Champagne Dub: Rainbow

Rainbow is not a jazz album, not in a million light years, but it is a blast, and the two core members of Champagne Dub are British jazz-and-beyond musicians who have made careers out of going off piste. Good reasons for lending an ear.

The renegade twosome are Maxwell Hallett (aka Betamax Killer), who held down the drum chair in The Comet Is Coming until Shabaka Hutchings' decision to drop the tenor sax in favour of shakuhachi flutes effectively brought about the band's unscheduled rapid disassembly, temporarily at least. Hallett's partner is bassist Ruth Goller (aka Goth Ruler) who, since emerging with Acoustic Ladyland and Polar Bear in the noughties, has consistently shaken jazz up and taken it to new places. Her upcoming album Skyllumina (out March 2024) reunites her with drummers Tom Skinner and Sebastian Rochford and maintains the honorable nonconformist tradition.

Champagne Dub is completed by Ed Briggs on electronics, a Mr Noodles (it is of no consequence) on voice and percussion, and, on one track, Hallett's dad, Clive Bell, on melodica, toy panpipes and the aforementioned shakuhachi, which he studied in south east Asia in the 1970s before returning to London's free-jazz scene.

Anything Hallett and Goller do is worth checking out, doubly so if they are doing it together. It may not always be jazz but, on past form, it will always be worth listening to. If you enjoyed the psyche-drama of Lee "Scratch" Perry's tripped-out space-dub, Rainbow has your name on it. Check the YouTube below for a taste.

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