-
The Comet is Coming - Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery makes KOSU '10 favorite albums of 2019'
Posted At : December 27, 2019 12:00 AM
Jon Mooneyham, host of Everything All At Once Forever, shares his 10 favorite albums of 2019. Among them is The Comet is Coming - Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery. Shabaka Hutchings' apocalyptic cosmic jazz trio fuses the sonic Afrofuturist scenarios of Sun Ra and John Coltrane's late-period space explorations with the serene spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane, synthesizing something new in that crucible. Emphasizing mile-wide grooves and dubby distortions, TCIC set the controls for the heart of dystopia - and having Kate Tempest along for the ride on one track is a big big bonus. PS: They also released another short LP late this year, Afterlife - a more uplifting flipside to the album.
SEE THE KOSU PAGE
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
-
The Comet Is Coming - Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery makes 'glide Jazz Top 20 for 2019'
Posted At : December 23, 2019 12:00 AM
2019 was another eventful year in Jazz that delivered a renewed global creativity, the unearthing of lost albums from iconic figures, stellar efforts from emerging young players, and strong contributions from reliable veterans, both vocally and instrumentally. This is Glide's effort, a wide swath of 20 remarkable albums that touch on several aspects of jazz. We salute these artists, knowing the choices were difficult to make as there were many more worthy efforts beyond just these.
The Comet Is Coming – Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery (Impulse!) – The spiritual music made by John and Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders in the late ‘60s is surely an inspiration for the UK jazz trio, and, like those iconic figures. TCIC is pushing the envelope into the 21st century with spiritual jazz that owes as much to the ‘60s sound as it does to futuristic music like that from Bladerunner. This is the debut of King Shabaka (Shabaka Hutchings) on saxophone/bass clarinet, Danalogue (Dan Leavers) on keys/synth, and Betamax (Max Hallett) on drums.
The Comet Is Coming - Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery makes 'glide Jazz Top 20 for 2019'
SEE THE PAGE
-
The Comet is Coming - Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery makes Treble: Best Albums of 2019
Posted At : December 22, 2019 12:00 AM
We've cycled through a lot of of our favorite music of the year: Our Top 50 Albums of 2019 and our Top 100 Songs of 2019. And beyond that, our favorite metal, hip-hop, electronic, jazz and missed albums of the year. And now we're sharing our individual top 10 lists of the year to close it out. Here's what we, individually, liked a lot this year.
Max Pilley selected 'The Comet is Coming – Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery.'
The Comet Is Coming, who in 2016 were shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize, is comprised of King Shabaka (Shabaka Hutchings) on saxophone, Danalogue (Dan Leavers) on keys/synth, and Betamax (Max Hallett) on drums. On this album, Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery, the trio envisage a 21st century take on spiritual jazz that is part Alice Coltrane, part Bladerunner.
SEE ALL THE Treble: Best Albums of 2019
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
-
The Comet Is Coming, Trust In the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery makes JAZZIZ editors picks - 10 albums you need to know for 2019
Posted At : December 20, 2019 12:00 AM
With the year's end fast approaching, JAZZIZ's digital content editor Brian Zimmerman and website editor Matt Micucci pick their five of their favorite jazz albums of 2019. The list includes a keyboard legend's celebration of the passionate music of Spain, a rockstar's impressive incursion into the jazz world, that latest work from one of London's hottest jazz acts and much more.
The London jazz scene is in the midst of a major revival. But for all the seismic activity currently underway across the pond, perhaps the biggest ripple-maker at the moment is 35-year-old London native Shabaka Hutchings. The saxophonist is at the center of the trio The Comet Is Coming (along with keyboardist Dan Leavers and drummer Max Hallet), whose second studio album, Trust In The Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery, is a cosmic exploration of jazz, electronica, funk, dubb-step and reggae that lives up to its metaphysical name. The band is capable of generating grooves so deep they'll move you at a cellular level, affecting your heart and mind alike.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
SEE THE JAZZIZ PAGE
-
The Comet is Coming, Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery makes Sequenza 21: Best Recordings of 2019
Posted At : December 19, 2019 12:00 AM
The Guardian called The Comet Is Coming 2019 Impulse! debut, Trust In the Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery, "an improvisational, intergalactic mash-up." The Comet Is Coming, who in 2016 were shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize, is comprised of King Shabaka (Shabaka Hutchings) on saxophone, Danalogue (Dan Leavers) on keys/synth, and Betamax (Max Hallett) on drums. On this album, Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery, the trio envisage a 21st century take on spiritual jazz that is part Alice Coltrane, part Bladerunner. The Comet is Coming, Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery makes Sequenza 21: Best Recordings of 2019. SEE THE PAGE
-
The Comet Is Coming - The Afterlife makes JazzTimes The Year in Review: Top 50 Albums of 2019 .
