Quasimoto: The Unseen

Functioning as a sort of bad-seed Bobby Digital to Madlib's more upstanding RZA, Quasimoto is the helium-voiced, irregularly flowing alter-ego of Lootpack's ace producer, whose 1999 debut, Soundpieces: Da Antidote was a masterpiece of production that left something to be desired lyrically. To its credit, Quasimoto's The Unseen pushes the vocals of Quasi/Madlib to the background, making his soft, molasses-slow, unassuming rhymes just another ingredient in the album's laid-back but inventive sonic stew. Grounded in some of the finest jazz loops this side of A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory, The Unseen spins out in all sorts of unexpected directions. With 24 tracks (most under three minutes) flowing together like individual chapters of a good book, The Unseen represents a dramatic leap forward for Madlib as a producer, as he integrates left-field, found-sound samples with dexterity and wit that brings to mind Prince Paul's consistently surprising production work. Quasi's ethereal flow—he rhymes a little like a severely blunted Talib Kweli—is far more engaging than the more straightforward Lootpack, helping make The Unseen a smoothed-out but engagingly odd musical journey worth taking. Jazzy, original, and musically sophisticated, the enormously promising Quasimoto is one of those rare side projects that's even better than the act that spawned it.