The Cosmic Range
All-star T.O. space-jazz combo is a limber, eight-headed funk-freakout music machine
What’s the deal? The Cosmic Range is a gang of stupendously gifted Toronto players drafted together into one flailingly funky interstellar-jazz “supergroup” by local multi-instrumentalist and avant-garde composer Matthew (Doc) Dunn late last year.
Take a deep breath, read the roll call of talent involved in this thing and rest assured that the results heard on the Range’s just-released debut for esteemed indie label Idée Fixe Records, New Latitudes, sounds every bit the sum of its parts: Kieran Adams of Diana on drums and electronics; Brandon Valdivia of Not the Wind, Not the Flag on congas and percussion; sometime Jennifer Castle/ Sandro Perri sideman Mike “Muskox” Smith on keys and bass; Hoover Party’s Jonathan Adjhemian on keys and synth; former John Zorn collaborator Andy Haas on sax and electronics; U.S. Girls’ accompanist Isla Craig on vocals; and Slim Twig himself, Max Turnbull, on wah-wah-fied guitar.
All of these musicians collide in a dayglo splatter of free jazz, Krautrock, Afrobeat, dub, electric Miles Davis, frenetic skronk and feverish rhythm on New Latitudes.
The album gets downright busy as a sweaty freakout machine in between a couple of ambient bookends dropped in the mix to give your heart, your hips and your head an occasional break.
The live show is, I’m sure, utterly mental. Sum up what you do in a few simple sentences? “Twenty-first-century galactic funk, world boogie and space jazz. An eight-headed Hydra of studio wizards, jazzbos, freaks, master musicians, improvisers and cosmic dancers, the Range seeks to create contemporary sound vistas for the mind and body.” What’s a song I need to hear right now? “New Latitudes.” Screaming sax meets screeching guitar meets squawk-box synth in a whole mess o’ dirty, dirty wiggle-‘n’-groove. Where can I see them play? At the Great Hall on Thursday, Jan. 15.