Ilyas Ahmed

"Another absolute stunner from Ahmed, this time bringing his sun-baked psych to the folks over at Root Strata. Where The Vertigo of Dawn lingered in hazy and at times hushed tones, Goner introduces some bite to Ahmed's palate this time 'round. Starting things off with a rusted twinge of distortion over his obscured vocals, the album proves that its not all deft picking in Ilyas' arsenal. He doesn't leave those in favor of verdant acoustic psych wanting though, the album cools its electric burn and returns to caressing the strings by the third song. Striking a nice balance between dust and gravel, Goner is clenched teeth and cool breezes. Ahmed seems to have finally whittled out his place in the murky waters of psychedelia and adding to the otherworldliness of this are the vocals of Grouper's own Liz Harris. On the closing track, her beautiful moan adds just another layer of filtered shimmer to what might be Ilyas' most complete statement yet." - Raven Sings The Blues

"Mesmerizing new release from Portland, Oregon's Ilyas Ahmed, last heard around these parts on a gorgeous album of nocturnal bedroom folk that we literally blew out of, never to see again. That album was diffuse and formless to the extreme, super private and solitary, full of endearingly meandering digressions that nevertheless followed their own peculiar logic. He's got an entirely new, yet equally compelling, approach for this release, however, with the slack folkiness of his previous LP here mostly replaced by a remarkably taut and tense excursion into rockier territories. It's fairly lo-fi, yet somehow simultaneously massive and totally blown-out, and full of boxy sounding repetitive riffs. There's a near perfect balance here between structure and abandon, the utterly forlorn and the cosmically aspiring. It's an ability he shares with another Portland native, Grouper's Liz Harris, who actually shows up here to sing lead and deliver a grace note on the albums'gorgeous final track. There's something very unique taking place on this record, and as its about all I've been able to listen to for the past couple of weeks I'm certain it'll go down as one of the year's best." - Other Music

"Massive re-think for VT fave Ilyas Ahmed, building on the more aggressive, group-sound focus of his last LP on Time-Lag to birth a classic side of fuzzy, tough psychedelic garage rock that draws on aspects of his previous releases – loner vibes, emotional=sonic distance, exploded modal forms – while mainlining a classic ‘private’ feel. The guitar sound here is particularly choice, with that warm, fuggy, slightly-muffled Fender fuzz sound that defines so many great under-the-radar 1960s sides. Some of the rockers sound like what you might have dreamt Rayne would’ve if they hadda been drafted in as Skip Spence’s backing band or the whole Crazy Horse/Savage Sons Of Ya Ho Wha desert cult given a claustrophobic bikers-as-believers feel. There are still some beautiful stripped down acoustic tracks that orbit the Six Organs school of hypnotism and they illuminate the crank with focused blasts that are as aggressively introspective as any of Roy Harper’s solo Harvest sides. Liz Harris aka Grouper makes an appearance on vocals on “Exit Twilight”, bolstering the overall late night dreamtone atmosphere. Another killer from this guy." - Volcanic Tongue

A goner is in some way fated. On the precipice of vanishing, disappearing, dying, being ‘gone’. I think that’s kind of weird. The same way I become ‘my corpse’ when I die, not me but somehow a different object. Thus, ‘goner’ is evocative of a personal limbo, it denotes that its subject is under a cloud which no one else is. Its something akin to the living dead, but carries with it a more humanistic tone, not as harsh as the ‘cursed’ or ‘damned’. A goner is something else entirely, like the man with no name riding into the sunset, shot in the gut, or something.

