Based on their many partnerships both on tour and on record, I like to think of Prefuse 73, Four Tet, Caribou, and Nobody as a tightly-knit bunch of like-minded innovators that cherry-pick the past in order to advance the future of brain-bubbling beatmaking. I also like to think they often argue over whose oh-so-mysterious alias is the coolest ("It's, like, before 'fuse,' man. Way before."). And since all four members of this elite class have recently graduated from indie darlings to veteran indie darlings, the time is ripe to dole out some milestone-marking superlatives.
Best Dressed, of course, goes to Prefuse and the tinted Onassis sunglasses that nearly overshadowed the lackluster material from this year's Surrounded By Silence at recent shows. Caribou gets Most Spirited for his tenacious drumming and overall sense of overflowing sonic enthusiasm. By consistently violating the instrumental-dude "no smiling" rule on his album covers and press photos, Four Tet takes Friendliest. Which leaves us with Nobody aka Elvin Estela, the shadowy, hairy member of the de facto troupe. With his first album for L.A.-based label Plug Research (Daedelus, Dntel), the Calm, Cool & Collected recipient combines the varying textures of his jazzy debut LP Soulmates and its superior psych-infused follow-up Pacific Drift: Western Water Music Vol. 1, surfacing with a canny mix of West Coast indie-hop beats and hazy, flowing aural hallucinations.
The album's seemingly defeatist title matches Estela's similarly downtrodden moniker, but And Everything Else... is anything but a rainy-day collection of odds 'n' sods. Best experienced with the sun beating down, the taught 12 tracks mark the producer's most diverse and song-based work yet. The trippy, shimmering tone is established by opener "The Coast Is Clear (For Fireworks)", which rides a smooth-knocking shuffle along the California shoreline as wafts of blurry, delayed guitars, cheery keys and charming firework noises pop and burst in the distance. A tame, organ-heavy cover of the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin ballad "What Is the Light?" featuring members of Beachwood Sparks on vocals follows, but its lethargic pace and surprising lack of experimentation render it a boring and predictable lowlight.
Most of the record's collaborations hit their mark though, like the Mia Toi Dodd assisted "You Can Know Her", a sparkling lullaby that uses the singer's lofty, sea-nymph delivery to stunning effect. "Tori Oshi" is the second collaboration between Estela and Scott Heren under their La Correccion banner and it's a nimble, finger-picking electro-folk jaunt; it serves as a welcome contrast to the plodding "La Correccion Exchange" featured on Prefuse's Surrounded by Silence.
Even on the record's more hopped-up songs like the wind-up toy bumping "Wake Up and Smell the Millennium", Estela is still playing the effortless host to his own infinite California-daze slumber party. Nobody offers grooves that won't interfere with your daily routine as much as enhance it from the outside in, sneakily setting a distinct mood without really trying. Then, before you can even ask him to sign your yearbook, he's disappeared into the hot-pavement fog.
