Song of the Day: SPAZA “Ice Squinchies: Waiting for you”

SPAZA is a Johannesburg, South Africa collective devoted to studio improvisation. Recorded live in the studio in 2015, the debut album SPAZA is just-released on “Experimental Music Imprint” Mushroom Hour Records, where “The Experimentation lies more in the Process than in the Sound.” Lead single “Squinchies (Waiting for You)” features wigged-out, heavily-processed vocals and electronics over a building, syncopated jazz pulse. Even in the digital age, when challenging new sounds are always at our fingertips, “Squinchies” is a revelation: spiritual, experimental, a genuine expression of Afrofuturism.

Conceived in the Mushroom Hour Half Hour lab, SPAZA is a band with no permanent personnel, with each lineup assembled for the express purpose of recording once-off improvised or workshopped material.

Featuring:
Ariel Zamonsky – upright bass
Gontse Makhene – percussion and vocals
João Orecchia – synthesisers & electronics
Nosisi Ngakane – vocals & FX
Siya Makuzeni – vocals, FX & trombone
Waldo Alexander – electric violin with FX pedal
Guest Feature on Stametta Spuit: Nonku Phiri – vocals

Vinyl and digital copies are now available via the SPAZA Bandcamp page. This is fascinating and challenging new music that sounds unlike anything else you’ve likely heard. While the collective’s influences can all be identified, the combination is something new and fresh. This is music that manages to sound both earthy and still ethereally otherworldly. It is music that pulls off the impressive feat of both floating and grooving at the same time.