Nobody (aka Elvin Estela) is probably better known for his remix works for the likes of Busdriver, Mia Doi Todd and The Mars Volta than his own releases since ‘Shades Of Orange’ came out in 2000 on the ‘ahead of its time’ album, Soulmates.

In fact that it wasn’t long after that he met Niki Randa working in Fingerprints Records in Long Beach (unfortunately not listed in Old Rare New, has it closed?) but it wasn’t until Pacific Drift: Western Water Music Vol. 1 came out in 2003 that he realised that he needed something else for the follow up.

Yep, you’ve guessed it, he needed some female vocals and Niki was there on hand. So Western Water Music Vol. 2 started and Niki randomly picked ‘Blank Blue’ as the title for a Elvin’s project. Even though it’s based on a series of nightmares where Armageddon is on the cards, the album is anything but the end of the world gloom.

This is very much like a West Coast Tunng meets the Secret Love compilations on Sonar Kollektiv. So whilst there’s a certain amount of ‘concept’ about this, there are some great tracks. Particularly, ‘Sonic What?!’, ‘Circles In Circles’ and ‘Blank Blue’ featuring Niki’s gentle vocals and imaginary lyrics.

For reverse tape loopin’ 60’s influenced beats ‘In The Swim’ is killer ethno tune and too short at less than 3 minutes and ‘All The Shallow Deep’ is another. For surfs up mellow twangy guitars, there’s ‘Sea Roars Lead’ (what about that for a title!); in fact, all the ones with a watery title are good.

There’s quite a variety here between the 12 tracks, certainly good value for mixtapeoligists; Estela describes the sound as “psychedelic bass”. Not sure about that but if you’re already into this, Koushik’s Out My Window is another in The Free Design’s The Now Sound Redesigned area that’ll you’ll love.

Reviewed: Nobody Presents Blank Blue - Western Water Music Vol. II (Ubiquity Records) Cat. No. Release date: 5th June 2008
Tracklisting
1 A New Design (4:04)
2 Eyes Closed (3:09)
3 Sonic What?! (4:16)
4 All The Shallow Deep (3:40)
5 Blank Blue (4:32)
6 Circles In Circles (3:31)
7 Faces (3:12)
8 The Spectral Company (3:36)
9 Ignite (4:21)
10 In The Slim (2:50)
11 Sea Roars Lead (5:24)
12 Up (4:33)

Links
www.nobodybeatsthebiz.com
www.ubiquityrecords.com
www.myspace.com/ubiquityrecords