Data Breaker

One of Seattle’s most celebrated producers, Lusine (aka
Jeff McIlwain) boasts a large discography full of deft, heady
IDM, dreamily pacific ambient, and skewed dance tracks with a
surprising funkiness to them. While his output on respected labels like
Hymen and Ghostly International has been consistently good, his 2004
album Serial Hodgepodge represented a culmination of Lusine’s
masterly stylistic diversity and a deepening emotional palette;
previous releases tended toward clinical—albeit
elegant—precision. Now with the new A Certain
Distance (out September 8 on Ghostly), he’s delivered his most
accessible record yet, one whose tracks charmed a large, nonhomogenous
crowd at Detroit’s Movement fest earlier this year.

Always a master of intricate, vivid sound design, Lusine here shows
that he can craft creamy, curvaceous tunes and move a dance
floor, as well. Working with both live vocalists (Vilja Larjosto and Caitlin Sherman) and sampled voices, the CalArts-educated
McIlwain makes a covert stab for radio play with “Two Dots,” a
ravishing, electro-pop pastry with a nutritious filling,
somewhere between Björk and Bel Canto. Larjosto’s
diaphanous voice is a cascading wonder throughout. The bulk of A
Certain Distance is smooth, sophisticated classiness. Lusine seems
to be striving to elevate himself to the tech-(pent)house, and he
should succeed.

Newcomer the Algebra of Need (local phenom Lydia
Briggs) occupies the opposite end of our electronic-music spectrum:
Although she’s reputedly recorded about 100 CDs of music, says
Bonkers! promoter Ian Scot Price, whose Pleasure Boat Records is
releasing the Algebra of Need’s CL/Along the Border.Instrumino in time for her September 11 Re-bar gig, Briggs rarely plays out and
hasn’t received a blip of media attention—till now. She has no
internet presence, either.

The 29 AON tracks I’ve heard (culled from three CDs) are
staggeringly accomplished. Nobody in this city—or on this planet,
for that matter—sounds like the Algebra of Need. Her pieces range
from 47 seconds to 20 minutes, and they follow circuitous paths to
seldom-trod regions abounding with highly unusual tones and bizarrely
charming tunes. Some tracks boast a monomaniacal, hypnotic quality;
others move in unpredictable spasms and lurches. But no matter the
methodology, they spellbind with the sure grip of genius. It might seem
hyperbolic, but I think that the Algebra of Need is a maverick on
the level of Aphex Twin and Raymond Scott. Her compositions’
melodic complexity and tonal oddity—what Price calls “microtonal
fugues”—consistently tickle the lobes with their exquisitely
tactile frissons.

After gorging on the buffet of originality that the Algebra of Need
displays over these three nameless discs full of titleless tracks, I
can’t fathom what other treasures dwell in her hard drive, but I’m
insanely curious to find out.

The Algebra of Need performs at the second-anniversary bash of
Bonkers! Fri Sept 11, Re-bar, 10 pm, $5, 21+. With EVAC, Greg Skidmore,
Retic.