There must be something about the spaces between. Back in 1973, jazz pianist and keyboardist Sun Ra released “Rocket Number Nine,” the fifth and final song on his album Space Is the Place. Flash forward 40 years, and British brothers and synth/drum team Ben and Tom Page form RocketNumberNine, get noticed by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, plan a collaboration with Neneh Cherry (daughter of jazz pocket trumpeter Don Cherry, who, incidentally, recorded with Sun Ra) and present their debut album MeYouWeYou, a collection of (fittingly) nine electronic dance tracks that somehow manage to be jazzy without being improvisational. “Black and Blue” stands out thanks to Page’s excellent ambient techno drum kit work, as does “Matthew and Toby,” the final, eight-minute (down from the original 14-minute single) offering.
(Originally appeared in the Valley Advocate.)
