A Certain Distance- Ghostly International (GI-87)
go to this release

"Down to the last detail"

The latest full-length to be issued under Jeff McIlwain's Lusine moniker twinkles with crystalline flourishes that suggest overtweaking and hours of careful, detail-oriented sound design. A Certain Distance's serving of structured electronic pop and ambient techno feels intimate and layered, with somewhat-obscured conversation bits and room noise becoming apparent in every listen.

Lusine's A Certain Distance is mostly wordless, but the Seattle-based producer welcomes guest vocalists Vilja Larjosto and Caitlin Sherman on several tracks. The former's spot lends the final gloss to "Twilight," which has nothing to do with the underwhelmingly sexless vampire novels of the same name—in a glitchy percussion pattern and dewy melodies, McIlwain's arrangement here lands in the neighborhood of the electro-pop that Ghostly's hip School of Seven Bells has been developing. Sherman's contribution is chopped and scattered amid hypnotic synth swirls and warm funk on "Gravity," the only decipherable word in the mix.

In place of a central vocalist, McIlwain's petite, shuffling base is sometimes peppered with vocoders or heavily treated verse segments. He employs this device sparingly, such as on unexpected house track "Crowded Room" toward the album's close. This symmetrical endeavor—equal parts dance music and upbeat pop—should find advocates of both genres welcoming its glassy, potent sonics with open arms.

Dominic Umile (Remix Magazine)

Language Barrier - Hymen (Y-760)
go to this release

As Lusine (or Lusine Icl), Jeff McIlwain has established a well-deserved reputation as a beat sculptor extraordinaire but Language Barrier proves that his ‘ambient' side is just as exquisite. Characterizing it as such is a bit misleading, however, as the material isn't wholly free-floating but often grounded in rhythm structures—they're just not of the hard-hitting kind that give albums like Serial Hodgepodge such heft. The Hymen vet (McIlwain issued the full-length Iron City on the label in 2002 and contributed a 3-inch CD to the recent Travel Sickness box set) assembles Language Barrier's nine finely-detailed settings from gleaming tones, pitter-pattering beats, and an extensive library of (often voice-based) field recording elements.

Textura

Podgelism- Ghostly International (GI-68)
go to this release

Jeff McIlwain's eight-year career as Lusine has produced a wealth of delicate, hyper-edited electronic music at an elegant intersection between glitch, IDM, and ambient sounds. Like today's hybrid cars, hybrid animals, and hybrid foods, Lusine's music has always been a mix of styles, so his hybrid artist/remix project Podgelism makes perfect sense: in addition to reworkings by some of techno's best talents (Lawrence, Dimbiman, Apparat), Lusine contributes three fine remixes of his own. Others readily adapt Lusine's amorphous compositions into solid dance-floor material: John Tejada's glassy, bass-throbbing grooves reframe"Make It Easy" as midnight techno, Deru explores abstract hip-hop on "Auto Pilot," and Robag Wruhme sexes up "The Stop" with anxious rhythms and long-decay reverb. Other artists, notably Cepia and Matthew Dear, stick closer to Lusine's blueprint of sharp, stuttering percussion and down-comforter synth arrangements, making Podgelism a sensationally balanced sonic statement. 

Tomas Palermo (Earplug)

"Creatively Produced and Beautifully Executed"

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.

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