Utente:Dariodelfante91/Sandbox

The Comet Is Coming è una band londinese. La loro anima multiforme combina elementi jazz e funk con la musica elettronica e il rock psichedelico.

L'esordio della band avviene con la pubblicazione dell'EP Prophecy su un vinile 12" in edizione limitata, uscito il 13 Novembre 2015 per la The Leaf Label. Ad esso seguirà l'album Channel the Spirits il 1 Aprile 2016, che sarà selezionato per il Mercury Prize. Dal 2018 la band è sotto contratto con Impulse!.

Storia

La band è composta dal sassofonista Shabaka Hutchings detto "King Shabaka", dal tastierista Dan Leavers detto "Danalogue" e dal batterista Max Hallett detto "Betamax". In un'intervista del 2013, Hutchings ha dato una spiegazione sul loro nome: " Il nome del gruppo è preso da una traccia ascoltata durante una sessione della BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Una volta ascoltato il pezzo, per via delle sue allusioni alla fantascienza, agli ambienti più remoti del cosmo e dello spazio, siamo rimasti molto colpiti. Vogliamo esplorare nuovi mondi sonori con l'obiettivo di distruggere le idee di musica che ci sembrano inadeguati per cui il nome è ci sta benissimo.

In un intervista rilasciata per la rivista M, Betamax parla della nascita della band:

Me and Danalogue the Conqueror play as a psychedelic electro synths and live drums duo called Soccer96. We began to notice a tall shadowy figure present at some of our gigs. At some point he appeared at the side of the stage with his sax in hand. When he got up on stage to play with us it created an explosive shockwave of energy that stunned us all. A couple of weeks later King Shabaka rang me up and said 'hey let's make a record' so we booked three days in Total Refreshment Centre studios. It all came together at an incredible speed. We played and recorded to 1/4 tape with no pre-written material. By the end of three days we had recorded hours of music.

The imagery associated with the band is based around outer space, science fiction and B-movies, as can be seen in the music videos for their singles "Neon Baby" and "Do the Milky Way", as well as in song titles and artwork. "Do the Milky Way" premiered on The Quietus. In a feature in The Guardian in April 2016, the group were described as the "true heirs" of cosmic jazz pioneer Sun Ra, and praised for their "fusion of jazz, Afrobeat and electronica in an improvisational, intergalactic mash-up". The Quietus wrote that although the band is "intrinsically linked to funk...and spiritually linked to all manner of cosmic music via their imagery (and love of space-creating echo and reverb effects), The Comet Is Coming has the feel of an utterly fresh sort of project".

King Shabaka elaborates on the cosmic side of the band and the connection to Sun Ra in the same article, when describing the crystal that dominates the cover of their Prophecy EP. He says, "The other thing about the crystal, metaphorically speaking, is the whole Sun Ra thing of creating your own myths. The thing I like that Sun Ra says a lot is the fact that societies that can create their own mythological structures are the ones that have their own agency. To the point at which you can dictate the terms of what's real and what's not real. The crystal in the hand forces you to create your own myth".

In August 2016, the band was nominated for the Mercury Prize for their debut album, Channel the Spirits.

In January 2017 the band was one of the recipients of the Momentum Music Fund through PRS for Music and in April 2017 the band released the Death to the Planet EP through The Leaf Label as part of Record Store Day.

Discography

Albums

• Channel the Spirits (The Leaf Label, 2016)
• Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery (2019, Impulse!)
• The Afterlife (2019, Impulse!)

EPs

• Prophecy (2015)
• Death to the Planet (2017)

Singles

• "Neon Baby" (2015)
• "Do the Milky Way" (2015)
• "Space Carnival" (2016)
• "Final Eclipse" (2017)
• "Summon the Fire" (2019)
• "Unity" (2019)
• "Lifeforce Part II" (2019)

External links

• Official website
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