Alias & Tarsier / Brookland / Oaklyn

Anticon

Brookland/Oaklyn is the result of a bicoastal collaboration between anticon beatmaker extraordinaire Alias and vocalist Rona “Tarsier” Rapadas of New York’s cinematronic duo, Healamonster & Tarsier. Prompted by one fluke email, the project took twenty-one months to complete, each artist recording in isolation and sharing the results long distance. Though the two hadn’t met face to face, they clicked musically, the relationship flourished, and Brookland/Oaklyn is the pay off.  “Cub,” the album’s first track, begins with a light and steady pulse, a slow build of entwined keys, and Tarsier’s rich and dulcet voice. She plays the chanteuse, walking a beautiful line somewhere between Björk and Beth Gibbons while Alias coaxes the song along — gradually building it up, eventually coating the entire thing with a fine layer of frost. Off-kilter drums, choppy static and a jeweled synth line set the tone on “Rising Son,” a lyrical ode to metamorphosis. Alias creates a boom-bap-infused atmosphere on “Last Nail” and finds his voice again, too, delivering rapid-fire, rhyme-free verses. Elsewhere, we’re lifted upward by Telephone Jim Jesus’ bright acoustic guitar (“Dr. C”), kited across the midnight sky by Kirsten McCord’s cello (“5 Year Eve”), and brought down to earth by guests Dose One (“Luck & Fear”) and Dax Pierson (“The Edge of America”).   All in all, the result is a powerfully honest musical manifesto — a project dreamt up and made human by kindred souls creating art 3,000 miles apart.

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