Black American music has sought metaphors of transcendence in science-fiction ever since Sun Ra announced his arrival from Saturn, and George Clinton's Mothership took Coltrane's spiritual Ascension literally. Shabaka Hutchings played with the latter-day Arkestra in 2014, the same year he got up to jam with Maxwell Hallett and Dan Leavers’ drum-and-synth duo Soccer96. The trio first recorded as The Comet Is Coming days later. Like Sun Ra, they filter their music through a homemade mythology (in this case, music for the end times as a comet blazes earthward), Hutchings’ recipe for reclaiming your reality from the powerful who otherwise oppress it. Being Londoners, and in Hutchings’ case an explorer of his Caribbean diaspora, adds local ingredients to their stew. ‘Slam Dunk In A Black Hole’ builds into a cosmic 2-Tone crescendo another Arkestra acolyte, Jerry Dammers, would enjoy. ‘Star Furnace’ starts as straight techno with crunching dub beats, Hutchings’ sweet, organic melody floating through the mix's heart. His sax also threads swift, darting riffs between ‘Journey Through The Asteroid Belt’'s titular obstacle course. Leavers’ vintage 1970s synth sounds recall European pioneers Giorgio Moroder and Vangelis, especially on the dystopian finale ‘End of Earth’, and elsewhere hint at some lost soundtrack from that decade's sci-fi TV. Joshua Idehen's preacher-poetry makes the album's ideas explicit in ‘Lightyears’, over churchy organ, and digital ripples like the sound of antique data. Dancing was the welcome aim in view, and this will doubtless be a party live. True transcendence is, though, aimed at too vaguely on record, remaining stubbornly earthbound too often.