A I A: Dream Loss

Most artists would struggle to put one album of the quality Liz Harris exhibited on ‘Alien Observer’ (the first part of her A I A double-header, also out now) but somehow she’s managed to churn out a full two forty minute albums each as breathtaking as the last
‘Dream Loss’ is the murkier, more grimy counterpart to ‘Alien Observer’s distant pop and travels still further into Liz’s astral tape haze and noisy, vocal ambience. While the record might begin unassumingly enough with the downplayed ‘Dragging the Streets’, ‘I Saw A Ray’ greets us with a volcanic slither of noise and calloused harmony. This deeply buried melancholy transports us through the album, and while the noise subsides to make way for Liz’s familiar layered vocal loops and subtle, withdrawn songs, the character and texture is still one of distortion and fragmentation as opposed to the occasional overt prettiness exhibited on ‘Alien Observer’
As Liz mentioned in the run-up to this ambitious double release, the albums are two very separate works, yet somehow feed off eachother when heard together. To hear one without the other is to only hear a single element of the whole piece – ‘Dream Loss’ adds the darkness, and in sinking deep into it we get a whole new understanding for ‘Alien Observer’. It’s a harrowing trip, but one laced with beauty, restraint and that unquantifiable magic that seems to grace mostly anything Liz Harris touches. Just buy it; you won’t be disappointed