New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The Comet Is Coming, "an improvisational, intergalactic mash-up" (The Guardian), will release their new album,
Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery, on March 15. This will be their first album released via Impulse!/Universal Music. Their first-ever U.S. tour begins in Los Angeles on March 12 and takes them through SXSW, NYC, Philadelphia, DC, Big Ears Festival and finally lands them in Bonnaroo on June 13.
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.
Danny Bennett, President & CEO of
Verve Label Group (home of Impulse!), says of the group, "When I first saw The Comet Is Coming, I knew immediately I was in the presence of greatness that was bound to shake the foundation of music. This group is shifting paradigms, enticing listeners to expand their consciousness through this mind-bending music. This is what Impulse! and
Verve Label Group is about - always pushing the envelope."
Consider the titles of some of the trio's new songs: "Because The End Is Really The Beginning", "Birth Of Creation", "The Universe Wakes Up" and "
Unity". This music brings us back into being through creation myths and the inception of life itself. Their arsenal: drums, synthesizers and saxophones alone.
King Shabaka explains, "We are able to catch glimpses of this lifeforce energy during our music-induced trances, and in doing so can contemplate our position as a human species in the context of the vastness of space and the epic scale of its workings."
Drummer Betamax posits, "There are going to be some massive shifts in our own lifetime as life begins to transcend biology… so let's at least find some essential truths and inner peace so we can make wise decisions."
Listen to the pulsing "Blood Of The Past", on which guest vocalist Kate Tempest delivers a state-of-the-universe address that somehow simultaneously summons the spirits of
William Blake, Ian Dury, Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking, all with wide-eyed awestruck wonder. Or "Summon The Fire", perhaps their most accessible, riotous, and air-punching moment to date.
The trio are nothing short of alchemists, concocting a primordial stew of taut beats, sub-bass, and unhinged sax breaks. They paint pictures of astral planes and neon seas, with driving beats and celestial melodies.
The Comet Is Coming formed in London in 2013 when the tall, "shadowy figure" of Shabaka appeared stage-side during show by Danalogue and Betamax's formidable drums and synths duo Soccer96, sax in hand. Exploratory jams were immediately undertaken. Visions were experienced, dreams born. A member of Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors, Shabaka was already the MOBO-winning leading light of the contemporary British jazz scene. Make no mistake though, The Comet Is Coming are a three-headed beast, with all music co-written, and Danalogue and Betamax mixing and producing the record.
"There is an incredible amount of historical evidence that suggests the control of a single leader leads to corruption and is not to the benefit of the community," says Danalogue. "There is a trust we have in each other - to do what is best for the group."
Discovering a shared love for Sun Ra, Hendrix, Can, the LA beat scene, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Death Grips and named after a beloved BBC Radiophonic piece that they found in a vinyl library, the trio hit the studio immediately to record hours of music that would comprise the EP Prophecy (2015) and debut album Channel The Spirits (2016) plus Death to the Planet released on Record Store Day (2017). A helter-skelter ride down worm-holes to splash through far-flung topographical oceans and scaling celestial peaks, Channel… took in freak-out space funk, freewheeling psychedelia and jazz punk mayhem all the way. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Mercury
Music Prize.
The group signed to Impulse! Records in 2018, and this is their first release on the legendary label. They are among greats like John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane: fathers and mothers of the spiritual and transcendental jazz movements, among other legendary jazz artists. Impulse! Records was recently relaunched and is now operated out of the United States, sitting underneath
Verve Label Group alongside other imprints such as
Verve Records,
Verve Forecast, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, and more.
The Comet Is Coming -
Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery:
Because The End Is Really The Beginning
Birth Of Creation
Summon The Fire
Blood Of The Past ft. Kate Tempest
Super Zodiac
Astral Flying
Timewave Zero
Unity
The Universe Wakes Up
THE COMET IS COMING MANIFESTO:
Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery.
The Comet is Coming to destroy illusions. It will manifest new realities, perceptions, levels of awareness and abilities to coexist. 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.
Through the transcendent experience of music we reconnect with the energy of the Lifeforce in hope of manifesting higher realities in new constructs. Because the end is only really the beginning.
