Roam The Hello Clouds is a collaboration between Sydney-based Triosk/Pivot drummer Laurence Pike, ex-Perth, now-London-based laptop artist and Pivot member Dave Miller, and one of Australia's most renowned jazz trumpet players, Phil Slater. I was suitably excited for the sounds that would come from the debut album of this new collective, Near Misses, with three of the most potent musical forces in Australian music of recent times behind the controls, all covering a dizzyingly wide range of musical styles in previous endeavours and carrying an exciting inventiveness that is difficult to maintain. Thankfully for all involved, Near Misses is yet another successful project from these musicians, surpassing my consistently unreasonably high expectations. The album is an admirably energetic meshing of the formidable ingredients that make up Roam The Hello Clouds, resulting in a deliciously volatile, minimal mix of heavily fractured, texturally progressive grooves.
As usual, all three musicians are on point in their performance, but especially notable is the exceptional interactions all the elements have with each other, particularly in the relationship between Slater's playful trumpet and the clicks and clacks of Pike's drumming. In this way, the dynamic of the group is unique of any of the members' other groups. Roam The Hello Clouds, here, brings a delightfully playful approach to improvisation; the cheekiness of Slater's lines offset against the sparse nudges of bass and manipulated sounds from Miller's laptop and Pike's always flippantly mindboggling explorations of drum timbres brings Near Misses' air of spontaneity away from the often overblown and pretentious approaches of jazz experimentalists.
There are a few different approaches employed here. "Geoff as a Hulk" displays an energetic, playful interaction between the various members. Pike brings a sparse, jerky, heavily rhythmic and rarely repeating improvisation to the rhythmic base of the piece, virtuoso drumming skipping boisterously in and out of persistent bass thumps. Slater mirrors Pike's frenetic energy with impossibly free and perfect semiquaver lines, in a light-stepped dialogue between all three musicians.
As much as the relative rhythmic freedom and lack of clear ostinato patterns in "Geoff As A Hulk" give way for an intriguing rhythmic counterpoint between particularly Pike and Slater, it is in the more meter-secure numbers such as "Sprinter" and "Pretender's Hand" where this album shines the brightest. "Sprinter" displays the energy of Slater, Pike, and Miller, but through the filter of firm common time, established by Miller's consistent bass interjections. Pike and Slater explode wildly into opposite directions again, but are kept grounded and time, bringing their wild and warped lines into a delicious groove.
"Pretender's Hand" is a unique track among the other nine, progressing with far stricter structure as Pike's lightly syncopated compound quadruple beat providing a solid base for Slater's angular trumpet lines. A vibraphone is a welcome addition to the mix, and an ostinato brings further energy to the groove. While the clever use of space is not as present here, every part ofthe music in "Pretender's Hand" is in appropriate balance, brought together in a perfect focus.
Other standouts, such as "Death and Possible Dreams" utilize space to great effect, showcasing Roam The Hello Clouds' prowess with less raucous workouts. Here, the mere suggestions of sound become indispensably valuable; a brooding and quiet building of texture brushes subtly against Slater's long note improvisations declaring the mood of a listener owned by the three musicians.
The consistency of the quality of material on this, the first Roam The Hello Clouds release, is remarkable. For a project so swiftly compiled, and so well endowed with already-proven and extremely busy talent, Near Misses is admirably cohesive; the way all elements are brought together into a delicious logic is delightful, to say the least. Near Misses is, without doubt, a release worth giving the time to. It all just FITS, like the Meccano sets your mother wanted you to play with when you were little. What a beast.
-Marcus Whale