What do you get if you cross the “dissonance” of the London based band Heliocentrics and the majestic brilliance of The Sun Ra Arkestra?
How about Nuclear War.
I called up one half of Heliocentrics, Jake Ferguson for a quick chat about an itchysilk project – (coming soon I hasten to add).
Just in passing while talking Jake mentions- “oh we’re releasing a new project called Nuclear War with Marshall Allen [Sun Ra], Knoel Scott [Sun Ra] and Bilal this Saturday.”
We have never really had any lofty ambitions to sell a million records or whatever. It was always about creating something that is different.
I was suitably intrigued and asked Jake for an interview the day after.
The genre straddling Heliocentrics are your favourite bands’ band. Formed two decades ago by the mercurial Malcolm Catto (drummer and producer) and the intelligent bassist and co producer Jake Ferguson aka The Brkn Record, their aims were simple:
“We have never really had any lofty ambitions to sell a million records or whatever. It was always about creating something that is different. Malcolm and I have always said that our music should make you want to buy it if you heard it in a record shop”
The Heliocentrics have added another startling project to their heaving discography with Nuclear War, “It’s taken 11 years for the release” he mentions. But who cares about ‘time.’ It must always be quality over quantity.
Sitting in his home studio “it’s my glorified man cave” adorned with tools of his trade like; 5 guitars, what seems an old skool tape deck, he slowly enlightens me. I was curious-how does a band “sit on” material from Sun Ra for over a decade!
Thankfully, Jake is a good storyteller, and he discusses the catalyst to Nuclear War.
“In 2015 we were in the middle of doing the Orlando Julius project” Jake smiles, “another genre we had a go at. Anyway, Quinton Scott from Strut contacted us and said Gilles Peterson would love to have you guys play with The Sun Ra Arkestra and do a special at the Worldwide Awards with Marshall Allen – we were super honoured.
He continues and rightly so unleashes his full appreciation of Sun Ra and Marshall (who is 102 this year).
“We are big fans of Sun Ra. In fact, our band name comes from their album The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One (1965). Anyway, Knoel Scott and Marshall came down to our recording studio in Hackney to rehearse for the show. At the time Marshal was like well into his nineties” he adds
The thing is, Sun Ra’s music is very complex,
“To this day I can remember that encounter vividly. Marshall is a small guy and noticeably quiet. I went over to shake his hand and, no joke, just before our hands touched, I felt this strong presence, like this energy force. It sounds really facetious, but he was vibrating this palpable energy. I knew at that moment that he was a truly special musician.”
In the Quartermass Sound Lab (owned by Malcolm Catto) they proceeded to record seminal aural magic,
“We were nervous for sure” he confesses, “The thing is, Sun Ra’s music is very complex, and Malcolm and I do not read music. We picked out classic tracks like – Where Pathways Meet (1978), Angels and Demons Angels and Demons at Play (1960), Astro Black (1972) and funnily enough we were doing our own version of Nuclear War at that time that we had played at live shows so included that one too. When you are rehearsing it’s always good to record the session. It helps you to know what you need to improve. We only had one rehearsal at the time, but I recorded the whole session on my zoom recorder.”
They duly went on to perform with Arkestra at Gilles Petersen’s Worldwide Awards and XOYO the following day.
“Years later Malcolm and I just thought let’s have a listen to those recordings” as if still amazed, “We realised we had great stuff. We did some mixes then sent it to Quinton. He loved it but it took a few years to eventually persuade Marshall and Bilal (who sings on Afro Black) to allow us to release those recordings. A decade later and Nuclear War is here!”
Nuclear War out on Strut Records with just 500 vinyls to buy.
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