COMPOSERS: Benjamin Hermann
LABELS: DOX
PERFORMER: New Cool Collective, Benjamin Hermann (sax), David Rockefeller (trumpet), Anton Goudsmit (guitar), Leslie Lopez (bass), Willem Friede (piano), Frank van Dok, Jos de Haas (percussion), Joost Kroon (drums)
CATALOGUE NO: DOX 53
The cover artwork of Out of Office just edges in ahead of this July’s Dutch smoking ban, with Hermann’s native New Cool Collective (NCC) depicted in a bar with cigarettes to hand. And the music too brims with quirky nods to the past.
Renowned for their frenetic jazzy grooves, NCC continues the filmic slant of the 2006 Live album, also drawing from rock.
In the buzzing opener ‘Lang Lang’, for example, Friede’s keyboard has cheeky traces of The Doors’s Ray Manzarek. While the title track veers into Happy Mondays territory, ‘Boca Arriba’ effectively mixes a woozy Sun Ra-esque strut with deep pulsing techno.
Fans of NCC’s danceable afrobeat will revel in this latest disc. Get yourself Out of Office and join the party. Neil McKim