The Comet Is Coming
I suffer from irrational aversions to both jazz in general and saxophone in pretty much all its forms. For a self-confessed music obsessive, that is a bit of a shortcoming. I don't know why and I can't explain it. Enough is enough, I have to confront this head-on. And so I am at NAC on a Monday night for The Comet Is Coming.
OK, so The Comet Is Coming are not pure jazz but their sound draws on that genre and there is plenty of sax from Shabaka "King Shabaka" Hutchings. I’ve heard mention of element of afrobeat and psychedelia in addition to jazz in their sound. Oh, but there's so much more to it than that. Whilst my notes mention Fela Kuti, Neu!, Jean Michel Jarre, Aphex Twin, David Holmes and soundtracks to both film noir and blaxploitation, I can only describe the tsunami of sound as post-jazz- electro-spacerock-psyche-krautrock-afrobeat-funk-noir. Cerebral as all this is, the music is by-passing my brain and going straight to my hips and feet.
Stage right, synth player Dan "Danalogue the Conquerer" Leavers is constantly moving and weaving whilst slapping and hammering his keys with seemingly boundless energy. Drummer Max "Betamax Killer" Hallett plays with considerable swing but can also hit those skins damned hard.
If I have to be critical, things get a little samey in places, there are moments that recall the Star Wars cantina band and a lapse or two into self-congratulatory jazz-wank solos. There are thankfully few of those moments and they are mercifully brief, so that is just me being hypercritical.
All in all, a fantastic set that might just have cured me of my saxophobia.
Finally, a quick word about Sunda Arc. For reasons that are too boring to go into here, I missed their set. That is my loss. Editor Lizz and fellow contributor David tell me that they were superb. Next time, chaps, next time.
