Soulmates [EXTRA TRACKS]

Nobody

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 2000)
• Original Release Date: August 22, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Label: Ubiquity
• ASIN: B00004W5JG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #262,578 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Indie Music > Dance & DJ > Trip-Hop

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Soulmates is a wondrous beat orchestra culled from the oddest of sources. Los Angeles' Nobody sidesteps the funk/soul paradigm of today's hip-hop productions, outfitting his solo debut instead with otherworldly jazz bits, space rock, and lifted guitar psychedelica. Nobody's music, like DJ Shadow's, is heavily layered and rooted in the obscure. As a folksy, sleepy alternative to Shadow's Endtroducing, Soulmates collects and assembles diverse sounds that seem like they were born to be together. The amazing "Green Means" builds steadily from a hypnotic acoustic guitar arpeggio into a heavy storm of crashing cymbals and backwards loops; teetering drums and shrill feedback accompany Freestyle Fellowship on the underground hit "Planets Ain't Aligned." Even though Angeleno hip-hop legends Fellowship, Medusa, and Abstract Rude show up to lend rhymes, their appearances almost distract from Nobody's slavishly intricate, hypnotic productions. --Hua Hsu

Product Description
Japanese version featuring a bonus track --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DOWN TEMPO LO-FI MADNESS!, August 29, 2000

By	Paula (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

After listening to this album, the first thought that came to mind was "hip hop meets the other side" This album has 18 beautifully compiled tracks, and has about 5 talented lyricist ripping it over Nobody's head bopping lo-fi beats! With the likes of Aceyalone, Medusa, and 2 mex on his album, this album holds good lyrical content and is taking hip hop to another level! Fans of DJ Krush, DJ Cam, DJ Shadow, Ninja Tune, and HIP HOP should definitely pick this one up. Don't sleep on this album people!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best releases of the year, December 4, 2000

By	Brent Lippincott "dat villian" (lawrence, ks) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

come one, come all. come and listen to the new genius of lo fi atmospheric beatmaking. this album is a true gem. there are so much more to his tracks than your regular old everyday hip hop. a collage of different time signatures, different sounds, and different personalities are just some of the things to expect. ubiquity did release another quality product and it's an amazing find. if you want something that creates a beautifully engineered journey through an album, buy this. if you refrain from using your imagination, go somewhere else.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Soulful "Soulmates", February 3, 2005

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Elvin Estela, also whimsically known as "Nobody," knows his hip-hop. And his trip-hop. And he knows how to blend them together exquisitely in "Soulmates," his polished debut. It leans a bit too much on the jagged raps, but retains a sort of sleepy eeriness from beginning to end.

At the start, "Soulmates" sounds like a mixture of airy space-rock, bits of acid jazz, and some of the airiest little melodies you could imagine. Nobody's trippy, sleepy songs are delicate and dreamlike, with things like a soprano choir and guitar strums overlaid with blipping samples and tinkling bells. He even dips into experimental numbers with "Nozirah," a completely distorted one-minute song.

But there's another side to "Soulmates," one lined with acid jazz and spacey hip-hop. Songs like "Syde Trips" have jazzy drums and bluesy sounds, despite all the haunted-house sound effects. And other songs are, simply put, acid rap -- 2 Mex and Medusa are among the rappers that show up, against Nobody's swirling music.

The hip-hop angle is also the album's sole weakness. Nobody's work is so exquisite, it's distracting to have these guys rapping over it. On the second or third listen, however, their voices start to blend into the psychedelic trip. Freestyle Fellowship is the worst -- that song sounds like it belongs on an entirely different album.

To call "Soulmates" a hip-hop album is to underestimate it -- there is hip-hop in it, but also chillout electronica and jazz. (Hip-trip-hop-jazz?) It simply wouldn't work if it were just jazz, just electronica or just hip-hop. As a result, Nobody's versatility and complexity is an essential part of the music -- it always seems to be slowly building up to something, even if it never gets there.

Nobody uses a lot of samples and synth, giving the music a spacey feel. But underneath all this are piano and drums, acoustic guitar and what sounds like a sitar. All of this is twisted, distorted and given more echoes than a parrot. Is it good? Oh yeah.

The lyrics aren't too different -- they're a mixture of the grounded and the bizarre. The guest vocalists rap about space cadets, current politics, Mars, stargazing, rituals and "cyber-psychics brought here to fix your energy crisis." Whatever that means -- the fun is in listening, not comprehending.

"Soulmates" would be the perfect blend of hip-hop, trip-hop and jazz if it relief less on the rapping. But as it is, it's an exquisite piece of musical work.