(Contemporary, Jazz-Rock, Modern Creative) [WEB] Get The Blessing - Astronautilus - 2015, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Dedicated to the memory of Ornette Coleman, who passed away in June this year, Get The Blessing are to release ‘Astronautilus’ in his honour. The late Coleman was pivotal to the band's formation back in 2000 and still after fifteen years Get The Blessing can still lay claim to their original line up: Jake McMurchie sax and electronics; Pete Judge trumpet, flugel horn, piano and electronics; Clive Deamer drums and percussion and Jim Barr bass, electronics and organ.
This will be GTB’s fifth album, the third of which from their label ‘Naim Jazz Records’ and comes blazing out of Bristol chasing the tail of its predecessor, 2014's ‘Lope and Antilope’. While ‘Lope and Antilope’ saw the band dip their toe in mellower waters, Astronautilus was literally composed between crashing waves and deserted estuary sands.
‘Astronautilus’ was recorded while the band were holed up on a remote part of the Cornish coast, where the landscape and midnight beach rambles proved inspirational. It was on these walks that conversation turned to such matters as the stars and the sea, which in turn led to the titles - stars and fish, or puns on both.
The end result! Get The Blessing delivering a highly-charged emotive album full of pounding drum rhythms driven by Clive Deamer, strongly-crafted melodies, - plus, of course, the unpredictability and musical mischievousness that have made the band so exciting and successful.
It’s funny how the influences of where a bands state of mind lays at the time of composing, producing and recording filters into the final product, as I could quite easily have felt myself walking along the Cornish coast whilst listening to ‘Astronautilus’. Especially when the wind instruments kick in giving an all too familiar feel of a gale force nine washing over you.
And still after fifteen years together the guys are still producing creative, intelligent music with such passion that will hopefully drive them on for another fifteen.