Atlas Lab

Atlas Lab is a new collaboration between Solei, (vocals, self-proclaimed “human synthesizer”), John Shakespeare, Samm Bahman (rhythm guitar and bass), and Alex Brander (drums). Solei and Alex met while street performing in Harvard Square. According to the the band, while Solei and John experimented with vocal loops on folk tunes, Alex and Samm had their own project with ambient and electronic music. The four joined forces to create the groovy, engrossing project they call Atlas Lab.

The colors in Atlas Lab’s video for “Castellana” match the mood of the music. It’s dreamy, ambient electronic music, mixed with enough funk to keep you on your toes. The band describes their music as “dynamic and visual” and a “colorful meeting of driving rhythm, melodic guitar, and live vocal looping.” Their other two musical creations include the more somber “Something Good,” as well as the funkier “Trust Fall.” Look out for a new EP coming out next month, and, if all goes as planned, an international tour and a waffle iron. - Sound of Boston

At least one good thing came out of the brutal winter that pounded the city of Boston of this year.

Cited by Atlas Lab as one of their major influences and inspirations for the upcoming EP, “Wake Up Slow” – along with Mahalia Jackson, Sigur Rós, the whole discography of dirty country legend Larry Pierce, the dad of drummer Alex Brander, amongst others – the forced hibernation thanks to the snowy storm fueled a “strange feverish excitement of new collaboration.”

The psychedelic soul act has only recently started to take form, with newest member, upright bassist Otto Briner having officially joined just this month. Though members come from folk, reggae, rock, funk and electronica bands, the band tells us, “we think of our music as groove-based and psychedelic while maintaining catchy melodies and traditional songwriting principles.”

The chorus of title track “Wake Up Slow” attests to that. Acoustic guitar picking and harmonizing bring a certain folkiness, while Solei’s vocals stand out in a way they could not in her previous project, Gold Bloc, which relied heavily on her looped and layered vocals. Indeed, the band tells how the instrumentals “blend together in a way that creates a bed of sound, so that all the instruments become one beneath the vocal.” But, it’s important to note that the Goldbloc project was the catalyst for Solei’s music career– it “gave me the space to purse music more seriously” said Solei.

When we asked the band to describe their music without using genre labels, they told us a story: “A songwriter walks into a forest and meets a spell-weaving sprite. A wizened elf gifts them secret mushroom and they fall into a funky bear den; they are never the same.”

The band has been playing throughout the East Coast, from playing to passing Escalades in valet parking area in Connecticut, to opening for a bachelorette party at a nightclub in New York, to playing a Halloween show at Boston’s own Sally O’Briens, covered in glow-in-the-dark paint. - Sound of Boston