It’s easy to sniff out posers. Though you often can’t pinpoint exactly what gave them away, there’s generally an overall feeling of “fakeness.” When I first read Spacehall Sound Machine’s Bandcamp bio, which describes their music as “a combination of explosive rhythms from West Africa & Latin America, dub, driving post-punk bass lines, psychedelic rock, funk breakbeats, and haunting melodies from the Middle East,” I fully expected my poser meter to explode. Boy, was I surprised.
The band’s debut self-titled EP is fabulous. There’s a tantalizingly exotic vibe to Spacehall Sound Machine, almost like some alien entity received a transmission filled with 1970s international psychedelic music, injected it with all manner of otherworldly tones and beamed it back to Earth.
But it also feels genuine. That’s likely because bandleader and drummer Matt Bozzone is the real deal, having toured for over a decade with all manner of groovy, international artists. That list includes Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, the son and former backing band of Nigerian Afrobeat visionary Fela Kuti. Now that’s a resume.
Spacehall Sound Machine, “Hold It Together”: The band’s sound is underpinned by Bozzone’s driving, authoritative drum lines and is gilded with seductive and ghostly keyboard and guitar parts. In many ways, “Hold It Together,” is the EP’s most basic track. Unlike the more frilly “Piledriver,” or “Dark Horse,” the track embraces emptiness, allowing brief riffs or whirrs of synthesizer to echo into the nothingness.
Like what you hear? Check out Spacehall Sound Machine at Soda Bar on Thursday, Dec. 19. Do you have a “Song of the Week” suggestion? Shoot us an email and a sentence or two about why you’ve been bumping this song lately. Friendly reminder: all songs should be by local artists.