One of the songs I posted in the mid-year mixtape the other day was from the mysterious Pakistan-born Portlander Ilyas Ahmed. In 2005 he released a string highly acclaimed and impressive privately pressed CD-Rs including Between Two Skies and Towards The Night, which were each remastered and released in limited runs of 50 by Digitalis.
I’m probably the last person you’ll find toting around some sort of obsure, psychedelic folk music in my earthy hemp bag, ESPECIALLY if the shit is near impossible to find. In fact, a few months ago I was dragged to a way sold out “folk night” in Santa Monica for some dude who hitchhiked on trains from Portland (I might be exaggerating). He was making a “rare live performance” and it was SO important that the king of folk freakdom himself, Devendra Banhart, was there for this exclusive pants wetting set. I made it through the opening act, but about halfway through the first song of the guy’s name I can’t remember, I had my fill. As soon as that dude put down his guitar and the seated crowd began to clap, I made a bee-line for the door. My mind was quickly taken away from the show when I spotted a beautiful green Gretch hanging on the wall of the guitar shop. It was love at first sight.
I don’t know what it is about Ilyas Ahmed’s music that makes it stand out from the rest and given my track record I should very well despise it, but I don’t. On his first proper full-length, The Vertigo Of Dawn, Ahmed delivers with a remarkably beautiful record. Ahmed’s unintelligible mournful vocals swirl through delicately plucked guitar strings, floating like a light fog and interacting on a level that’s nearly hypnotic. The dark and moody, Eastern-tinged “Under the Singing Sea,” provides an enhanced sense of solitude, best saved for, perhaps…woozy late night meditation.
The Vertigo Of Dawn is out now in, you guessed it, a limited pressing on Time-Lag Records. I think the magic number this time was 750 and it’s already sold out. Happy searching – it’s worth the effort.
[MP3]: Ilyas Ahmed ”Moon Falling”
The Vertigo Of Dawn, Time Lag; 2008
Vertigo Of Dawn Track Listing:
A1 Golden Universe
A2 Under The Singing Sea
A3 Behind Our Eyes
A4 Phantom Sky
B1 Moon Falling
B2 Unveiled Nightmare
B3 Return To Ours
B4 Light Grows Thin