Posted At : December 13, 2019 12:00 AM
JazzTimes' critics choose the top 40 new albums and top 10 historical releases of the year.
The Comet Is Coming digital release of the group's highly-anticipated mini-album The Afterlife, via Impulse! served as a companion piece to the group's breakout album Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery and the lead track "Lifeforce Part II."
"The Afterlife has been a topic of deep consideration and of the keys to spiritual mythology around the world for millennia," claims kinetic keyboardist Danalogue. He continues to state "The two records can be seen as companions, that cannot exist without each other, like day and night, light and dark, creation and destruction. They were made together, at the same time, and have always been intended to be experienced together."
JazzTimes critic Morgan Enos picked 'The Comet Is Coming - The Afterlife' as their top new release for 2019.
SEE THE JazzTimes PAGE
-
The Comet Is Coming - Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery makes Treble '10 Best Jazz Albums of 2019'
Posted At : December 12, 2019 12:00 AM
Comparing the year in jazz to that of 2018 is a little like comparing this year in metal to its predecessor-on the surface it seems hard to compete with 12 months of obvious ringers. After all, last year revealed the first set of unheard John Coltrane music in decades. I mean, this year also yielded a set of unheard Coltrane pieces, which was pretty cool as well, but they were still essentially alternate versions of pieces we'd already heard, and the novelty wasn't quite as strong. But if the strength of a jazz year can only be measured by the freshness of its rare Coltrane recordings, well, most years would be pretty disappointing. And honestly, to focus on 50-year-old outtakes when so much great new material is being recorded feels at best shortsighted and at worst intransigent. Jazz this year was dominated not by headline-grabbing archival music but by the sheer strength of new artists honing their craft. Some of them have made this list before (Yazz Ahmed, Shabaka Hutchings). Some of them are best known in other genres (Cochemea). And some arrived well out of left-field (Paisiel). But the one thing they have in common is that they all reveal something new about a 100-year-old style. Here are the best jazz albums of 2019.
I've always been somewhat skeptical of anything described as "nu-jazz," as more often than not it's less jazz and more downtempo electronic music to pulse through the lobby of a trendy, high-end boutique hotel. The Comet Is Coming, however, are a proper jazz outfit who just so happen to sound like they're prepped to launch into hyperspace, thanks in large part to Danalogue's synth-heavy atmospheres. Yet saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings and drummer Betamax are what bring the project back down to earth with both an emotionally powerful presence and grooves that never relent. One need only give one spin to standout jam "Summon the Fire" to understand that this group is simply not fucking around-they're certainly headed for the cosmos, but they're getting asses shaking on the ascent. Trust In the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery is the group's Impulse! debut, putting them in the league of giants like Charles Mingus and John Coltrane (and Hutchings' other group, Sons of Kemet), and while those might be big shoes to fill, it's to the iconic label's credit that groundbreaking talent like this-making something truly innovative from an electronic/jazz combo that's been stuck in M.O.R. range for too long-is carrying their its forward into the 21st century.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
SEE THE Treble '10 Best Jazz Albums of 2019' PAGE
-
The Comet Is Coming - Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery is a Red Bull: must-listen LP for 2019
Posted At : December 9, 2019 12:00 AM
By now you'll be aware that jazz is back. In the UK, a brace of acts that came through youth group Tomorrow's Warriors are transforming the sound through the influence of contemporary music like grime, rap and sound system culture. A thriving west coast scene formed around pioneering musicians like Kamasi Washington and Thundercat continues to bear fruit. From the latest up-and-coming groups transforming the London scene to outliers from Tokyo, Los Angeles and Chicago – here are a brace of must-listen LPs from a banner year.
Legendary London saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings blessed us with not one, but two The Comet Is Coming releases this year – Trust in The Lifeforce… was followed by sister EP The Afterlife in September. Both are essential in their wild, psychedelic abandon and forward-thinking aesthetic, balancing Hutchings' powerful and moving horn work with pulsating electronics and charging drums courtesy of his mysterious bandmates, Danalogue and Betamax. As Danalogue puts it: "The two records can be seen as companions, that cannot exist without each other, like day and night, light and dark, creation and destruction. They were made together, at the same time, and have always been intended to be experienced together."
