Single Release, "Soulful Machine"

Every song starts somewhere. Something clicks. Something grabs the ear. A melody or a rhythm arrives from nowhere. Stop the world. Stop the car. That could be a song. Like a hunter searches his prey, a songwriter is always on the lookout for the next source of inspiration. And occasionally a gift appears. A song arrives at the doorstep seductively wrapped in nothing but rhythm. “Soulful Machine” the next single to be released on August 6 by Jasper Grooves Collective, is such a song.

It came with a readymade groove. I was reading a mundane to-do list and the dishwashing machine in the kitchen was just another noisy machine in the background. But suddenly it dawned on me that there was more than meets the ear. That soulless contraption of gears, pumps and sparkling detergent was strangely laying down a solid, Caribbean groove. I perked up my ears, sang an improvised melody, and things began to come together. Soulful machinery, polyrhythmic dishwasher, syncopation machination…The feeling of paradox was immediate and inescapable. How could a machine, especially a machine made to perform such a banal task as dishwashing, conjure up visions of marimbas and trombones and tropical nights? It was simultaneously ludicrous and beautiful.

That said, I wasn’t going to write a song about a washing machine. I’ll leave that to someone else. When the bards of yore spoke about being visited by the muses, rattling washing machines aren’t exactly what comes to mind. But soulful machines, now that’s something that piques the imagination. In a world where the line between human and machine is becoming blurred, the distinction between the real and the digital loses its sense. One can’t quite separate the real deal from the brilliant fake and maybe we don’t really want to know. Maybe we’d prefer not to delve too deeply into the mirage for fear of what awaits us on the other side. And just who are all these people anyways? People will tell you anything to try and seduce you. Strangers in bars tell us about their old hometown and their old schools, but are their memories real or have they been insidiously implanted by their makers? And how would they even know anyhow? Their whole life gives off the tell-tale stench of a well-orchestrated lie. There’s no use in denying that there are replicants in our midst, contrived beings conceived by amateur gods, drunk on their own hubris.

But wait a second, let’s not get carried away. I was just toying with ideas, riffing on sci-fi fantasies, like John Coltrane used to riff on blues scales. In fact, “Soulful Machine” is a dance song. It’s a love song. Seriously, it’s a song about love at first sight that delves into the animalistic realm of pheromones, sweat and lust on the dance floor. There’s no reason to believe that the stranger who has just led us onto the dance floor is anything other than the genuine article. And obviously we would know the difference, right? Of course we would know the difference. How ridiculous to suggest it would even be possible to concoct a convincingly seductive being, all fabricated with microchips and genetic artifice. Pernicious nonsense. Anyhow, I shouldn’t lead you on any longer. After all, it’s you the listeners who will ultimately decipher what “Soulful Machine” means and whether there is reason to doubt ourselves on the dance floors and digital screens of our lives….

So keep an eye out for Jasper Grooves Collective’s latest tune to be released on Friday August 6! You’ll be able to find it wherever you find your music online. Please consider purchasing the song for your personal library and share widely if you enjoy what you hear!