Since their inception in the late 200s, Dave Mata and his DJ crew, the six-member Impala Sound Champions, have held on to the dream of building a massive traveling sound system like the ones that provided a vehicle for reggae as it emerged in Jamaica. The dream becomes a reality tonight, when the group debuts its custom-built sound system at the MCA as part of the museum’s new after-hours series, Prime Time.
The team started building prototypes in March. “The original prototypes for this thing were much larger just to make the scale of the whole thing bigger, and it ended up not being worth it,” Mata says. “We had to trim down the size of the bass cabinets and stuff just because it was like, ‘How are we even gonna fit this thing on a truck?’” Mata says the team figured out the way to realistically and pragmatically bring their behemoth to life after a couple rounds of making prototypes. The final version includes 20 cabinets, with three horns placed on top of the massive assembly.
