The Comet Is Coming at WWW, December 1st 2022

 


I’m not exactly an expert on rave culture, but whenever I hear about it I associate it with England. I might be wrong, but I think rave culture was deeply rooted in the UK, especially in the nineties. It makes sense that a reinterpretation of the jazz trio will be inspired by that climatic period of time that anticipates the beat drop in Electronic Dance Music. 

The Comet Is Coming not only take musical cues from EDM. Their live shows, as I witnessed in their first headlining performance in Japan, are built around this cathartic aspect found in the climax build up and the eventual drop release. It’s definitely exhilarating and infectious. It’s rare to see a Japanese audience actively participating and expressing joy in the way I saw at WWW that night.

The show started with a tasty intro that was more in the Pharoah Sanders vein, with Shabaka Hutchings delivering in the tenor sax a taste of the righteous licks we'll be witnessing throughout the night, with Danalogue on keys providing the thick atmospheric base colored with Betamax’s cymbals flourish on drums. The proper opener came up next with the first two songs from their latest album Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam, the one-two punch of Code and Technicolour. The high energy levels were set from the get go and solidified with their best known tune. Early in the set we got an intoxicating rendition of Summon the Fire.

The exquisite fusion of jazz improvisations with EDM also explored unusual different venues that enhanced and made this offering even more special. I could swear that I heard along the dub influenced sounds, the airy groove of Haitian kompa / zouk enriching those extended numbers and the trio's jaw-dropping musicianship .

I stood in front of Danalogue for the whole show and it was a trip to see up close how focused and intense the man was. Analogue synthesizers sure look like fun. Hutchings and Betamax are obviously amazing musicians as well. It was my first time seeing one of Hutchings projects and can’t wait for the chance to catch another one. This two hour show was definitely an awesome one to close the year with.

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