Is Jeff McIlwain, the Seattle techno producer who works under the name Lusine, starting to go pop? Maybe. A little. Sort of. Is this a bad thing? Not at all—in fact, it gives A Certain Distance, his second full album for Ghostly, more reach than 2004's Serial Hodgepodge, and not just because he's working with vocalists more. This still sounds like a Lusine album: it's still largely abstract, still in McIlwain's tonal comfort zone, still partial to timbres that scan as lustrous to techno lovers and as kind of grey to non-partisans. Where Serial Hodgepodge bumped its share but still felt a little camera-shy, A Certain Distance is grabbier than its title suggests, and that is, often, down to the singing.
| A1 | Operation Costs |
| A2 | Two Dots |
| A3 | Tin Hat |
| B1 | Thick Of It |
| B2 | Twighlight |
| B3 | Baffle |
| C1 | Every Disguise |
| C2 | Double Vision |
| C3 | Gravity |
| D1 | Crowded Room |
| D2 | Cirrus |
