The London-based collective The Heliocentrics are perhaps best-known for their skills at collaboration as heard on releases teaming them with Ethio-jazz master Mulatu Astatke, US world-jazz pioneer Lloyd Miller, Nigerian Afro-soul kingpin Orlando Julius, and even US writer-director-actor-composer Melvin Van Peebles. But with Infinity of Now, they step out on their own for the sixth time, with recent vocal addition Barbora Patkova at the forefront again and delicious playing from the ensemble throughout. It’s available now on vinyl, compact disc and digital courtesy of Madlib’s label Madlib Invazion.
The Heliocentrics first arrived on the scene in 2007 with Out There on the Stones Throw sublabel Now-Again, one of the relatively few releases of contemporary material on a subsidiary that’s become known for its deep catalog of soul and funk, often with a global reach. This international focus would come to play a major role in The Heliocentrics own work, but for their debut, it suffices to say that the contents flowed forth in a manner that solidified and expanded upon their connection to the work of DJ Shadow.
A year prior, The Heliocentrics were featured on “This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way)” from DJ Shadow’s The Outsider. Certainly, one way to synopsize Out There is as a sort of live band reframing and extension of the hip-hop/ trip-hop/ DJ cultural shebang that DJ Shadow was vital in establishing a decade prior with his classic Endtroducing…..
Going analog in this context isn’t an especially laudable gesture in itself, as doing so risks negating the qualities that make hip-hop and trip-hop distinctive, but drummer Malcom Catto, bassist-guitarist Jake Ferguson, and percussionist-flautist Jack Yglesias, these three representing the instrumental core of the Heliocentrics collective, were especially attentive to the properties at play, so that Out There avoided ever faltering into the trite.
They followed up this promising start with back-to-back collaborations for the Strut label, the first with Mulatu Astatke (Inspiration Information, 2009), the second with Lloyd Miller (Lloyd Miller & The Heliocentrics (OST), 2010), both of these pairings fruitful as the results underscored their adaptability to the specific occasion (they also backed Astatke live and contributed to his 2010 album for Strut, Steps Ahead).
With adaptability comes restraint, so The Heliocentrics didn’t really get to showcase the growth of their own thing until 2013 and the terrific 13 Degrees of Reality. Its release roughly coincided with a pair of EPs, “Quatermass Sessions” and “Helio x GLK,” this second another team-up, this time with producer Gaslamp Killer, with this burst of activity giving way to two more collabs in 2014, Jaiyede Afro with Orlando Julius and The Last Transmission with Melvin Van Peebles.
Transmission really leaned into the aura of expansive electronica, a sensibility that carried over to their next full-length From the Deep in 2016, a non-joint effort as they’ve persisted in going it alone since. The next year brought World of Masks, where they productively added Slovakian vocalist Barbora Patkova to the group. Also in 2017, they provided the score to The Sunshine Makers, a documentary about LSD chemists Nicolas Sand and Tim Scully.
Although that movie premiered in 2015, the soundtrack’s delayed arrival places it in close proximity to World of Masks’ substantial shift toward the psychedelic, an inclination that perseveres on Infinity of Now as Patkova makes a welcome return. While it’s a fact that psych elements have always been a component in the Heliocentrics’ approach (a la David Axelrod and the cosmic jazz of Sun Ra), this aspect is considerably heightened on Infinity of Now as the comparisons to Broadcast and Can have never been more appropriate.
While Catto, Ferguson, and Yglesias provide the instrumental core, it’s the first two who record, mix, and produce the recordings; like World of Masks, their latest was cut at Catto’s Quatermass Sound Lab. Their joint production touch can be immediately heard in the ascending sci-fi tones of opener “99% Revolution” as the beat is instantly funky and Patkova’s entrance fittingly soulful, singing the verses somewhat languidly and then soaring in wordless energy for the chorus of sorts, as the fuzzed-out guitar kicks in.
Beginning with looped violins, “Venom” blends Petkova’s vocals, plentiful amp burn, a loping groove and symphonic strings (arranged by Ferguson and Raven Bush), a seductive mixture that gets broken up with shorter Kraut-psych instrumental tangents, these interjections rising in intensity and then slyly dissipating. After completing this cycle twice, the band delivers an inspired instrumental passage for the finale.
For “Elephant Walk,” Petkova lays out as the cut showcases alto saxophonist Collin Webster, whose blowing grows increasingly avant-tinged before launching into some flat-out spatter-squawk atop the band’s sturdy funk-pulse foundation. A wonderful ride. With “Burning Wooden Ship,” side one closes as Petkova returns for what could’ve been a mildly retro-futurist pop single (suggesting a funkier Broadcast, maybe), except for the wildly science-fictive instrumental detour that is the cut’s midsection.
“Hanging By a Thread” sets side two in motion with a groove of unperturbed Afrobeat that’s infused with Yglesias’ vaguely Winwood-like keyboards and Jason Yarde’s appealingly gruff but flowing baritone sax. It’s the record’s other instrumental track, with Petkova reemerging with a significantly poetic turn in “Nonsense Part 1” as the band brings to mind a blend of Can and Alice Coltrane.
From there, “Light in the Dark” alternates Petkova in chanteuse mode with bouts of swirling, highly rhythmic psych. It leads into the string-infused “People Wake Up,” Infinity of Now’s closer and at ten minutes its longest selection as it wraps around topically to the album’s opening cut. That the Heliocentrics are advocating for social change is admirable, but they never let the sentiment lessen their musical potency, and that’s even better.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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