Lilys - In the Presence of Nothing

I am a huge fan of lists, which doesn’t work very well for me because I happen to suffer from being too lazy as well. The combination doesn’t really ever work out, as I’ve recently been trying to put together a list of my favorite 50 albums of all time. In actuality I’ve had the idea to do one floating somewhere around in my head for about a year so now, but that’s where the lazy factor comes in and why I am just now beginning to put it together. I won’t go into great detail as to how it will be compiled, because if I did I am afraid many would want to reach through their computer screens and strangle me while shouting, “WHY!?!?”. So, I’ll save everyone those details. But anyway, I put together a quick list of potential candidates and while compiling that list it led me to the album that is the topic of today, In the Presence of Nothing by the Lilys.

During the earlier stages of the Lilys existence they were yet another band that could easily fit right into the shoegaze crowd, playing completely fuzzed out distortion with that ever so deliciously warped sound to it. In the Presence of Nothing gets a lot of flack for sounding pretty similar to Loveless, however how many bands did really? A lot from what I can tell. Is it really that bad to sound like the album that is widely considered to be one of the landmark albums of the genre? Regardless, In the Presence of Nothing doesn’t really sound all too much like it in my opinion anyway. The album occasionally dives into more ambient/psych territory while also not relying as heavily on the “wall of sound” either, often sounding very poppy on some songs.

To be honest though, In the Presence of Nothing gets mucho points for providing one of my favorite songs that has ever came out of the genre with “Tone Bender”. Really there are very few songs out there that sound as heavy as this one but yet are as beautiful as well. It’s a great song off of a great album.

Lilys – Tone Bender [MP3]
Lilys – Periscope [MP3]
Lilys – Snowblinder [MP3]

Sadly this album remains out of print and really the only way it can be had now is digitally through sites like Rhapsody and Emusic, unless you’re one of the lucky ones out there that have managed to run across it.