Sound Tribe Sector 9

If funkmaster Isaac Hayes became a member of Tortoise, the resulting collaboration might sound like the psychedelic dub of Sound Tribe Sector 9. Mixing metaphysical mysticism with jazz aesthetics and electronica, the Georgia five-piece traffics in spacey jam rock that's original, danceable and completely captivating. Cosmic guitars, crackling laptop effects, robotic drums and jazzy keyboard and bass riffs ebb and flow in a funky nebula of synth psychedelia. Songs like the dub-and-bass "Tokyo" and the sputtering effects of "Trinocular" swim in colorful clouds of hazy moon dust, in a place where the ghosts of Phish, Disco Biscuits and LTJ Bukem smoke spliffs, read books on Maya codices and noodle on instruments as diverse as a Japanese 13-string koto and a Moog Voyager synthesizer. On stage, the siren sounds of STS9 beckon a crowd as diverse as its influences, all worshiping the next musical evolution of funkified electro-rock.