Jazz
The Comet Is Coming will release “Exploding In Slow Motion: The Complete Channel The Spirits Recordings 2013-2017CE” on 20 November through The Leaf Label, marking ten years since their debut album.
It holds the original record — which was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize — the “Prophecy” and “Death To The Planet” EPs, rarities from those years and four songs never released. Also included are live versions of “Final Eclipse” and “Space Carnival” and a session take of “Neon Baby” recorded for John Kennedy’s XFM show. It comes out on digital, CD, cassette and limited vinyl variants.
The preview is “Late Night Party Jam 2”, one of the unreleased tracks, recovered from the earliest known recordings of the trio, made at the Total Refreshment Centre in 2013.
Shabaka Hutchings, Dan Leavers (Danalogue) and Max Hallett (Betamax) came together that year, when Hutchings jumped on stage during a Soccer96 set at that same venue and the three ended up working in its in-house studio. Within days they had the bones of an album. “It was only supposed to be a demo,” says Hallett, “but we came to realise we had made our first album before we had even decided we were a band.”
“It was the album where we really let rip,” Leavers adds. “Genuinely, every decision we made was to make the coolest record we could imagine, not thinking of any scene, genre, record label, album review or outside voice of any kind.”
The box set spreads the material across six sides of vinyl.
Text by Aina Torrents