SXSW Record Reviews

Billowing smoke, glowing rings, dashikis, masks, mystery, mayhem – dancing: Golden Dawn Arkestra amounts to visual LSD onstage. Austin's Afrobeat aliens successfully etched a psychedelic jazz-funk party onto their 2014 debut EP, and now repeat the trick with sophomore vinyl that deepens the grooves into electro-funk. The 10- to 20-piece collective follows that lodestar on this eight-song-long effort: galactic disco on gibberish chant "Sama Chaka," space-surf guitar with "Osaka," and a tropical R&B melody on uplifting standout "Clouds." Local analog master Erik Wofford again captures GDA's multitude of keyboards, horns, vibraphone, flute, and percussion with a clarity that rockets past exotic to interplanetary. (Wed., 8:30pm, Hilton Grand Ballroom)