John McLaughlin celebrates his 70th birthday year with a bang by releasing his most explosive new album since the early days of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and playing a major concert at the Barbican during the London Jazz Festival. Now Here This (yes, it is spelt that way, album sleeve pictured left) is released by Abstract Logix on 15 October and features the 4th Dimension, including Gary Husband on piano, keyboards and drums, Etienne M’Bappé on electric bass and Ranjit Barot on drums.

The album comprises eight new compositions by the guitarist, who also plays guitar-synth on the recording, and follows the 4th Dimension debut, To The One, released in 2010, with an even harder slab of jazz-rock that bursts out of the gate with the blistering ‘Trancefusion’ and doesn’t let up for 49 scorching minutes. The addition of Indian-born Barot to the 4th Dimension band adds extra heft and propulsion to the rhythm section with complex polyrhythms played with frightening speed and power, while McLaughlin pushes a level of energy and intensity that would be a big ask for a 21 year-old, let alone someone who’s 71 this coming January.

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