Weekly Music Roundup: The Comet Is Coming and Songs of the Bardo

Week of Sept. 30: This week, two different takes on “spiritual jazz” and a new album by a pop powerhouse.

“Spiritual Jazz” Made Earthy By The Comet Is Coming

The London trio The Comet Is Coming has just released an EP (or as they call it, a “mini-album”) called The Afterlife. Led by sax player King Shabaka (aka Shabaka Hutchings from Sons of Kemet) and featuring electronic keyboards played by Danalogue and drummer Betamax, The Comet Is Coming gives an urgent, urban spin to the dual streams of 60s psychedelia and 60s spiritual jazz – the style that was associated with late John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, and Pharoah Sanders, whose sound Shabaka evokes in this leadoff track from The Afterlife. Called “All That Matters Is The Moments,” this song also features spoken word from the poet and recording artist Joshua Idehen. He acknowledges the “claustrophobia of family, the cold comfort of friendship,” and references the yawning inequality and divisions of modern-day London. But in the end, he says, “all that matters is the moments,” and the trio provides some compelling musical moments to back up his claim.

The Comet Is Coming plays Tuesday, October 1, at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

The New Pornographers’ New Album Is A Different Kind of Road Story  
Songwriter A.C. Newman says he didn’t set out to write an album of car songs; it just sort of happened that way. The indie-pop powerhouse The New Pornographers, led by Newman, released In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights on Friday, and it has several songs that use car imagery; the album title is a line from the song “You’ll Need A Backseat Driver.” Other titles include “Higher Beams” and “Leather On The Seats.” Many of the songs do not seem to hew to the automotive theme, but most of them are driven (sorry) by propulsive rhythms that seem tailor-made for tooling on down the highway with the windows open. This song, “Colossus of Rhodes,” is a good example. It also features the things that have made The New Pornographers so popular over the years: the lead vocals of the inimitable Neko Case, and a grand, Beatles-style arrangement. 

The New Pornographers play at Brooklyn Steel on November 7.

Songs Of The Bardo Offers A Journey Through The Tibetan Book Of The Dead

Songs Of The Bardo is the title of a fascinating collaborative album made by Laurie Anderson, the veteran composer, storyteller and multimedia artist; the Tibetan multi-instrumentalist Tenzin Choegyal, and the composer/pianist Jesse Paris Smith. Like her mom, Patti Smith, Jesse is actively involved in supporting Tibet and Tibetan culture, and Laurie Anderson has referenced her Buddhist practice in her beautiful and elegiac film and album The Heart Of A Dog. Building on Smith’s piano playing and her collection of Tibetan bowls, the trio have created a seamless spiritual journey through the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, which Laurie Anderson reads in her distinctive cadence. The album title is slightly misleading: most of the record consists of these readings over Choegyal’s traditional Tibetan lute and flute, Smith’s piano and singing bowls, Anderson’s violin, and cello played by Rubin Kodheli. But the album does include several actual songs, which Choegyal sings, and these are evocative of Himalayan folk music. Still, the bulk of the collaboration revolves around the spoken text. And that text is pretty remarkable. If you’re expecting guided meditations for relaxation, that is not what the Tibetan Book Of The Dead is about. This excerpt, “Lotus Born, No Need To Fear,” is a good example; it is near the end of the journey, and, with its improvised accompaniment, seems to present a rather different type of “spiritual jazz” than that referred to in The Comet Is Coming’s music. 

From Rwanda, The Good Ones Release Single With Wilco’s Nels Cline

The Good Ones is a trio from Rwanda led by singer/guitarist/farmer Adrien Kazigira. Their next album, called Rwanda, You Should Be Loved, is part of their ongoing attempt to recover from the horrors of the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s – the original trio in fact brought together one member each from the Hutu, Tutsi, and Abatwa tribes. They are once again working with veteran producer Ian Brennan on the new album. Living without electricity, playing mostly homemade instruments, and recording on Kazigira’s farm, the Good Ones have a rough-hewn, folk-based sound that, in the past, has been usually determinedly hopeful and upbeat. But this new single, called “Where Did you Go Wrong, My Love,” is a plea from a father to his daughter who is taking up prostitution, and you can hear the desperation etched into the singer’s voice. Wilco guitarist Nels Cline contributes a simple, restrained bit of electric guitar to the song – not an example of a Western musician dragging a traditional act into the modern world, but rather the opposite, as he seems to enter their world.

Rwanda, You Should Be Loved comes out November 8, with contributions from members of TV On The Radio, Sleater-Kinney, My Bloody Valentine, and more. The Good Ones are touring as a duo, opening for Glen Hansard, and they play tonight, Sept. 30, at Joe’s Pub.

Electronic Art Rock from Majel Connery

Majel Connery is a composer, vocalist, keyboardist, and member of the art-rock/post-classical group Oracle Hysterical. But she also has a couple of EPs on her own, and is at work on a project that will include the new single, “Pretend To Cry.” The song is largely electronic, with a pulsing rhythm track and layers of gauzy, celestial keyboards. Connery’s vocals consist of both live singing and some apparently sampled phrases that provide a rhythmic counterpoint at one point. The depth and control of her voice betray her classical vocal training, but like kindred spirit Shara Nova, Connery chooses a more straightforward sound that suits the emotional content of her work. In this case, it’s a song about breaking free of a toxic relationship.