Leaf Vinyl & CDs

Review: If you missed The Comet is Coming's brilliant debut album, Channel The Spirits, first time around, help is at hand. Happily, the Leaf label has decided to reissue the Mercury Music Prize nominated album, expanding it to two discs via the addition of 2015's similarly sublime Prophecy EP and a trio of previously unheard wig-outs. The genius of the London combo's music lies in their unique and eccentric approach to musical fusion. While their roots lie in fusing spiritual jazz and freaky psychedelic rock, keen listeners will hear a myriad of other influences and inspirations seeping into their distinctive instrumental compositions, from spiraling electronica, Afrobeat and skewed funk, to ambient, dub, drum and bass, Roots Manuva and low-slung industrial funk.

Review: Since impressing with their 2016 debut At Sacred Walls, Szun Waves - a trio comprising acclaimed electronic experimentalist Luke Abbot, drummer/percussionist Laurence Pike and saxophone player Jack Wylie - has operated at the intersection of ambient and jazz, delivering periodic sets that combine spiritual sounds and atmospheric solos with waves of electronic textures. It's an alluring, otherworldly sound all told, and one that's at the heart of their latest album, Earth Patterns. Musically, the album - which features additional production from, amongst other people, Abbot's old pal James Holden - is blissed out and otherworldly, combining sonic motifs more often associated with Alice Coltrane (hypnotic and Eastern-influenced), Sun Ra (interplanetary improvisations), Tangerine Dream (epic synth-scapes) and abstract electronica (inspired, densely detailed sound design). It all adds up to an astonishingly good album.