Arriving just nine months after the London trio’s mould-breaking Trust in the Life Force, and recorded at the same time, there were fears this “companion piece” would prove a mere add-on. In reality The Afterlife has its own, distinct mood, often gentler and more sombre than the techno attack of Life Force and the better for it.
Still, there are ferocious moments in the interplay between Shabaka Hutchings’s saxophone, the synth squalls of Dan Leavers and the mutating beats of drummer Max Hallett. Lifeforce Pt II yokes an edgy sax riff to a growling electronic backdrop for a blast into a sci-fi future. All That Matters Is the Moments arrives in a clatter of reggae drums and poet Joshua Idehen proclaiming “the earth has cracked, the mountains popped”, his dystopian visons grounded in south London cityscapes.
By contrast, The Softness of the Present is warm and reflective, The Seven Planetary Heavens a lyrical glide through the cosmos. The mood is as often melancholic as apocalyptic, as if mourning a fractured planet. The trio remain in a tradition of avant gardists such as Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane and Can, but totally of the now. One of 2019’s best.
