John McLaughlin & the 4th Dimension

Black Light

(Abstract Logix)

There’s a moment on Kiki, the final track on this third studio album from John McLaughlin’s current group, that might have belonged in the raw, febrile maelstrom of the guitarist’s 1971 Mahavishnu manifesto, The Inner Mounting Flame. This doesn’t date Black Light in any way, just gives a vision of the hungry young man who still fuels McLaughlin’s search for expression as he approaches his seventy-fourth birthday in company that’s urgent, effervescent and downright exciting.

Gary Husband (keyboards, drums and percussion), bassist Etienne M’Bappe and drummer-vocalist Ranjit Barot are, like McLaughlin, virtuosi. They have to be to play this music. Yet it’s the emotional, rather than the technical, qualities that shine through on tracks such as El Hombre Que Sabia, with its acoustic, flamenco heart, and the ability to marry electro soundscapes and beats with very human, exultant music-making – check Barot’s use of his voice as an integral part of his drum kit – that makes this such a compelling listen.

Rob Adams