Steve Spacek

After making two stellar albums of ambient soul with his group Spacek, London-based singer and producer Steve Spacek set up in California and recorded his first solo album with occasional help from the likes of heavyweight producer Jay Dee and undervalued Motown figure Leon Ware. Space Shift, released in 2005 on the Sound in Color label, retained the dreamy atmospheres of the Spacek albums, but it was juicier and looser, with harder-hitting beats and a relaxed state of mind. Inspired throughout his career by Ware, Ronald Isley, Marvin Gaye, and Curtis Mayfield, Spacek's voice never possessed bold power, but his silky atmospheres were always welcomed in an era of flash and overstated emotion. Spacek also recorded abstract downtempo electronic music as Blackpocket.