Photo courtesy Luisa Fernanda
FILLING THE STAGE with keyboards, bongos, horns, and electric and bass guitars, Sweet Poison Victim is the kind of electrifying ensemble you need to see live. Born from a jam session in a friend’s house, the Indianapolis-based band merges the upbeat syncopation of West African highlife music with the soul of American funk. Is that a pinch of ska thrown in?
It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what musical spell Sweet Poison Victim is casting, with its Ghanaian moonshine metaphors and contagious percussion. But their wall of sound—led by singer Kwesi Brown and backed by Ian Bradley, Josh Nosie, Mike Newman, Reed Brown, Karl Selm, Ted Somerville, and Mario Martinez on a full assemblage of instruments—is a powerful musical brew as intoxicating as their name suggests.
