The enigmatically-named LAST ARK OUT is a Canadian music collective (Arthur Pascau Smith – Guitar, Composition; Jeff Gammon – Bass; Justin Gorrie – Alto Saxophone, Guitar, EMEO; James Huumo – Keyboards and Colin Parker – Drums). They describe their sound as an amalgam of jazz, groove, rock and funk and you can hear all that and a lot more on their new album, ‘Lift’ which wins release on February 23rd. The seven tracker is the eagerly-awaited follow up to their well received 2017 debut ‘Wait’ . The band explain the delay between releases in one word – Covid!
To help them flesh out their musical ideas on ‘Lift’, the quintet have drafted in some celebrated guests including drummers Larnell Lewis and Sarah Thawer, sax players Hailey Niswanger and Allison Au, Montreal keyboardist David Osei-Afrifa and vibes player Sasha Berliner. Between them, band and guests concoct a tight, powerful jazz funk sound with more than a nod to Herbie Hancock – their main muse!
Most of the music is high octane stuff with a little downtime offered by ‘Song Needs Title’ -a gentle workout highlighting Pascau Smith’s guitar and Allison Au’s sax lines.
If you’d like to investigate, each track is accompanied by a video release available via YouTube. The album is officially released 23rd February.