Exciting news from The Heliocentrics keep on hitting us. First, and as we recently reported, the London based psychedelic funk jazz collective are set to release a collaborative album with Nigerian saxophone legend Orlando Julius next month. Now, news have emerged of another heavenly collaboration and one that has been in the works for the last six years, with eccentric and prolific filmmaker, playwright and musician Melvin Van Peebles. Their joint effort, The Last Transmission, is being released as a double album on October 7th via Now-Again.
According to the label, the forthcoming album “is an interplanetary space/love odyssey told in twelve chapters”. Whilst disc one is presented as a vocal album, the second one serves a bonus disc featuring expanded instrumentals of some selected tracks. “The band considers it their defining work, the result of more than a decade of playing and recording together”, as the album’s blurb describes. “They’ve found a voice as a band, one that meshes with Van Peebles,’ as he weaves an intergalactic “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.””
An instrumental version of ‘Chapter 05 The Cavern’ taken from the bonus disc is the first taste to be let loose and is being ofered as a free download. If this is any inclination of what’s to come, we just can’t wait to hear more.