While Scandinavian electronic producer Tobias Lilja’s debut album for Nonresponse ‘Ex-Leper’ saw him dealing in abstracted ambience, this third album ‘Delirium Portraits’ sees him continuing to develop the increasing emphasis on vocals seen on his preceding 2007 collection ‘Time Is On My Side’ – indeed, it’s easily the most song-oriented work he’s turned his hand to, to date. Perhaps most noticeably though, there’s an increased focus on visceral, driving rhythms here, with the majority of the ten tracks collected here being propelled by Kompakt-esque tech-house elements. In practice, the shift in dynamics works beautifully, with the dark shades present in the streamlined synthetics adding the ideal counterpoint to Lilja’s occasionally dark-humoured melancholic lyrics. First single ‘North’ gives a good indication of the predominant aesthetic here, as Lilja’s deep, resonant baritone vocals glide against a whirring backdrop of dubbed-out pads and crisp tech-house snares that calls to mind the likes of Swayzak or Supermayer, only for the dark, grinding background electronics and moody synths to take on a more sinister tone towards the second half.
‘Love Song’ meanwhile sees the 4/4 rhythms falling away in favour of a atmospheric downbeat wander that vaguely recalls Depeche Mode’s ‘Exciter’ album in places as subtle pulsing electronics and elegant piano keys float against Lilja’s Noel Coward meets Martin Gore vocal, before ‘Birthday Cake’ sees dark, buzzing synth swells and streamlined techno rhythms providing muscular dancefloor fuel to Lilja’s story of a teenage eating disorder (“Every birthday was like hell / one cake after another”). Elsewhere, ‘Ellen’s Theme’ takes an ambient sidestep into minimalist piano atmospherics that’s more in keeping with n5MD’s established aesthetic, before ‘Morocco’ takes things to a poignant close as Lilja’s reverb-heavy vocal harmonies collide with an ebbing backdrop of ambient electronics, in an inspired offering that resembles futuristic blues, as slow, weary-sounding beats rise into focus. All up, ‘Delirium Portraits’ sees dark introspective storytelling colliding with fluid techno rhythms to yield what’s easily Lilja’s strongest album to date.
Chris Downton
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