SEE THE Red Bull PAGE
-
The Comet Is Coming flips the minimalist palette into an electrifying, apocalyptic sound / Pitchfork
Posted At : October 22, 2019 12:00 AM
The cosmic fusion group skewers the jazz-trio format as it's typically understood, flipping the minimalist palette into an electrifying, apocalyptic sound.
Since their debut was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2016, the Comet is Coming's saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings has become a formidable presence in the international jazz scene in his own right, making fans of Beyoncé and Virgil Abloh along the way. Hutchings landed not just one but three different bands on the Impulse label in the process. From the Afro-Caribbean stomp of his Sons of Kemet to the South African spiritual jazz of Shabaka and the Ancestors, his music is simultaneously rooted in the traditional, broadly international in scope, and thoroughly of the moment.
But there's something in the way the Comet Is Coming skewers the typical jazz trio that stands apart from his other projects. Its surface speaks to the cosmic sounds of Sun Ra, but there's something raw and earthy at the core. Comet draw from the minimal, restrained palette of the trio format to make something that's electrifying and apocalyptic all at once, able to tear the roof of jazz-as well as rock, jam band, and EDM-festivals. A companion piece to this year's Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery, The Afterlife continues to hover over that album's scorched earth, not replicating the rush of "Summon the Fire" but instead exploring in greater detail that set's most somber moments. It's concise yet also shows the trio's depth in just over 30 minutes.
READ THE FULL Pitchfork REVIEW
-
The Austin Chronicle interviews The Comet Is Coming
Posted At : October 22, 2019 12:00 AM
A freewheeling powerhouse of manic sax riffing, melodic synthwave, and thundering grooves, the Comet Is Coming combines the rhythms of modern electronica. Credit keyboardist Dan "Danalogue" Leavers and drummer Max "Betamax" Hallett and the improvisational fire of contemporary jazz courtesy sax master "King Shabaka" Hutchings. The leaderless UK collective ("It's like an experiment," says Danalogue. "Can anarchy work in a musical format?") presents a unified vision on second LP Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery, which explores notions of connection to the infinite and universal unity.
The Comet Is Coming combines the rhythms of modern electronica and the improvisational fire of contemporary jazz.
"We're delving into that one specific, deep mystery, which is one that we all share," muses the keyboardist. "No one knows what's gonna happen after you die, right? You've got paradise mythology, heaven mythology, people going into psychedelic trances where they swear they've gone into the afterlife and come back. It's such a rich area of investigation."
The trio continues its philosophical, spiritual, and cosmic explorations on new EP The Afterlife, six thematic tracks recorded at the same time as the full album.
READ THE FULL Austin Chronicle INTERVIEW
-
The Comet Is Coming - The Afterlife makes New Music Fridays: Festicket staff picks
Posted At : September 27, 2019 12:00 AM
Happy Friday! Gearing up for performances at Austin City Limits, before returning to Europe for the Autumn greats Pitchfork Music Festival Paris, Club To Club Torino and roBOt, London psych-jazz trio The Comet Is Coming have today dropped another cosmic chapter in their mind-melting odyssey. Joining them in this week's playlist are new cuts from Delta Sleep, Temples, Natalia Lafourcade and more. As always, find the playlist below, along with some words on our particular favourites.
Praise for Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery has skyrocketed since its release six months ago, so it's prime time for the South London trio to reveal the next chapter in their "transcendent experience", considering their recent tour dates are selling out like proverbial hot cakes.
Chunky, bassy synths once again act as the fulcrum for the three-piece's shimmering, mystic space-jams on The Afterlife, whilst Shabaka Hutchings' sorcerous saxophone guides the narrative on what is no doubt an accompanying epilogue to their last release. It's progressive, heated, and instinctive, but certainly not ‘jazz' in a typical sense, more so ruminations on spirituality and connectivity than self-gratifying virtuosity, which is predominantly the appeal. For me at least.
Evoking psychedelic pilgrimages across thirsty sand dunes by day and scouring the constellations by night, The Afterlife won't provide an answer to grandiose questions like the meaning of life, your entire existence, what happens once you kick the bucket etc. Who cares? It's an immersive experience nonetheless. TC
READ ALL Festicket REVIEWS
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
-
Double B.C. jazz festivals happily include; The Comet Is Coming and Loueke-Midon duo / KNKX: Seattle
Posted At : June 14, 2019 12:00 AM
The double jazz festivals in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia later this month (June 21 through July 1) feature many wonderful modern jazz groups. Happily, a few of them will make the border crossing to entertain Seattle audiences. Others will require a passport. Tune in Saturday afternoon to hear a few of them on The New Cool.
