Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection

Singer/songwriter, producer, and Spacebomb founder Matthew E. White first worked with found-object sculptor, improvising songwriter, and American national treasure Lonnie Holley in 2019, when White and his band backed Holley during a concert in Richmond, Virginia. As with all of Holleys performances, he spontaneously delivered his worldly insight with no prior rehearsal, and all involved agreed that it was a particularly electrifying event. The two played another concert in Durham, North Carolina a few months later, and after it happened, White played Holley several instrumental recordings that he and his band had made the year before, which didnt quite fit the direction of the solo album he was working on at the time. Holley listened to the beginnings of the tracks and rejected some of them, but inspiration struck with many of the others, and consulting his notebook for lyrical themes, he delivered complete verses on the spot, without hearing the music beforehand. Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection consists of five of these unplanned compositions, and its one of the most unique entries in both artists discographies. The instrumentals are free and unbound, moving far away from the studied AM radio pop of Whites earlier work and inhabiting spaces that seem to directly funnel energy from 70s galactic jazz and Krautrock. Its by far the funkiest music Holley has sung over, and its a sound he feels right at home with, as his thoughts comfortably flow over the heavy, sprawling rhythms. Several of the tracks channel the far-out innovation of electric Miles, with bugged-out keyboards and sporadic guitars dancing over the gargantuan rhythm section. Holleys lyrics mainly address the frustrations of living in a society thats constantly distracted by technology and social media. Instead of buying the latest gadgets or selfishly trying to raise his online profile through endless narcissistic posting, hes concerned with keeping in tune with the energies of the universe and making the best of his time on Earth. He wrestles with his worldly emotions over the fuzz-heavy bass, multi-tracked African drums, and Sun Ra keyboards of I Cried Space Dust, and sings about keeping his mind and body healthy atop percolating electronics during the Cluster-like Im Not Tripping. Holleys observations are as powerful and poetic as ever, and White and his band simply sound out of this world, making Broken Mirror a spirited, magnificent collaboration. ~ Paul Simpson