Aspera
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Mike Robinson, however, left the group to concentrate on his education. The band decided to mark the beginning of its new era by shortening its name to Aspera, and adopted a more shimmering pop sound clearly indebted to Dave Fridmanns recent work with Mercury Rev and the Flaming Lips, as well as early Brian Eno. This came to fruition on the 2001 album Sugar & Feathered, which was actually the first full-length to feature Mills as the lead singer; produced by Lilys associate Michael Deming and initially released by Big Wheel, it was reissued a year later by Asperas new permanent home, Jagjaguwar. In the interim, the band issued an EP, Birds Fly, on the indie label Suicide Squeeze. For their next full-length effort, 2003s Oh Fantastica, Aspera sought out producers King Honey (whod worked with cult rapper MF Doom) and J. SProcess; the results were far more electronic than any of the bands previous work, indebted to electro and futuristic hip-hop as well as spacy psychedelia.