Guitarist Lionel Loueke is sharing a bill with Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and guitarist Raul Midón at the Victoria Jazz Festival June 21. You can catch them both at the Triple Door in Seattle Sunday night. Benin native Loueke is a member of Herbie Hancock's current band, and his trio brought down the house at the Royal Room last spring. A versitile player blending his expertise in African folk music with harmonic complexity and amazing technical prowess, you'll hear Loueke covering the Bee Gees on The New Cool Saturday afternoon. A little bird tells me both groups will play separately at the Triple Door, then team up for a collaboration encore.
The Comet Is Coming is coming to Seattle - take your time if you need to read that again - playing at Barboza June 20 and at the Vancouver festival the following night. By now, you know my admiration for the work of London-based saxophonist and composer Shabaka Hutchings in bands like Sons of Kemet, Melt Yourself Down, and his own Shabaka and the Ancestors. His rhythmic, restless, relentless playing is born in jazz but pointing to a nameless future genre sounding both ancient and futuristic.
Shabaka says, "I'm not trying to have the energy of someone in a suit standing stationary in front of a microphone giving a nice round sound, I'm trying to just spit out fire." The Comet Is Coming celebrates their new psychedelic-pop-rock-jazz release, Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery, with "King Shabaka" joined by Danalogue the Conqueror (Dan Leavers) on keys and Betamax Killer (Max Hallett) behind the drums. Listen for the punchy, 80s vibe of "Summon the Fire" on the show this weekend, and catch these Brits while they're here next week!
Until then, stay tuned for the best in modern jazz with The New Cool every Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. on 88.5 KNKX: Seattle, and streaming our two hours of fun world wide at knkx.org.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE
-
The Comet is Coming perform a high-intensity set of cosmic instrumentals at Bonnaroo / Tennessean.
Posted At : June 14, 2019 12:00 AM
Late-night and early morning belonged to the rappers and EDM DJs as Day One of the 18th annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival concluded in the wee hours early Friday morning.
The London jazz-fusion trio The Comet is Coming performed a high-intensity set of cosmic instrumentals on Thursday June 13, 2019 at Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn. giving fans a taste of late-night, futuristic energy. While jazz music isn't a main draw for many of the young attendees of Bonnaroo, The Comet is Coming displayed an exciting reinvigoration of the genre, blending traditional instruments such as saxophone with grandiose electronic elements that show a mission to forge new pathways in jazz. By describing their music under the self-proclaimed genre of "apocalyptic space funk," the group seems to be well down their own path.
The Comet is Coming's performance was shrouded in mystery, with each member only going by nickname-Dan "Danalogue" Leavers on synths, Max "Betamax" Hallett on drums, and Shabaka "King Shabaka" Hutchings on saxophone. Their transcendent display was a medley of psychedelic soundscapes, heavy drum grooves and unrelenting sax flares. Coming off of this year's album "Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery," the group played a number of cuts from the recently released record, including "Summon the Fire" and "Birth of Creation." The songs included extended solos from the members as the songs meandered between moments of reflection and ferocity. Though their set gave little time for talking in the seamless transitions between songs, Leavers expressed his appreciation for the festival. "We've come a long way from London, and let me tell you, it's been pretty special to land here at Bonnaroo in Tennessee," Leavers said. "We appreciate your energy."
(Photo: Hayden Goodridge/MTSU Seigenthaler News Service)
READ THE FULL Tennessean. ARTICLE
-
Brixton's 'Cross The Tracks' main stage was enraptured by the sheer energy of The Comet Is Coming / CLASH
Posted At : June 11, 2019 12:00 AM
Let's be honest: festivals in London can be a mixed experience. The city's increasingly tight laws on volume and curfew often disrupt the fan experience, while a surfeit of options has led to all-out booking wars between promoters and line ups spread a little too thinly across the capital's many, many outdoor events. Cross The Tracks, though, is a breath of fresh air. Announced earlier in the year, the Brixton one day event was expertly laid out, easy to get around, thrillingly diverse, and boasted a line up that drew on the very best of soul, funk, jazz, and reggae.
