Live Review: The Comet Is Coming

Along with Radiohead and David Bowie, London space jazz cadets The Comet Is Coming were nominated for 2016's prestigious Mercury Prize, for their debut album Channel The Spirits. Skepta ended up winning that, but the prestige has continued for TCIC, who got to play in NGV's Great Hall tonight, oddly not the first time they've played a gallery, and incongruously alongside exhibitions by fashion designers Viktor & Rolf and artist David Hockney. And this is The Comet Is Coming's only appearance in Melbourne on this trip. For gallery schleppers, tonight may not seem so strange but, for the regular gig-pig, this music in a gallery lark is all so unusually nice, so unusually clean. At 8.25pm, with the gig due to start at 8.30pm, tablefuls of quiet, dignified-looking people sip glasses of pinot and snack on asparagus.

But when The Comet Is Coming zoom onto the stage from outerspace, nothing else matters. It's a slow build-up, Danalogue The Conqueror (aka Dan Leavers) leads the charge on his Roland keyboard and effects pad, while Betamax Killer (aka Max Hallett) brings the ultimate delta-wave frequencies, so relaxed that he's even wearing pyjamas, but somehow playing the most killer beats. It's when King Shabaka (aka Shabaka Hutchings), resplendent in T-shirt emblazoned with giant chicken, kicks in with the sax, though, that things really get busy.

In true Sun Ra style, the trio play what feels like one enormous track of about 45 minutes of psych wizardry, with a great sense of dynamics and a hectic breakdown. There are times when it all blends so perfectly into one that it's hard to tell what sounds are coming from which player. They're like a psychedelic funk-jazz version of The Prodigy. It's no wonder Leavers seems to be tripping balls! He introduces the band then announces that they are now in the future, having only just arrived from the UK the day before. "It feels good here in the future," he says as they launch into Neon Baby, from Channel The Spirits. By now there's a good little chunk of people picking up what they're putting down, just in time to hear them sign off with one of the biggest tunes from the record: Space Carnival. TCIC's spaced-up, freaked-out jazz is perfect music for sunset at a festival, so let's hope they return for more because it's really good.