DESCRIPTION:
Released in 2006 on Anticon.

This might be an Anticon album RickyShore might actually be able to hang with.

Brookland/Oaklyn is a collaboration album between Oakland based, Anticon beat maker Alias and a New York based folktronica singer named Tarsier (from the group Healamonster & Tarsier). They make very ethereal, trip hop like music. Very cold and moody.

Alias released him "Muted" album back in 2003. Tarsier listened to it and was quite charmed by it. She sent Alias an email asking him about a possible collab. Alias checked out her music and decided to give it a go. They sent each other tracks back and forth for 21 months or so, resulting in this album.

The music on her is very languid and emotive. Tarsiers voice is very light and haunting. She doesn't change her delivery or her melody much on this album, keeping it the same tempo and range. Alias delivers some very crisp sounding, lo fi beats, full of skittering and stuttering drums, chopped up static and shimmering, ambient synths. He also raps on one track. Tarsier also adds some piano and bass organ to some songs. telephone Jim Jesus drops some acoustic guitar for one song and Dose One does his usual fast rap on a track.

It is an Anticon album, so of course Dose has to be on it somewhere. But that's where it stops being one.

The music on here is very sparse sounding and atmospheric. The songs emit a sense of longing and loneliness and sense of separation. The lyrics are pretty abstract and existential, dealing with dream like scenarios, metamorphosis and lost love.

The album does have some predictable points, could have used more tension and surprises, but it also has a lot of genuine atmosphere and emotional depth. It has some very cold and dark moments, but not much variety. Some parts dip a little bit too close to mediocrity and stagnation, but only almost.

For the most part, if your a fan of Portishead, Massive Attack, Cocteau Twins type mood music, you should find this music as enjoyable as I did.

Not groundbreaking or revolutionary, but still very lush, reflective and pretty.

3.2/5

Here's a link to what the animal tarsier is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarsier