While founded on the backbeats and synth sequences often associated with Electronic music and the riffing guitar and improvised sets known to Jam music fans, BoomBox avoids association with the term “Jamtronica.” Rather, they like to think of themselves as a single DJ, operating as a unit built to get the party going, very much in the vein of a boombox-hoisting dance party-starter in a subway or on a side street.
The duo features producer Russ Randolph, holding down the beats, synthesized grooves and subconscious-rattling bass, and Zion Godchaux (son of Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux, both former members of The Grateful Dead), chief songwriter and also singer and guitarist.
Formed in 2004 in musically historic Muscle Shoals, Ala., the power duo has been working for the past decade in search of a particular sound and feeling experienced constantly within their own heads. During that time they have cultivated a distinct sound that strongly leans toward psychedelic House music, but with rhythmic and at times wandering guitar riffs that keep at least one leg in the realm of Blues and Rock, almost reminiscent of a threesome between Deadmau5, Genesis and Daft Punk. The resulting mixture keeps it smooth enough that, if I were to have the rare opportunity to throw a party underwater, BoomBox would be prime entertainment for the shindig.
Randolph and Godchaux have released three albums over their years as a duo. Their first studio LP, Visions of Backbeat, was released in 2005, just a year after the two met. They followed up their debut in 2010 with downriverelectric. Last year saw the release of Filling in the Color, an LP written mostly on the road in which the band continues to develop dynamically, dunking their beats in a little more Funk while retaining their trance-like dance vibes.
BOOMBOX plays at Cosmo’s in Covington Thursday, Jan. 29. Find ticks/more info here.
