Cars From The Future have released their new album 2 a joyously frenetic collage of sounds mixing up jazz-fusion and electronica while managing to evoke that sense of how past looked at the future with chrome plated optimism (see also Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly). CFTT is a project made up of multi-instrumentalist Richard Davies, who plays saxophone, and Andrew Spackman, from SAD MAN and The Dark Jazz Project, who provides the bespoke electronics. Everything was recorded remotely with both passing the tracks back and forth, working at speed to keep the energy levels up.
All nine tracks are constantly on the move and with ‘I’ll Be Back In A Minute Or Two’ and ‘On Another Night This Would Be Stranger To Us’ giving the impression we are in the passenger seat of a supercar staring out as the passing landscape blurs passed, while ‘Sparkplugs and Saxophones’ and ‘Parking In The Future’ lets us be the test pilot of an experimental rocket car fighting with the controls to stay in control. ‘Gravity Will Save Almost All Humanity’ has the hybrid feel of John Carpenter jamming with Weather Report, ‘All The Relevant Sources’ has the vibe of a Lalo Schifrin soundtrack and, unless my ears were deceiving me, Davies even managed to sneak a burst of the Catweazle theme into the track ‘Let Sleeping Dogs Tell Fibs’
2 is an exhilarating listen and adds a turbocharger to the slightly more restrained sensibilities of their first self-titled collaboration. It’s a squelching, stomping, earthy mix of autobahn acceleration and the clatter and whirl of a mechanised car factory running at full speed. Like the cause of a nuclear explosion, the fissionable material here is Richard Davies’ powerful saxophone playing. Spackman is the elemental sorcerer conjuring myriad beats, thrumming synthesiser arpeggios and sound-tsunamis, but the saxophone breaks through it all; sometimes spooning with the warping electronics or surfing a wave of reverb, and at other times driving a truck through the wall of sound. I would pay good money to see Davies in a full-tilt brass jam with Andrew Neil Hayes from Run Logan Run.
The visual aesthetic for both CFTF releases is superlative with the covers reaching back into my youth to get my brain fizzing at the sleek lines of the prototype cars I drooled over in a pack of Top Trumps (see the Pininfarina Modulo). And speaking of which, order the limited release CD and you will get your very own Top Trumps-style card included.
Cars From The Future socials:
Richard Davies: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | X (Twitter) | YouTube
Andrew Spackman: Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | X (Twitter) | YouTube
Irregular Patterns are a development label operating on a not-for-profit basis. artists retain 100% of their rights and royalties and agree to pay Irregular Patterns a share after income is earned. Socials: Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | X (Twitter) | YouTube
Review by Paul F Cook
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