Heading towards the main stage we are immediately enraptured by the sheer energy of The Comet Is Coming, with Shabaka Hutchings' terse saxophone lines blasting across the site. The raw bedlam explodes out the speakers, with the three-piece attempting to rip a hole in the o zone layer with their astral jazz travels. A common complaint about London festivals is the quiet, sometimes muffled sound – not so Cross The Tracks, with The Comet Is Coming simply plugging in and cutting loose, an ear-shredding but completely invigorating experience.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
READ THE FULL CLASH REVIEW
-
The Comet Is Coming mercury lounge show was both interstellar and dance-floor ready / glideMAGAZINE
Posted At : March 30, 2019 12:00 AM
The last decade has seen the jazz world reignited as a force for musical exploration. While stateside names like Kamasi Washington and Thundercat have been turning on a new generation of listeners, London has found itself home to one of the most boundary-pushing jazz scenes to emerge in some time. The crop of young musicians seem to be actively working to dissolve the boundaries that routinely separate jazz from the rest of the music world while also making music that steers head-first into the cultural conversation rather than away from it. It's out of this world that The Comet Is Coming emerged, and on March 18th, the trio brought their electronic jazz apocalypse to New York's Mercury Lounge for a mind-bending, sold out show.
If any group should deem themselves The Comet Is Coming, this is the one. Performing under the aliases King Shabaka (saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings), Danalogue (keyboardist Dan Leavers), and Betamax (drummer Max Hallett), the group's music, both interstellar and dance-floor ready. would be a fitting soundtrack to impending cosmic extinction. Celebrating the release of their new album, Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery, they arrived on the Mercury Lounge stage to rapturous applause and quickly launched into "Because the End Is Really the Beginning", the record's cinematically eerie opening track. Leavers' synth layers took shape into rolling waves upon which Hutchings' saxophone smoothly ascended into space with ever-growing tension. It didn't take long for that tension to explode open as the band rocketed into a trio of high-energy numbers that concluded with …Deep Mystery's lead single, the EDM-inspired "Summon Fire." Hutchings played his sax with such frenetic energy you'd think he was fighting off a horde of demons and the other two weren't far behind; with Hallett's ripping into his drums at breakneck speeds and Leavers' heavy bass synth vibrating the room.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
READ THE FULL glideMAGAZINE REVIEW
-
The Comet Is Coming - Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery makes 'the 10 best new albums NPR heard In march'
Posted At : March 29, 2019 12:00 AM
Youthful talent dominates our list of the month's essential albums. Billie Eilish's debut album is an eerily assured outing that splits the difference between industrial-infused pop and Spotify-core, Little Simz sharpens her promise as an MC on the transcendent GREY Area and Jamaican talent Koffee lays out the future of reggae in five songs. But it wasn't all young guns. Jenny Lewis delivers what might be her best solo outing yet, a nuanced trek into love and loss through the music of Laurel Canyon and Nashville. Meanwhile, Yo-Yo Ma partnered with composer Esa-Pekka Salonen for a foray into the stratosphere, and rap veteran Quelle Chris wields his vocal weaponry to deconstruct our national fascination with guns.
There's a good chance that an algorithm is going to suggest this album to some teenage music fans and it's going to change their world - the way they look at and listen to music - in the same way some late-night FM radio DJ turned us on to John Coltrane. That's not to say that this London trio of sax, electronics and drums is quite as visionary as Coltrane, but it is to say that King Shabaka (a.k.a. U.K. jazz chieftain Shabaka Hutchings), Danalogue and Betamax are such a perfect antidote to the branded and ego-filled themes that pervades popular music. It's a beautiful escape that feels so damn good. -Bob Boilen
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
CLICK HERE FOR an alphabetized list of NPR Music's top 10 albums for March 2019. Be sure to check out our top 20 songs from the month as well, which are also available in our Spotify playlist.
-
'The Comet is Coming' featured on npr: All Songs Considered
Posted At : March 26, 2019 12:00 AM
Joining Bob Boilen on this edition of All Songs Considered is NPR Music's Lyndsey McKenna, Marissa Lorusso and Joshua Bote for some sips of Rosé, bites of cupcakes and sweet music. Today's sounds include the legendary dub master and reggae king Lee "Scratch" Perry. At 83-years of age, he's just made a brilliant new record with another legendary producer, Adrian Sherwood. Both artists are the reason that punk and reggae became so intertwined in the 1980s. We also hear music from a lot of unknown creators, including The Comet is Coming, a trio of Londoner's making astonishing music that blends jazz and electronics in thrilling new ways; Jesse Mac Cormack, an artist whose sounds are richly textured and hypnotic; Radiator Hospital's music for daydreaming; and Cate Le Bon is back with a thrilling new album.
