Steve Spacek– Space Shift

STEVE SPACEK, the acclaimed voice behind the ground-breaking genre-pushing group Spacek (who were championed by everyone from Entertainment Weekly to Mos Def), made a name for himself at the turn of the century with the song “Eve’ (recently covered by Dwele). The song set off a worldwide buzz on Steve as a singer and his group’s futuristic sound.

Imagine a robot performer in the future, in love with hip hop beatology and skillful enough to twist it into new shapes, programmed with an infused knowledge of the biographies of Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Leroy Hutson as source material for lyric writing and you might have an idea of the Spacek sound - Robotic, futuristic, hip-hop based soul.

In more intellectual terms you could say the music of Spacek is the perfect representation of the ideas presented in the Paul Gilroy book “The Black Atlantic” – the concept that black creative music has been traveling to Europe, where it is then informed with new information, and transported back to the US to be mutated again to only go back to Europe and on and on, in an endless cycle of mutation. Spacek started at a pretty deep point with their song “Eve” and the following album (which was signed to Mos Def’s US label but never released domestically). They continued the thread in a more stripped down manner for their follow up album for K7 which received praise from Vibe, Trace, Entertainment
Weekly and many others.

Here, for his solo debut, Steve Spacek sidesteps the Atlantic and goes straight to the source. “Space Shift” is, as the title indicates, a new move. This is Steve’s great American album, produced and recorded largely in Los Angeles. It has a US centric sound. You can almost see the California sun lightening up the previously dark London overtones, but the approach for ‘Space Shift” still sits firmly in the future. Steve says,“Simply, there was no concept. I just ended up in LA soakin’ up the vibes and what a good experience!” Steve was also inspired to work solo “It had been so long since I'd done something purely for myself without having to consult with others that I'd forgotten how good it felt.
Pure freedom!” The record reflects this freedom.

With his lyrics, Steve has never been afraid to be introspective. Now he fully explores with them, more sentimental, more open and less oblique than ever but still full of his special crafted mystery. Spacek’s lyrics have rarely sounded so clear.

Steve also expanded his visible role for this record. People don’t know this, but he programmed a lot of “Curvatia” (the first Spacek album) on Ed’s kitchen table, so he’s always known his way around an MPC and logic. Much of the album was made switching between the two. On “Space Shift” Steve uses his beat making skills to a degree not exposed before, producing much of the music. But to make the album more colorful, he also brought in old partner Morgan from Spacek for a few crucial joints (check out the second single, the afro beat infused smash "3 Hours of Fun"). Newcomer and LA cohort Mr French also brought his science (he and Steve will be touring in September), and the incomparable (once Detroit based, now in LA) beat master Jay Dee (aka J-Dilla - known for his work with Slum Village and Common) came in with one of his most accessible beats to date for the soul banger lead single “Dollar.” As if all that wasn’t enough Steve also brought in the legendary songwriter Leon Ware (Marvin Gaye's ‘I Want You”) for a brilliant duet. The track with Leon was recorded at a special jam session with CSI actor Gary Dourdan (“Warrick Brown”) contributing vocals, stand-up bass and drum percussion, Orin Walters from Bugz In The Attic on MPC programming, Leon on vocals and piano, Mr
French on MPC, plus Steve on vocals and MPC.

Proof enough you don’t need to cross the Atlantic anymore - the Spacek sound is now well and truly American. Future soul just got way sexier.