Don’t call it jazz – while The Comet is Coming may be signed to Impulse! Records, known affectionately as “the house that Trane built”, in reference to genre legend John Coltrane – the presence of a saxophone should not be taken as an invitation to confine the London trio into any genre.
The Comet began with another band, Soccer96, the duo of Dan “Danalogue” Leavers (a reference to his instrument of choice, analogue synths) and Max “Betamax” Hallett, who made wild electronic music anchored by the raw energy of Hallett’s live drumming. They were ultimately joined by “King Shabaka” Hutchings on saxophone, and the combination of their varied instruments and influences inspired them to make a record under a new moniker. That record was Prophecy, their debut EP as The Comet is Coming, and ever since, the trio has remained in a state of near-constant creation, going as far as to release two records in 2019: Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery and The Afterlife.
As the titles of the records and the tracks therein imply, the band takes pains to ensure their sound is otherworldly, a trend owing not only to Soccer96’s origins, but also Shabaka’s time with the Sun Ra Arkestra. While mostly instrumental, the band does occasionally make a foray into lyricism, tapping some of the brightest minds in modern UK poetry such as Kate Tempest and the unmistakable Joshua Idehen to provide narration that’s as apocalyptic as the music. Idehen, who also collaborated with Hutchings on Sons of Kemet’s 2018 record Your Queen is a Reptile, appears on The Afterlife to imbue the opening track, ‘ All that Matters is the Moments’ with a weighty delivery that comes down equally hard as Danalogue’s throbbing synth underbelly.
Live at Cambridge’s Sinclair club, shrouded in shadowy lighting that made the musicians often appear as naught but silhouettes, the Comet constructed a nearly two-hour testament to their style. While Shabaka’s saxophone is the most immediately noticeable and iconic instrument of the three, able to sweetly augment the others or pierce through a pulsing round of synths – the canvas on which he’s working is far more rooted in the dance and electronic music than any other genre, jazz included. With no bass player or guitars of any kind, Danalogue uses his synths to create throbbing bass lines that bounce in time with Betamax’s drumming, while he simultaneously layers over them on a different set of keys. There’s an undeniable emphasis on groove, and even without Tempest’s haunting vocals, the churn of ‘Blood of the Past’ was equally satisfying to feel ripple through one’s bones.
The band played interminably, with only one true pause for the encore. At times one or two members of the group would halt, even dip backstage and return with a bottle of water – but the music continued, each member an able soloist in his own right, and any of the possible pairings capable of riffing off of each other as if they were mere extensions of some musical hive mind that would be right at home in any of the band’s psychedelic imaginings.
The Sinclair floor was packed, with many groups of young folks letting go of all inhibition and dancing Sunday night away with abandon. Even as a dedicated observer it was often a task to try to hear where one composition ended and another began, as the Comet moved effortlessly, unimpeded as their namesake through the stars, touching on airy passages, club beats, and motorik post-punk grooves, all possessed of a psychedelic brightness that tied them all together.
The eponymous “comet” could be seen as a reference to numerous things – the collision of King Shabaka and Soccer96, the obliteration of seemingly all genre boundaries, the sheer cosmic force of their music – but before launching into their final song, Danalogue spoke to the audience about how the band sees it. He spoke of a second potential extinction, like the one that killed the dinosaurs, except this time it may be perpetrated on ourselves. Invoking this, he said the phrase “the comet is coming” refers to that omnipresent threat of our lives coming to a close that inspires them to do whatever they’ve been putting off, and do it with love. It was the only time any of the band members spoke that night, instead allowing the music to speak for them; but the one sentiment Leavers shared rang true and bound the night together with a unifying ethos.
Their music is the music of feeling, of profound energy, of the necessary connection between our cerebral relationship with where we are and our emotional relationship with where we’re going and need to be.
Review and photos be Collin Heroux
