Posted on: November 22, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

“The Coast is Clear” is an interesting way to start off the disc. Drawing on the same elements for the entirety of the track, the song really doesn’t feel as if it is a good gateway into the rest of the disc. The incorporation of differing elements at about 2:30 really begins the disc and adds percussion to further quicken the heart and get individuals interested. When vocals finally find their way onto the track, the dreaminess of the vocals really move beyond the traditional realm into more of an instrumental context. The second strike for the earliest section of “And Everythign Else” has to be the extended track length of “What Is The Light?” which acts as a massive wall for those listeners that wish to give the disc only a passing listen. The world-music flair of “Spin the Bright Sun Rose” continues the dreamy soundscape of the prior tracks on the disc, but the continually chattering percussion really makes the track palatable in ways that the preceding music on “And Everything Else” wasn’t.

The disc makes its first jump from its comfort zone during “Go Go Interlude Go”; one can guess the purpose of the track by its name, but the fact is that the track surpasses anything on the disc by at least a factor of three. Actually infusing some soul into the track, the entire song sounds more like a backing beat for an early nineties rap track than just a spacer between tracks. The energy of “Interlude” is largely dissipated by the middle of the next track, “Poor Angular Fellow”, which is more of an organized mess than an actual chunk of music.

Nobody is an act that tries to tame chaos but has neither the eye for arrangement nor the technical skill to make concerted offenses against it. What is common fare on “And Everything Else” sounds almost as if someone was playing with a music sequencer for the first time, randomly trying different sounds to cobble together a track. However, throughout all of this chaff there are moments on this disc that shine brilliantly; evidence the varied string instruments interplaying with the highly-distorted samples on “Tori Oshi”. “Tori Oshi” does much to bring some semblance of sanity to the disc, as the track’s spastic feel jumps through a litany of different tropes in the shortest of times. Nobody ends a disc strongly that sputtered to life slower than a rusted Yugo, but leaves listeners with at least the most minor modicum of hope for future releases.

Top Track: Tori Oshi, Siesta Con Susana

Rating: 3.3/10

Nobody – And Everything Else / 2005 Plug Research / 12 Tracks / http://www.plugresearch.com / Reviewed 25 April 2005

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