Illusion

Soulstice came out of San Francisco around Om Records, the label at the center of the city's house scene: singer Gina Rene, her brother Gabriel on production, with Andy Caldwell and DJ Mei-Lwun. Their 2001 debut is an hour of warm downtempo soul, the kind record stores filed under nu jazz. Lovely and Fall Into You were the singles, and both still turn up on chill out compilations. Nothing about it is difficult. It comes from a few years around the millennium when house music and soul seemed ready to merge, and it makes that case better than almost anything else from its scene.