08'01

SOULO Soulo (PR300104CD) Plug Research 2001 09 Tracks. 27mins56secs. Buy this CD on line now

As with so many before them, Shawn King and Nate Flanigan met at art school. After loosing contact, they were reacquainted at the Fireside Bowl, a Chicago subsidiary of the Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame. By then, the pair had decided that rock wouldn’t allow them to express their creativity in the way they wanted. This could sound like a very common story, and, in many aspects, it is. However, listening to their first mini album, released on Plug Research, one can’t help admiring their biased approach to electronica. The music created by Soulo displays typical characteristics of the duo’s influences. As they borrow sounds from both rock and electronica, Flanigan and King manage to give a modern edge to their catchy pop creations. Because of the format adopted by Soulo, the listener expects to hear a vocal section kicking in at any time. The compositions are, however, fully instrumentals. The music here is more minimalist than initially perceptible. Melodies are simple and stripped of any unwanted excess. The arrangements are equally pure and fluid, as they are built around a plain nucleus of sonic sources.  If the band apply a considerable amount of live sounds to their songs, guitars and drums being among the most used, the treatment to which they subject them leaves very little identifiable elements of the original samples. Soulo intentionally blur the border between real instruments and artificial ones, and it becomes increasingly difficult to tell them apart as the album progresses. The apparent simplicity of the melodies hides the complexity of the underlying structures. Tracks such as This Is The Same As It Always Was, Rubberbands or Simple capture the imagination of the listener, while Soulo, insidiously, inject some subtle constructions in their subconscious. Other tracks, like Transtician, 24 Hours On The Phone or Whatever You Want, are far more upfront, as if the pair hesitated between perversity and honesty. Soulo are neither the first band, nor the last, to try to merge pop/rock and electronica, but it must be said that this first effort is rather convincing. The pair have got the balance right here, and, given the chance, they could soon become part of our everyday life.

TRACK LISTING 01 This Is The Same As It Always Was 06 Whatever You Want 02 Transtician 07 See You Tonight 03 Rubberbands 08 Simple 04 24 Hours On The Phone 09 Bouna Fuck You 05 Kids On A Crutch

THE SURFER'S GUIDE TO SOULO SOULO This neat little site provides some information about Soulo, and also includes a couple of tracks to download. PLUG RESEARCH Based in Northridge, California, this rather young label has already started to make its mark. The label had a few artists featured on the Dublab compilation.