LISTEN TO THE All Songs Considered SEGMENT
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
-
Not only are the British coming, but The Comet Is Coming / glide Magazine
Posted At : March 21, 2019 12:00 AM
The spiritual music made by John and Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders in the late ‘60s is surely an inspiration for the UK jazz trio, and, like those iconic figures. TCIC is on the same Impulse! label, pushing the envelope into the 21st century with spiritual jazz that owes as much to the ‘60s sound as it does to futuristic music like that from Bladerunner. This is the Impulse! debut of King Shabaka (Shabaka Hutchings) on saxophone/bass clarinet, Danalogue (Dan Leavers) on keys/synth, and Betamax (Max Hallett) on drums for their album Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery.
Not only are the British coming, but make no mistake, The Comet Is Coming (TCIC) too.
READ THE FULL glide Magazine ARTICLE
-
Darkness and light. LEMON WIRE reviews; The Comet is Coming - Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery
Posted At : March 21, 2019 12:00 AM
Shabaka Hutchings has been one of the fastest rising stars in the world of jazz as of late, and more distinctly, has gained recognition as a pioneer in sonic experimentation. With three bands at his helm, the London saxophonist has been busy fulfilling all his musical dreams and fantasies, which has attracted not only the attention of jazz enthusiasts but the admiration of now-established jazz crossover stars such as Kamasi Washington.
And he hasn't done this by the book either. Hutchings has gained this attention while also dividing his seemingly boundless energy between three projects. There is the ferocious Caribbean rhythmic jazz noise that he makes with Sons of Kemet, who will be playing Big Ears Festival in Knoxville (along with The Comet is Coming) later this week. Adding on to that is his group Shabaka and the Ancestors, where Hutchings has explored the many different African expressions of jazz, especially those of South Africa, where many of the band's members hail from.
The project The Comet is Coming interweaves itself with much of Hutchings' other work, music that courageously plays with many different types of world rhythm and musical traditions. What sets The Comet is Coming apart is its cosmic considerations, its unabashed yearning for interstellar musical storytelling. These elements of widescreen exploration, along with their sonic landscape, draws comparisons the band and much of Kamasi Washington's work, which similarly reaches for lofty ideals in the midst space-age jazz breakdowns that circulate into pure fury.
Though The Comet is Coming can be casually compared to Washington's music, the band also sets off on its own path, one farther removed the traditional modes and structures of jazz, and to a place where the path is unknown and obscured. What Hutchings discovers along the way is the dark underbelly of music, that conglomeration of sounds that is born out of a mysterious creative process few understand. Like the birth of the world, the birth of music is a strange process of colliding forces, of harmony and disorder, of separation and union. What emerges on "Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery" is far-reaching in both directions, towards the darkness of the unknown and the light of hope and unity.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
READ THE FULL LEMON WIRE REVIEW
-
The Comet is Coming are back with another spoonful of cosmic jam / God Is In The TV
Posted At : March 19, 2019 12:00 AM
The Comet is Coming are back with another spoonful of cosmic jam, this time entitled Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery (out now on Impulse!) and they aren't hiding their influences. Be in no doubt: Space is the place. Bandleader and saxophonist, Shabaka (King Shabaka) Hutchings, is a sometime member of the inter-dimensional, pharaonic Jazz cult that is Sun Ra Arkestra, and makes no bones about the fact that he sees himself as a carrier of the flame for the great man. He's also the leader of Sons of Kemet, who gave us last year's exquisitely titled and inarguably brilliant LP Your Queen is a Reptile. He's joined by Dan ‘Danalogue' Leavers and Max ‘Betamax' Hallett from electronica duo Soccer96, on keyboards and drums respectively. They've been playing together as The Comet is Coming for several years, and their first album, Channel the Spirits, was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2016.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
READ THE FULL God Is In The TV REVIEW
-
The Comet Is Coming listening party/signing/meet and great set for NYC's Nublu / BrooklynVegan
Posted At : March 19, 2019 12:00 AM
The Comet Is Coming, the space rock-tinged jazz trio led by Shabaka Hutchings (who also leads Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors) - and also featuring keyboardist Dan Leavers and drummer Max Hallett - released their great sophomore album Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery this past Friday (3/15) via Impulse! and they're supporting it on tour now. They were in Austin for SXSW when the album was released, and last night (3/18) they played NYC's Mercury Lounge with opener Will Shore. The Comet Is Coming played a mix of songs from both albums with extended jams throughout. It was a very energetic, groovy show, and Shabaka was just nuts on the sax. Pictures are in the gallery above.
