Hailing from South Africa, Spoek Mathambo is one of the more original hip hop/electronic artists on the planet and utilizes his local environment and desire for global reach to influence his sounds. His second album, Father Creeper has recently been issued and shows Spoek taking on a whole host of sounds and fusing them together into a heady brew of world music, electronic, hip hop, and rock smashed together. This is the sound of an open mind let run rampant and it's a pretty intriguing listen.
To say that Father Creeper is an out of the ordinary record would be an understatement. This record is so confused in all the best ways that it’s as if Spoek was being pulled in thirty different directions all at once. It literally can't make up its mind if it wants to be a straight hip hop record, a wobbly work, a world music record, or a rock album. Guitars clash with bass waves, keyboards mingle with traditional sounds, vocals tag team between angry to angelic and the whole thing is a dizzying array of well written songs that are compelling and interesting. Spoek in the course of eleven songs demonstrates with skill and talent why being open minded towards music gives you a broader palette to play with, experiment with, and construct songs with. He's a fantastic chemist in this regard and you can hear it on just about every song here.
Spoek Mathambo might come from South Africa but his sound is far reaching well beyond his home country. This inventive and fascinating artist easily fuses anything he sees fit into his already enormous arsenal. As a result Father Creeper has something for everyone and this is the sort of record that crosses borders, genres and cultures all in the name of a good tune. If you have an open mind and seek something out of the ordinary than Father Creeper is bound to find its way into your collection.
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