Ilyas Ahmed’s new album is called Goner. And it unfortunately took me a lot longer to realize the musical significance of the title than I’d like to admit. Ahmed has long crafted, along with like-minded artists such as Grouper (who appears on this album), songs that are on the brink of falling apart completely. If you pull at the smallest loose thread, a miniscule fiber in the whole of any one song, it is as though the guitars and drums would collapse into themselves and Ahmed’s voice would drift off slowly like some dying jet trail. There’s unmistakable feeling while listening to the album that it is teetering, and when the last track finishes the whole ship is gonna careen right over in the edge of the earth into the mist, as though the album could not be replayed, as though the physical media would disintegrate upon ending. I think ‘Goner’ is meant to make you feel like you’re listening to it for the last time. Awhile back Digitalis had the chance to interview Ahmed, who noted that he, like most anyone, thinks about the world coming to an end. I think those little scary thoughts we have right before going to bed while toss, turn and digest food, thoughts about how imminent the end is, are thoughts that Ahmed effortlessly channels into music. Though the work is certainly lo-fi, there is an attention to musical craftsmanship and production. This is not the kind folk that borders on drone, the songs are clearly structured and articulated. Whereas earlier Grouper albums seemed utterly submerged (which is a perfectly acceptable thing, because those albums are amazing), there is a real clarity about ‘Goner’. And it is not as though it lacks vibrancy or polish either—it doesn’t—these are beautiful, intricate, earlier on feet-stomping affairs: meditative by way of being precise. But they feel scrubbed loose of their skin, tattered and destructible, which is of course why they are so emotionally resonant. I’m sure a lot of what Ahmed has done (and Grouper, more overtly) has been called ‘haunting’ ad nauseum. But ‘Goner’ feels more nostalgic than haunting, there is a real longing, especially on the crazy-horse styled opener ‘Earn Your Blood’ and its follower ‘Out Again’. Some of the tracks are evocative of the kind of acutely melancholy, expertly repetitive acoustic work of, say, Thom Yorke (‘Love after Love’) and Mark Kozelek (‘Some of None’). Yet it is all wholly Ahmed’s own, the barely-there voice swooning over the aforementioned threat of destruction, musically, physically, etc. For me, I’m not ‘comparing’ Ilyas Ahmed to the likes of (certain aspects of) Radiohead or Red House Painters as much as I am saying ‘These are three separate artists who really get how to convey *this* certain feeling’. Much of pysch-folk or new weird America, or whatever you want to call it, often succumbs to being more on the pysch-side, a bit over indulgent and unfocused. Sometimes it is hard to delineate between deliberate lack of focus and laziness, and then one wonders if there is even a true difference. Ahmed doesn’t walk that fine line, he’s an artist whose capable of realizing that meaning is same thing as form, what is conveyed is the same as how its conveyed. It’s what makes his releases, ‘Goner’ included, so accessible and yet so eerie and distinct. Ilyas Ahmed has established himself as some kind of troubadour, I don’t know of what, you’ll just have to listen to this album and, humbly, trust me. 10/10 -- Foxy Digitalis

Having impressed on releases via Digitalis and Time Lag, Ilyas Ahmed arrives at Root Strata with an altogether tougher and fuller sound. Warm tape distortion casts a little grime over the jangling arrangements, with Ahmed's swirling acoustic and electric guitars taking up the most space in the mix, providing a bluesy lynchpin for the recordings. organic percussion and filtered out vocals also adorn these songs, but you get the impression that Ahmed is first and foremost a guitarist - certainly that's how the album's been mixed, and it's always great to hear such a florid and accomplished musician rising out of the lo-fi dirge of underground Americana. With great songs like 'Some Of None' and 'Love After Love' Ahmed proves himself as a writer in the traditional mode, while 'As Another' finds him in Loren Connors mode, taking off with ether-dwellng lead guitars and spine-tingling, weightless melancholy. Closing track 'Exit Twilight' is a duet with Grouper, playing out in its denouement like a haunted folk rendition of 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)'. Liz Harris' voice could hardly be a better fit for this music - the obscured, smudged out echoes are just sublime, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to petition these two for a full album together. Until that happens Goner will do just fine, and its surely the most solid and advanced statement from Ahmed to date. Boomkat