23.09.22

Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam, the latest record from the Comet Is Coming, is a record about grappling with the looming threat of extinction. Describing the album as a means to “soundtracking our epoch”, here the London-based experimental jazz trio are fuelled by an undercurrent of pent-up energy, made only stronger after a year of physical absence from one another prior to recording.

Code opens the album with a wobbling synth that eerily recalls robotic whistles, before drummer Betamax’s heavy, propulsive beats kicks in. Then, as if clouds have parted, Shabaka Hutchings’ melodic saxophone cuts through the tension with a sense of hope. Contrastingly, Technicolour finds the trio sparring with one another over celestial synths, tumbling drums and a roaring sax performance. It’s a high-octane moment that gears the listener up for the irrepressible energy of Pyramids and Atomic Wave Dance. Guided by flickering electronics, skittering beats and shifting grooves, they’re the kind of dancefloor fillers we might hear at end-of-world raves.

Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam acts as both a soundtrack and balm for the global chaos that we currently find ourselves in. It’s easily the most danceable entry in their catalogue, but also, in its own hectic way, the most human. There’s something innately liberating about losing yourself to the music – and here, the Comet Is Coming provide ecstatic escape.

Dhruva Balram