McCraven’s second album proper of ‘organic beats music’ almost incidentally internationalises the new London scene, bringing its figureheads into a bigger world. The Chicago-based drummer/ producer also offers a belated sequel to Teo Macero’s ground-breaking electric Miles cut-ups, by subjecting live improv to extensive post-production. His quest for raw material ranged from Chicago to a Queens basement bar, an LA garage and London’s cruelly closed scene-catalyst Total Refreshment Centre. Searching for the specific in these scattered local musicians, McCraven’s production then blurs borders to reaffirm their underlying community. When applause washes over the chopped up, yet flowing, soul-funk of ‘Young Genius’, and McCraven’s cymbal-splashes softly, seismically ripple, there is a constructed sense of organic place. Time, too, is reconfigured but real, retaining improv’s in-the-moment spark. Jazz and hip hop’s virtues have been fully integrated. This approach’s pleasurable, musical worth is shown by ‘Atlantic Black’, from a snatched Chicago summit with Shabaka Hutchings. His sax becomes an urgent, nervous flutter, building in hammering intensity, then fading to skin-brushing breathiness. McCraven’s post-production seems to jostle and reconfigure the performance’s atoms. It’s the most effective, future-facing context in which I’ve heard Hutchings. Cellist Tomeka Reid’s astringent buzz on ‘Tall Tales’ and the way that track’s whole performance rears up at the end is another highlight. Studio chat suggests a London session with Nubya Garcia, Daniel Casimir and Ashley Henry was more nervous, even overawed, and McCraven leans on soulful group flow and glistening keyboard textures. ‘Brighter Days Beginning’ lays out what this all means for him: the next chapter in “consciousness-raising for each generation”. This also feels like a significant next musical step for post-hip hop jazz. Though London’s scene paradoxically seems fresh to young audiences by reintroducing live, 1970s-style sounds, McCraven shows where this could lead.