Our interview with Ilyas Ahmed back in 2012 came with the tagline that the Portland-based guitarist wasn’t concerned with the “what” that he was, as his teenage years had him ardently avoiding employment in food service as a result of the generally oppressive uniform rules. Dunkin Donuts wasn’t going to tell him that he was a talented slinger of glaze and chocolate, but now, with the announcement of a new LP, we’re getting a sense that this casual inclination toward label-avoidance has eased quite a bit. Ilyas is… “all our own”! This probably isn’t a reference to musical altruism directed toward the general public, but at least we’re getting somewhere.
I Am All Your Own is due out March 24, and in accordance with this newfound willingness to self-recognize, the album features Ahmed’s voice at the fore, “unobscured.” Obviously this is quite a departure from his previous works, since Goner was especially coated with all sorts of fuzz. With Endless Fire left just some peach, so let’s assume that this newest album is what shaving aficionados call a BBS, despite a 4-track cassette recorder being the tool of choice. I doubt much razor burn, at least.
The album also comes with Thurston Moore’s blessing, for those seeing some benefit in a famous +1.
I Am All Your Own tracklisting:
01. City Daze
02. Come On
03. All You Say
04. Untitled 1
05. The Last Laugh
06. Untitled 2
07. I Need To Fix My Body So I Can Light My Mind…
08. Closer Tonight
• Ilyas Ahmed: http://brolbrolbrol.com/ilyasahmed
• Immune: http://immunerecordings.net