Outside World - Outside World 3
Minaret Records 025
Outside World, the acclaimed Los Angeles experimental jazz duo consisting of multi-instrumentalists Henry Solomon and Logan Kane, will release their third in a trilogy of mind-bending opuses, Outside World 3 (out April 5th via Minaret Records), featuring 12 original compositions alongside four generations of jazz mentors and friends, including Roy McCurdy, David Binney, Louis Cole, Chris Fishman, Jon Hatamiya, Luca Mendoza, Paul Cornish, and Benjamin Ring.
The record emerges unswathed from the current LA-jazz renaissance, molded by the future-oriented DIY of Minaret and likeminded labels, proffering an apocalyptic fusion that borrows as much from Jamaaladeen Tacuma or Anthony Braxton as it does from the hyperpop fixations of Yasutaka Nakata or the most far-out techno on The New Dance Sound of Detroit.
Take first single, “I’m a Bird (feat. Louis Cole, Jon Hatamiya)”, whose breakbeat ministrations pair a modal melody doubled on horn and a DAW synth patch with Marcus Miller bass-licks ripped from Logan Kane’s undergraduate hard drive, all before crashing out into a balmy meadow of artificial flute and free percussion. It could soundtrack a time-trial in Ridge Racer just as much as it could slot alongside Sextant-era Herbie Hancock. This is vanguard music that is reverent of the traditions out of which it emerged.
Second single “Friends (feat. Chris Fishman, Louis Cole)” finds a slicker groove. Characterize this or any Outside World track as breezy at your own peril, but Bruce Hornsby or Michael McDonald would find the mix plenty welcoming for yacht rock reflections on lost love or growing old. Smooth jazz radio could pipe this to your uncle’s cabana just as much as an old-head could find the electric piano textures and syncopated drum fills evocative of Chick Corea’s Friends.
Outside World 3‘s compositions were primarily written in the past year but span the duo’s near-decade as collaborators. They produced it by exchanging Sibelius and Logic files, tweaking their instruments with playful use of effect pedals and midi programming within structures that bounce from the tender balladry of “Golden Age (feat. David Binney, Louis Cole, Paul Cornish, Jon Hatamiya)” to the schizophrenic pop-punk fuckery of “Tacos Tamix (feat. Benjamin Ring, Jon Hatamiya, Luca Mendoza)”.
Both Bay Area natives, Solomon, who favors baritone saxophone, and Kane, upright and electric bass, met at USC Thornton School of Music, where they studied with Peter Erskine, Vince Mendoza, Ambrose Akinmusire and the aforementioned McCurdy. They formed Outside World as students and in 2018 released their eponymous debut featuring Cole, Jacob Mann and Pedro Martins.
Kane, David Binney’s bassist for seven years running, has otherwise played or recorded with Steve Lehman, Damion Reid, Ari Hoenig, Dan Weiss, Justin Brown, Joel Ross and Jon Bap. He performs with saxophonist and partner Nicole McCabe as the electro-jazz duo Dolphin Hyperspace and led a nonet on Nope,science (Orenda Records) in 2020. His latest solo album Floor Plans, released in September via Ghost Note Records and received critical acclaim.
Solomon can be heard playing windwinds as an occasional John Carroll Kirby sideman and on recent albums by HAIM, Paramore and Rostam; Thundercat called him “dope as hell” in a major magazine. Solomon and Kane both are members of the punk-funk band Thumpasaurus, Louis Cole Big Band alumni and Knower contributors.