"There's a supernatural element to everyone in the group. Everyone's always trading mad stories," says the producer Spoek Mathambo about his electro-Zulu band, Fantasma. (The name means "ghost" in Spanish and Portuguese.) Made up of Mathambo, DJ Spoko (who produced "Township Funk"), Maskandi bassist Bhekisenzo Cele, and psychedelic rock guitarist Andre Geldenhuys, Fantasma is the perfect kind of South African musical dream team. "There are a lot of personalities coming out in ['Eye of the Sun']," Mathambo continues. "But we just jammed and it came naturally."Fantasma's collective interest in everything strange and vaguely mystical is evident in the music video for "Eye of the Sun"—the psychedelic lead song off their debut EP. Traversing an acrid landscape populated by floating crystal balls, disembodied heads, and neon skies, the video unspools like the wild visions of a desert-dwelling mystic (or someone on a lot of ayahuasca). The collective of elusive images could have been inspired by an actual spirit quest taken by the group while recording their EP. "There was this one weird day where we saw a huge snake, a whale, and out of nowhere, a huge rainbow," Mathambo recalls. "Things feel kind of spooky and supernatural a lot."
Fantasma's Eye of the Sun EP is out nowThings are getting spooOoOoOky with Michelle Lhooq on Twitter - @MichelleLhooq
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