Sole (Tim Holland), the main brain behind Oakland's "Anticon" collective,
after a disposable Music Without a Face (1998),
unfolded his erudite stream of consciousness with punk fervor over a fluctuating layer of samples and live instruments on
the overlong 19-song
Bottle Of Humans (2000), aided by a cast of
Anticon producers:
Jeffrey "Jel" Logan,
Tommy "Controller 7" McMahon, Alias, and Odd Nosdam.
The artists exhibits a split personality. On one hand there are aggressive
and vicious songs like
I Don't Rap in Bumper Stickers,
Famous Last Words (with a tribal-industrial beat by Kevin "Daddy Kev" Moo),
and Understanding.
At the other end of the spectrum there are
melancholy and introverted songs like Dismantling of Soles Ego,
Furthermore (which
Controller 7 equips with a
romantic guitar sample),
Home,
and
Suicide Song (the nadir of dejection).
In between, Jel does wonders with a brass sample in Tourist Trapeze,
Our Dirty Big Secret is a choral quasi-punk anthem,
Center City (an almost sung duet with Why? over another great Jel production) has satirical musichall overtones,
and standout Bottle of Humans is terrifying (with funereal production by Alias including desperate soul crooning).
Sole perfected his art of non-rhyming free-form poetic raps on
Selling Live Water (2003), mostly produced by Alias.
Again, his punk-ish persona stands out, for example in
Da Baddest Poet and in the
electrifying Salt on Everything.
The frenzied delivery of Shoot the Messenger,
the acrobatic rap over a sci-fi soundscape in Tokyo,
the bleak atmosphere of the breathless Pawn in the Game Pt 1 (with a great orchestral sample) are highlights, just as
the pieces that blur the border between anger and desperation like Plutonium.
At the other hand of the spectrum is the pensive and melancholy Pawn in the Game Pt 2.
The arrangements are often the real protagonists, like in
The Priziest Horse, which hangs on to a reverbed trumpet chord,
and in
Odd Nosdam's
cinematic production of Selling Live Water .
Learning to Walk collects old unreleased material.
Mansbestfriend Pt2 - No Thanks was a tour-only album.
Deep Puddle Dynamics was a collaboration among Sole, Alias, Doseone and Slug,
documented on The Taste of Rain (Anticon, 1999).
Live From Rome (2005) marked a transition to political lyrics.
Sole formed the Skyrider Band with producer Bud Berning, multi-instrumentalist
William Ryan Fritch and drummer John Wagner. They released
the wildly eclectic Sole and the Skyrider Band (2007),
a dark prophetic vision of the decline of civilization.
The apocalyptic tone and the cacophony of A Sad Day For Investors,
the self-destructing vortex of One Egg Short Of The Omelette,
the sped-up gypsy dance of Stupid Things Implode On Themselves,
and the dejected tone of both rapping and instrumental in Nothing Is Free
best incapsulate that vision.
Or, perhaps, the ominous liquid and almost psychedelic productions of Ghost Assassinating Other Ghosts and Sound Of Head On Concrete say more than words: the soundtrack of a hopeless collapse.
The chugging A Hundred Light Years And Running ends in a desperate cry for help, and the tense dramatic atmosphere Magnum feels like a piece of live television reporting.
The production can be even too creative, like in the second half of The Bones Of My Pets and in the intricate On Cavalry.
Sole and the Skyrider Band released a less eclectic and more focused second album, Plastique (2009), containing Battlefields and Longshots,
and the mediocre sell-out Hello Cruel World (2011).
Sole remained prolific even after people had stopped listening to his sermons.
and released:
the mostly instrumental Poly.Sci.187 (2007),
Desert Eagle (2008),
A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing (2012), another political
statement with Non Workers Of The World, Never Work, Last Earth and Ruthless,
the inferior follow-up No Wising Up No Settling Down (2013),
the third part of the trilogy,
Crimes Against Totality (2013), also widely inferior,
Let Them Eat Sand (2018), which even sounds amateurish,
Destituent (2019), even more lo-fi,
MBFX (2021),
etc.
