Over the past few years, the fraternity of Dabrye, Scott Herren, Four Tet, Manitoba and Nobody has formed a rat pack of its own. Blending crunchy glitch music with dense hip-hop beats and sensibilities, the group has solidified itself as not only a viable force in the electronic music community, but it has won over indie-rock purists and alternative hip-hop fans in the process. For And Everything Else..., Nobody invites a few of his friends together for this friendly 12-song session. Much like Herren under his Prefuse and Savath + Savalas alter egos, Nobody takes a very pop-friendly, song-oriented approach to much of the material. Starting off with a cover of the Flaming Lips' "What Is the Light?," Nobody sets the tone for an erratic journey through a series of collaborations that sometimes works very well and at other times misses the bar slightly. The attention to detail Nobody uses throughout is staggering, especially on "You Can Know Her," which sounds like a distant cousin to labelmate Dntel's "Anywhere Anyone." It's not groundbreaking material, but And Everything Else... finishes with the feeling that Nobody has truly yet to show anyone how much ground he has truly broken while everyone else wasn't looking.
© Rob Theakston /TiVo