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Four years in the making, The Heliocentrics' debut album is finally complete. Out There is here. Good luck trying to categorize their music. Led by the relentless drummer Malcolm Catto, the UK collective's objective lays quite a ways beyond what ordinary listeners know or expect. In an alternative galaxy, where the orbits of Hip-Hop, Funk, Jazz, Psychedelic, Electronic, Avante-Garde and Ethnic music all revolve around ìThe Oneî ñ that's where you might find The Heliocentrics. A listen to a song or two reveals no small influence from the funk universe of James Brown. But there's also the disorienting asymmetry of Sun Ra's music. The cinematic scope of Ennio Morricone. The sublime fusion of David Axelrod. But the Heliocentrics' music isn't retro. It's brand new. And it's timeless. They have well-placed fans in the likes of Madlib (Catto was featured on his Shades of Blue album and on various Yesterdays New Quintet releases) and DJ Shadow (the band backed him on various tours, and on the song ìThis Time Iím Gonna Do It My Wayî from his The Outsider album), who will tell you that this band has the consistency and musicianship that seems to have been lost somewhere in the analog to digital shuffle over the past thirty years. The Heliocentrics are the real deal. They are ìOut Thereî in the best possible sense of the word. Dig it. Credit: ìJoyrideî by Heliocentrics Written by Malcolm Catto/Jake Ferguson/Mike Burnham/Jack Yglesias/Adrian Owusu © 2007 Now Again Records, LLC Licensed courtesy of Now Again Records, LLC