Alias (artist)

Brendon Whitney (April 5, 1976 – March 30, 2018), better known by his stage name Alias, was a producer and rapper from Hollis, Maine. He was a co-founder of the indie hip hop record label Anticon.

History

Alias originally performed as a rapper with Sole in the group Live Poets. He also produced his own songs, but would still rap over another producer's beats. He moved to California in 1999 to start the label Anticon, as well as to focus on his music. Later on, as Alias began working with Anticon, he produced tracks for the emcees on the label.

In 2002, Alias released his first solo album ''The Other Side of the Looking Glass''. He produced and rapped on the album. After that, Alias moved away from rapping to focus solely on production. His production work also moved away from sampling and began to involve more synthesizers and instruments such as guitar. He released his first instrumental album ''Muted'' in 2003. The compilation of his remix works, ''Collected Remixes'', was released in 2007. He returned home to Portland, Maine in August 2007.

In 2008, Alias released the album ''Resurgam''. The album is titled after the Portland city motto, which is Latin for "I shall rise again." "Well Water Black" featuring Yoni Wolf of Why? was a popular song from the album, but was never officially released as a single.

In 2011, Alias released the instrumental album ''Fever Dream''.

He died on March 30, 2018, of a heart attack at age 41.

Discography

Studio albums
* '' The Taste of Rain... Why Kneel?'' (Anticon, 1999) (with Doseone, Slug & Sole, as Deep Puddle Dynamics)
* ''Paint by Number Songs'' (Mush, 2001) (with Sole & DJ Mayonnaise, as So-Called Artists)
* ''The Other Side of the Looking Glass'' (Anticon, 2002)
* ''Muted'' (Anticon, 2003)
* '' Lillian'' (Anticon, 2005) (with Ehren)
* '' Brookland/Oaklyn'' (Anticon, 2006) (with Tarsier)
* ''Resurgam'' (Anticon, 2008)
* ''Fever Dream'' (Anticon, 2011)
* ''Pitch Black Prism'' (Anticon, 2014)
* ''Less is Orchestra'' (Anticon, 2018) (with Doseone)

EPs
* ''Three Phase Irony'' (6months, 2001)
* ''We Ain't Fessin' (Double Quotes)'' (Anticon, 2002) (Deep Puddle Dynamics)
* '' Eyes Closed EP'' (Anticon, 2003)
* ''Plane That Draws a White Line'' (Anticon, 2006) (with Tarsier)
* ''Resurgam Residual EP'' (Anticon, 2008)
* ''Indiiggo EP'' (Anticon, 2014)

Compilation albums
* ''Bits & Pieces'' (2000)
* ''All Things Fixable'' (Good with Money, 2005)
* ''Collected Remixes'' (Anticon, 2007)
* ''All Things Fixable 2.0'' (Good with Money, 2011)

Singles
* "Rainmen" (Anticon, 1999) (Deep Puddle Dynamics)
* "Sideshow" (Mush, 2001) (So-Called Artists)
* "Final Act" (Anticon, 2001)
* "Unseen Sights" (Anticon, 2004)
* "Dr. C / 5 Year Eve" (Anticon, 2006) (with Tarsier)

Guest appearances
* DJ Krush – "Song for John Walker" from ''The Message at the Depth'' (2002)
* Styrofoam – "Misguided" from '' Nothing's Lost'' (2004)
* Saroos – "During This Course" from ''Saroos'' (2006)
* Prolyphic & Reanimator – "Survive Another Winter" from ''The Ugly Truth'' (2008)
* B. Dolan – "Survived Another Winter" from ''House of Bees Vol. 1'' (2009)
* Themselves – "Cross Section of Wreckage" from ''The Free Houdini'' (2009)

Compilation appearances
* "Divine Disappointment" on ''Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop'' (1999)
* "Props 2000" on ''Strictly Indee'' (2000)
* "Watching Water" on ''Giga Single'' (2001)
* "Watching Water" "Pill Hiding" "Sixes Last" "Dec. 26th, 2002" "Unseen Sights" on '' Anticon Label Sampler: 1999-2004'' (2004)

Production credits
* Sole – "Bottle of Humans" from ''Bottle of Humans'' (2000)
* Sage Francis – "Message Sent" from ''Personal Journals'' (2002)
* Sole – "Shoot the Messenger", "Tokyo", "Plutonium", "Slow, Cold Drops", "Pawn in the Game Pt. 1", "Pawn in the Game Pt. 2", "The Priziest Horse" & "Teepee on a Highway Blues" from '' Selling Live Water'' (2003)
* Pedestrian – "O Silent Bed" from '' Volume One: UnIndian Songs'' (2005)
* Sole – "Every Single One of Us" & "Imsotired" from '' Live from Rome'' (2005)
* Sage Francis – "Sea Lion", "Escape Artist" & "Product Placement" from '' A Healthy Distrust'' (2005)
* Subtitle – "Gio-Graph-Ick" from '' Young Dangerous Heart'' (2005)
* Sage Francis – "Clickety Clack", "Midgets and Giants" & "Keep Moving" from ''Human the Death Dance'' (2007)
* B. Dolan – "Heart Failure", "Bombzo for Baghdad" & "Kate" from ''The Failure'' (2008)
* B. Dolan – ''Fallen House, Sunken City'' (2010)
* Astronautalis – "Dimitri Mendeleev" from ''This Is Our Science'' (2011)

Remixes
* Themselves – "Only Child Explosion" from ''The No Music of AIFFS'' (2003)
* 13 & God – "Into the Trees" from "Men of Station" (2005)
* Son Lux – "Weapons VI" from ''Weapons'' (2010)
* Themselves – "Gangster of Disbelief" from '' CrownsDown & Company'' (2010)

References

External links

Alias
on SoundCloud

Alias
on Discogs

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alias
Anticon artists
American hip hop record producers
East Coast hip hop musicians
1976 births
2018 deaths
Rappers from Maine
People from Hollis, Maine