Maceo Parker
Life On Planet Groove

Bristolian duo Run Logan Run release their third studio album released on Worm Discs.Run Logan Run’s third full-length album For A Brief Moment We Could Smell The Flowers finds the acclaimed Bristolian duo pushing their music forwards in a dramatic new direction in the company of producer Riaan Vosloo (Nostalgia 77). Recorded in lockdown after months of intense jamming, the album bolsters the dynamic improvised sound of the group with expansive synth soundscapes that add depth, warmth and emotional heft to the duo’s uniquely committed style of spiritualised jazz.The pandemic that was the backdrop to the creative process also prompted the album’s title: ‘For A Brief Moment We Could Smell The Flowers is a reference to the fact that, for the first time in quite some time, society was together inside a collective moment,’ say Hayes, referring to the lockdowns that accompanied the spread of Covid-19. ‘It didn’t last for long, and it was definitely ugly, but it was also definitely beautiful. We’re working from our intuition and our music is a reflection of the world we inhabit. It’s ugly, but it’s also beautiful, and it’s beautiful, but it’s also ugly.’Pushed onwards by the kinetic ferocity of Brown’s drums, guided by souldeep melodies, motifs and cries unfurled from Hayes’ tenor, the music that emerges is fiercely committed, questing and risk-taking. For A Brief Moment We Could Smell The Flowers is scorching energy music for the 21st century, with the psychedelic heaviness and glowing afterburn of Palm Unit, or Sonny Simmons with Moksha Samnyasin – a thunderous, beautiful soundworld forged on the Bristolian frontlines of a new wave of social protest and historical awareness, and amid the strange silences of the world in lockdown. It’s hopeful, joyous and furious music for a world that might be, and bears witness to the era that might yet make it manifest.