The group is doing a listening party/signing/meet and great at NYC's Nublu tonight (3/19), and they mentioned on stage that they'd be back in NYC for a Bowery Ballroom show. PHOTO: P Squared
SEE THE BrooklynVegan PAGE
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
-
The Comet Is Coming at Empire Garage makes '10 great 2019 SXSW musical discoveries' / RollingStone
Posted At : March 18, 2019 12:00 AM
Can a music festival have a mid-life crisis? In its 33rd year, over two weeks in Austin, Texas, SXSW made its biggest headlines in the opening interactive phase, hosting a widely reported forum of prospective Democratic candidates for president. The SXSW film festival featured major premieres and director Q&As, like a spring-break Sundance with a Texas drawl. And a new SXSW sideline – gaming – drew huge lines at the Austin Convention Center. The original founding energy of SXSW, the music festival, was spread out over an entire week, but big names were thin on the schedule. Most of the handful were keynote speakers, including T Bone Burnett, David Byrne and the surviving Beastie Boys, Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz. Joan Jett did perform – at an Interactive party.
Shabaka Hutchings was on his own tour of SXSW - three shows in as many days - with this electronic-groove trio, another project in a searching ethic that includes his straight-ahead Afrofuturism with Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors. The jazz, in this case, was relative - Hutchings soloed on his tenor sax in quick, frantic deviations from his husky, chugging riffing. The effect on the audience was immediate and sustained: a mounting repetition of keyboards, programming and Hutchings' raspy firepower over live drumming with house-music inflections. This was EDM with spiritual implications (one piece was simply called "Unity"), distinguished by Hutchings' hypnotic draw on the funky, circular drive of Fela Kuti's sax attack and the raw higher-plane peals of Pharaoh Sanders and Albert Ayler with some of Nik Turner's smearing temper in Hawkwind. The group's 2016 album, Channel the Spirits, was nominated for Britain's Mercury Prize; a new one, Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery, is released in the U.S., appropriately, on Sanders and Ayler's old label, Impulse!.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}
SEE THE FULL RollingStone ARTICLE
-
'The Comet is Coming' dances to the apocalypse and pleads for humanity / Pitchfork
Posted At : March 18, 2019 12:00 AM
For the past two years, London saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings has traveled the globe as one of jazz music's top performers, lending his hallmark bluster to like-minded artists Makaya McCraven and Moses Sumney, while crafting the sonic direction for two of his three disparate bands: the Caribbean dance-themed Sons of Kemet, the spiritual jazz-focused Shabaka and the Ancestors, and the cosmic jazz-centered the Comet Is Coming. Through a tireless work ethic, Hutchings has become one of the trendiest musicians in all of jazz, and is the leader of a U.K. jazz scene that boasts such names as Nubya Garcia, Moses Boyd, and Theon Cross.
Yet if there's a flashpoint of Hutchings' ascendance, it's 2016, when his other band, the Comet Is Coming, was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize Album of the Year and Shabaka and the Ancestors released an exquisite album called Wisdom of Elders on Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Recordings label. From there, his name and likeness started appearing everywhere: Hop on his Instagram and Facebook pages, and you're likely to see Hutchings blaring his sax on stage through grainy video footage, or posing alongside the likes of Kamasi Washington, who's become a fan of his work. Though Hutchings has been a driving force in the British underground since the early 2010s-having played with a variety of bands, including the punk-focused Melt Yourself Down, and the kaleidoscopic jazz group Polar Bear-it seems the rest of the world is coming around to his magnetic creative artistry.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
READ THE FULL Pitchfork ARTICLE
-
The Comet is Coming sparks psychedelic soul vibrations @SXSW / Austin Chronicle
Posted At : March 15, 2019 12:00 AM
Being stuck in the middle of a peculiarly eclectic bill remains some SXSW showcasers' worst nightmare. Sandwiched between the neo-gothic rock of Soft Kill and occult psychedelia from the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Coven, electro-jazz groovers the Comet is Coming simply shrugged off any potential cognitive dissonance and blazed down to business. The colorfully-dressed London trio – keyboardist Dan "Danalogue" Leavers, drummer Max "Betamax" Hallett, and fast ascending saxophonist "King Shabaka" Hutchings – skillfully mingled jazz with dancefloor-ready electronica and rock concert dynamics without shortchanging the improv or coming off as gimmicky, like Eric Dolphy jamming with the Chemical Brothers. Photo by David Brendan Hall
READ THE FULL Austin Chronicle ARTICLE
-
The Comet Is Coming, and is TREBLE: Album of the Week
Posted At : March 11, 2019 12:00 AM
The Comet is Coming, the name of the London based jazz/electronic outfit featuring saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings as well as percussionist Betamax and keyboardist Danalogue, evokes both disaster and possibility. The very thought of a comet plummeting toward earth is deeply unsettling bordering on catastrophic, an event that could very well wipe out entire species or provoke fringe sects to shuffle off this mortal coil in their pristine Nikes. But the comet is also evocative of energy and power, something that shines brightly and burns fast, a sight that provokes crowds to turn their gaze toward the sky en masse. For the actual The Comet Is Coming, that soaring ball of burning rock is symbolic of tearing down old systems and embracing what will be left after their cinders blow out: "It is a musical expression forged in the deep mystery. It is the overcoming of fear, the embracing of chaos, the peripheral sight that we might summon the fire."
