Such has been the development of the Loop Collective’s members that over the last couple of years the term “coming of age” has almost attained cliché status. At this month’s Moose Factory session in east London’s George Tavern jazz-dub experimentalists Ma proved that experience does not entail risk aversion. Now over three years old, this group led by tenor saxophonist Tom Challenger played new material set for release in the coming months. The sound carries greater weight and delves further into some of the musical terrain they touched on with their previous album Jyketie.

On laptop Matt Calvert nestled soft psychedelic ambient landscapes, not dissimilar to those created by Boards of Canada, against Pan Sonic-esque industrial hyper-dub beats. Through their familiarity a tightness of delivery has inevitably emerged. However, as the band moved in a continuous set from one foundational phrase to another there was an understanding of where they needed to get to but a tension in the urgency to get there. In tribute to Challenger’s compositions, these phrases do stimulate the listener and can induce a euphoric response but more could be done to let the music breathe. More specifically, the passages of free interplay and development between the composed sections could yield more if rewarded with greater investment.

That said, the surges into passages such as ‘We Need Two’ and ‘The Last’ were the spine-tingling highlights as Ross Stanley on organ infected the sound with toxic and transcendent harmonies like a mid-70s electric-Chick who’s re-found the volatile potential of the avant-garde. On drums Dave Smith carried a bullish, brutalist aesthetic into the arena resonating with echoes of 1990s Afro-dub and the Jim Black school of NY ‘downtown’ experimental-rock into post-bop. Equally, like a Stan Getz re-incarnation cast through the prism of a world saturated with electronic beats and digital possibilities, Tom Challenger glistened with exultant phrases throughout the set that were neither over-indulged nor over-complicated but accessible and engaging. We look forward to this material’s release.

– Joseph Kassman-Tod

Ma next play at the Loop Collective Festival on Saturday 20 February at the Vortex, London.