Space People – SHMM

The essence of “hip hop,” I think, comes from a love of recorded music and the cultural treasure it represents. A fondness for experimenting with musical possibilities. It snatches up pieces of heard music, or musical sounds, entangling them in their creative universe to make something new. SHMM, from Brooklyn-based Space People, is 23 tracks of meticulous beats, synth work, and sampling, “Born from eons of experiments in a solar system far, far away,” in their words. The entire thing is geared more to an attentive domestic hearing than to the dance-floor pulse, the pieces being short though admittedly full of movement and shades of deconstructed footwork. The beats aren’t overbearing though, and if they manage to dominate it’s usually in anticipation of a quick scene change.

The album kicks off with the frantic “Funky (It’s Got To Be),” a fast-paced challenge to casual listening, falling into “Rain Maid,” in which a cooing synth non-melody carries on over a back-beat that seems to never repeat. By “I’m So (Ohh)“ it’s like the track pulses could mesmerize if you let them, though the track has other intentions, keeping your attention lit up, your imagination breezy. “Tele (vision)” is one of the more linear tracks, a funky left-turn with a riff of synthesized bass and guitar, though there are still plenty more curves that follow.

SHMM is available on cassete (with a few bonus cassette-only tracks) thanks to Styles Upon Styles, via Space People’s Bandcamp.