READ THE FULL TREBLE REVIEW
-
BrooklynVegan runs down what's up, for The Comet Is Coming
Posted At : March 11, 2019 12:00 AM
Shabaka Hutchings has quickly been becoming one of the leaders of modern jazz and specifically of the London jazz renaissance that's been spreading outside of the UK and really catching on here in the States too. He leads the bands Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors, he has worthy solo work, he's played as a sideman for the Sun Ra Arkestra, Floating Points, Makaya McCraven, and more, and he's one third of The Comet Is Coming (alongside keyboardist Dan Leavers and drummer Max Hallett).
Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery, The Comet Is Coming's second album and first for the legendary Impulse! Records comes out this week, and the band will be in Austin for SXSW this week where they have three official shows. After that, a show on Monday, March 18 at Mercury Lounge and they'll play some headlining US shows before hitting Knoxville, TN's Big Ears Festival. They'll also be back in North America in June for Bonnaroo.
READ THE FULL Brooklyn Vegan ARTICLE
-
npr-First Listen, The Comet Is Coming new release; 'Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery'
Posted At : March 7, 2019 12:00 AM
The Comet Is Coming's Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery comes out March 15 via Impulse! In some early press materials for the new release by The Comet Is Coming, the album is said to "envisage a 21st-century take on spiritual jazz that is part Alice Coltrane, part Blade Runner." That unlikely mashup of influences should begin to make sense within the first 30 seconds of the album's opening track, with its ominous yet strangely meditative synth-and-sax drone.
The title of the album is Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery, which suggests that our basket of cultural allusions might also accommodate a cheeky artifact like This Is Spinal Tap. Not that outright comedy is on the agenda for The Comet Is Coming, a London confab with Shabaka Hutchings on reeds, Dan Leavers on keyboards and Max Hallett on drums. But these shrewdly rambunctious musicians - billed respectively as King Shabaka, Danalogue and Betamax - have a way of implying mischief, in a meta sense, even when they're playing it totally straight. PHOTO: Fabrice Bourgelle/Courtesy of the artist.
READ & npr-First Listen
-
Shabaka Hutchings solo encore
Posted At : March 5, 2019 12:00 AM
Over the last half decade, Shabaka Hutchings has established himself as a central figure in the London jazz scene, which is enjoying its greatest creative renaissance since the breakthroughs of Joe Harriott and Evan Parker in the 1960s. Hutchings has a restlessly creative and refreshingly open-minded spirit, playing in a variety of groups-most notably, Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka & the Ancestors-and embracing influences from the sounds of London's diverse club culture, including house, grime, jungle, and dub. "The common theme in my career as a jazz musician has been wondering if what I'm doing is the thing that I should be doing," says Hutchings, who studied classical clarinet at college at London's prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama. "Me learning about jazz, how to play and interpret, was always a case of just trial and error. I think where I've come to recently is I've stopped trying to think ‘Is what I'm doing valid? or ‘Is what I'm doing part of the jazz tradition?' and just see myself as a musician." Watch attached Shabaka Hutchings Solo encore
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
-
on 'Trust In The Lifeforce,' the comet isn't coming, it's arrived / The Guardian
Posted At : March 3, 2019 12:00 AM
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}
Like many determined futurists, London trio the Comet Is Coming have a foot firmly in the past. Their 2016 debut, Mercury-nominated Channel the Spirits, paid homage to the "cosmic jazz" of Sun Ra and John and Alice Coltrane, an influence that persists, principally through the lyrical sax of Shabaka Hutchings, the reigning titan of British jazz. Now signed to Impulse, the label that issued many of their heroes, the group take a more startling turn here, with much of the album shaped by studio post-production, where drummer Max Hallett and synth player Dan Leavers have created an ever-morphing mix of textures and beats.
READ The Guardian REVIEW