Brendon "Alias" Whitney, a member of Oakland's "Anticon" posse,
is a white kid who weds introspective lyrics and
atmospheric pop-jazz electronics.
The intuitions of the abrasive and eclectic mini-album Three Phase Irony (2001) were fully developed on
The Other Side of the Looking Glass (2002), and further explored on the instrumental EP The Eyes Closed and the instrumental album Muted (2003).
Deep Puddle Dynamics was a collaboration among Sole, Alias, Doseone and Slug,
documented on The Taste of Rain (Anticon, 1999).
Lilian (2005)
relied on his lush fusion of singer-songwriter of the 1970s, trip-hop of the 1990s and jazztronica of the 2000s but failed to leave a mark.
Brookland / Oaklyn (Anticon, 2006) was a collaboration between
Alias and female vocalist Rona "Tarsier" Rapadas released under
the moniker Alias & Tarsier.
Resurgam (2008),
that also includes collaborations with Yoni Wolf (Why?) and The One Am Radio,
continued the trend started with
Lilian but with a more spontaneous approach, especially in incorporating
vocal samples, that coined the actually catchy style of
Resurgam and Autumnal Ego.
By comparison,
Fever Dream (2011),
that returned to using samples rather than live instruments,
felt elaborate and meandering, achieving its goal of sensory seduction only
in Lady Lambin' and Tagine. De facto, Alias had
transformed the cerebral aspect of the Anticon collective into a painstaking
process of soundscape construction. The drawback was a congenital lack of
vitality, only partially mitigated by the fury of Dahorses.