The sound of a vocoder in any song usually causes me to begin weeping at how such a wonderful piece of equipment has been overused and fully bastardised. Cher is mostly to blame, though Daft Punk also have a lot to answer for.
Lusine – ‘Two Dots’
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So, it’s even more of a pleasure to hear a vocoder heighten the already blissful opening track of Lusine’s sublime new album, ‘A Certain Distance’. And though it may seem like a minor point to flag up, the vocoder use is symbolic of the whole record: creatively produced and beautifully executed.
What results is a slice of lush ambi-disco that simultaneously soothes and excites. Imagine Brian Eno and Apparat scoring the best mushroom trip you never had. Great care has clearly been taken over every sound by Lusine (Jeff McIlwain), but the record isn’t a painstaking, challenging listen. Instead, we hear a glorious celebration of the warmth that electronic music can achieve. Alright, I’m gushing here, but it’s justified – this is a unique record.
“I’m always going to try to make something slightly different,” explains McIlwain. “There’s a huge market of people making straight-up pop music and I feel it’s more interesting for me to dip my feet in those waters but not try to copy what other people are doing. And sometimes that means making it a little bit weirder.”
But never has weird been as enjoyable as on ‘A Certain Distance’. As McIlwain says, the album explores “poppier territory” compared to previous work, but the blending of ambient, experimental electronica, lush melodies and considered beats makes for compelling listening, as on the inspired single ‘Two Dots’, or ‘Gravity’, where a Boards Of Canada-do-acid-house bridge interlude drifts in from nowhere. Delightful.
As with much of Lusine’s work, the album also has a filmic quality to it. Images flood into your head as you listen – a soundtrack to a thousand imagined scenes. This is no coincidence – McIlwain has previously scored several major movies. “Scoring films is more about working with the director and doing what they want,” he explains. “You definitely have boundaries to work within, which is kinda nice because it forces you out of your typical way of making music.”
Growing up, McIlwain fed on typical, quality music staples – Led Zeppelin, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, The Cure (“all the stuff that kids are into growing up”) – but was suddenly introduced to techno during high school: “We had a radio station that did a weekly broadcast in Dallas that was playing a lot of weird breakbeat and house,” says McIlwain of his formative experience, “so I got introduced to that and was really curious as to how the music was made, because it was something I’d never really heard before. That was what made me want to start doing it myself.”
Though clearly gifted in fusing together ambience and IDM, McIlwain has also toyed with harder electronic styles, such as on previous album ‘Inside Out’, which edged toward minimal techno and tweak house. Is he ever tempted to make a full-on dance record?
“I am. I haven’t actually wanted to make a dance album, but I’ve wanted to make really simplistic 12”s, because I love hearing that stuff in clubs. Sometimes I do try to make dance records, but I just get bored with really simple synth lines and purely rhythmic sounds. If I try to make a dance record it still ends up sounding like me, which I don’t think is an overall bad thing.”
Considering he has made one of the finest electronic albums of the year, I conclude that sounding like Lusine is no bad thing at all.
Words by Tristan Parker
