune features some sample from an old vintage song and is probably the most nostalgia-driven hiphop songs I ever heard in my entire life (and that’s very good in my book). The nostalgia feeling is maxed-up by the violins and the very rare vocal interventions from Alias. As I said earlier, this album features Dose One (Themselves, cLOUDDEAD a.o.). He appears on the helluva bombastic song Opus Ashamed. Very dark atmosphere, creepy vibes, dialogue between Alias and Dose, not to be played after a Nelly song at a crappy school party.... It’s not getting hot in herre, it’s getting cold. Very cold.
So is Alias really goth? Well, expect no hiphop version of Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy or Fields of the Nephilim... But if you listen to Getting by, Black Tea, Opus Ashamed or Slow Motion People, I guess you will feel something close to what one feels when he reads for the first time one of the 19th century goth novels... Melancholy, nostalgia, sadness, darkness but nothing miserable... While never full of joy, the other songs on the record convey less of this kind of vibes. Anticon has done it yet again... An excellent album, breaking new grounds.
I can not recommend this album enough to those who like their hiphop innovative and refreshing...