snobb Just half a year after the release of their second full-size album "Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery", Londoners The Comet Is Coming come with new half an hour EP "The Afterlife". As other Shabaka Hutchings' musical projects, "The Comet..." is in a forefront of burgeoning English jazz scene, so there is not all that strange the trio releases their next work same year. "The Afterlife" contains outtakes from same sessions which made "Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery" and surprisingly enough, this newest release sounds even partially stronger for my ears.

The opener,"All That Matters Is the Moments", is a true bomb and contains Joshua Idehen narration (he is already known to Shabaka's fans from previous "Comet's..." releases and from the other Hutchings' project - Sons Of Kemet as well). Comparing with the album, released earlier this year, music on this EP is not so heavy,less aggressive, a bit more spacey with lot of analog electronic effects, relaxed in moments and is closer to spiritual jazz than fusion of previous work.

Shabaka's sax plays impressively remember-able tunes, framed with loops and twists from synths and repetitive minimalist drumming,recalling Sun Ra and Germans Can at the same time.

There is more soul in "The Afterlife", less brutal power and quite often whole music sounds closer to "Comet's..." another album, "Death To The Planet", than to closer related "Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery". The trio is touring Europe now, I expect they should sound impressive when playing live. Not all songs are equally strong though, in moments it feels that it's an outcuts album, but it is a strong outcuts album anyway.

One of the best what modern London's jazz scene offers.

snobb London new jazz scene leader Shabaka Hutchings "space jazz" project The Comet Is Coming's second studio album. Not really a Sun Ra legacy-based, more Can/Magma/nu jazz minimalist hybrid played by sax/keys/drums trio.

Mostly a mid-tempo tuneful compositions with absolute domination of heavy analog synth passages (and massive studio post-production). Repetitive structures with almost militaristic marching rhythm on every song recall early 70s prog rock more then any form of jazz. Still Shabaka's (who uses King Shabaka scenic name when playing with Comet...) tenor sax soloing over the main sound flow (quite aggressive, pushing the sound ahead, with few free longish moments) and rare spacey electronic effects build some bridges with eclectic jazz scene of our time.

Obviously oriented more to prog fans, album's music still contains moment or two for Shabaka Hutchings fans.

snobb "Death To The Planet" is only new music released by hottest London jazz trio "The Comet Is Coming" in 2017. And it is even not a true album but vinyl-only four track EP, coming as Record Store Day's limited edition.

Surprisingly, this less than half-an-hour musical collection illustrates last year's burgeoning London scene in a best way, especially looking from the very first days of new 2018 year, right after all those end-of-the-year TV analytics, future modelling and apocalyptic visions.

Differently from trio's first two releases, "Death To The Planet" contains less psychedelic rock and more jazz, mixed with hip-hop and Squarepusher's-style electronic grooves. Songs are dark, tuneful, full of passion and as much commercial as anti-commercial.

This music is easy accessible and danceable, but at the same time it sounds as hottest news soundtrack - you almost can see all these explosions on the streets of European capitals and chemical attacks in Syria, Russians maintaining their nuclear missiles, already placed in occupied Crimea's coast and immigrants boats sinking near African and Italian shores.

This music sounds as rock when it was young, as punk in late 70s, as early Blondie and Talking Heads albums, as Patty Smith and Iggy - it sounds as if best music is socially sharp again and it returns back on the streets.

And to be honest I even feel happy that it's just an EP - in our time when technical abilities so often exceed creative content and artists are filling 80 minutes space of blank CDs with useless sounds just because there still is a bit of empty place, I started liking vinyl album size releases again (doesn't matter is it true vinyl or vinyl album-size CD release), it's always better to stay in silent if you have nothing important to say...

Nothing is revolutionary here - simply from all last year's releases this one possibly sounds closest to real music from the times, when it was a significant part of everyone's life, not a pale soundtrack to ageing, bored and tired of consuming society.