Alias & Doseone
“The Deadener”
Less Is Orchestra
Wow, this is one of the most complex, most emotionally thrilling, most important electronic music I’ve heard for awhile, and it is a fitting tribute to Alias, Brendon Whitney, who left this mortal coil too soon. Along with his best friend, Adam “Doseone” Drucker, they have created the ultimate electronic masterpiece. As their bio states:
Less Is Orchestra in part takes its name from Alias’ instrumental approach, a minimal thing that somehow manages to define its very own sonic universe. Imagine a glistening black and purple mélange of non-genres—ride-out Zelda G-funk, chopped and screwed IDM, emotional-industrial banger music, clean glitch—echoing through a zero-gravity field of ice crystals, and you’re most of the way there. He used to jokingly call it goth-hop which, we’ll admit, is a catchier description. Alias composed these beats with Dose’s voice in mind and it shows. The lithe-tongued rapper is a one-man posse on these songs, styling with abandon from guttural growls to glass-shattering falsettos, at times a chorus of strange songbirds and at others a booming Metatron among men. The duo’s chemistry here pulls the best parts of their radical pasts into one hyper-modern opus.
I love the term goth-hip-hop. To me, it perfectly captures the beauty and strangeness of this album. I have been unable to get the album of replay. It is that important and beautiful. Thank you guys. What a fitting tribute to a genius.