Words by Justin Turford
With their second album of 2025, Greg Sanders’ superb improvisational quartet Lophae (pronounced lo-fi) return with more music culled from what now appears to have been an excessively fruitful set of recording sessions at the Fish Factory in London on 25th/30th September and 1st October 2023. Without retreading too much of what I wrote about their brilliant debut album ‘Perfect Strangers’ (see review here), the deal was this. Despite having collaborated before in various lineups, this was the first time that this particular quartet had sat in a room together to make music as a unit. With Greg’s melodies already in place, the band would then go deep and improvise around these ideas, the final recordings captured live with all of the players in just the one room. The moment, the vibe, the zone.
More of the same then? ‘Imagine More’ Greg insists and it is more. The shock of the new (sound) was apparent to me initially, the immediate pleasure of hearing something completely fresh when listening to the first record floored me to be honest so how do you follow that up with music recorded in the same sessions? I even played ‘Negative Blues’ to a bleary, sat down audience at Pinters at this year’s Houghton Festival and observed their thrill of the new, all chair-dancing and nodding heads as its slippery groove released energy into the forest canopy.
Let’s talk about energy. Something unmentioned in our previous review was that Greg suffers from ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), a highly debilitating condition that gets worse after physical and mental exertions, creating profound fatigue that rest doesn’t alleviate. Yet Greg resists, his musical and real life is busy. He is always composing, contributing to others records, hustling (both of these albums are self-released and produced). And his music contains that same zestful determination. It is alive with joy, ambition, inspiration. An impressive man.
The album begins with the strut and swagger of ‘Little House’. All smoky, insistent saxophone lines from Sam Rapley, Greg’s full range of his more rhythmic repertoire, his guitar chopping between funky and fluid and harmonic flourishes, Ben Brown and Tom Herbert having two conversations, with the band and between themselves - connected, loose, constantly in the groove. We’re reminded of how symbiotic this band can get, distinct personalities but a perfect spice mix. It gets all trippy and Gong-like towards the end and I’m hoping there’s a longer, more interstellar version of this somewhere. Or should be anyway.
Draped over a vintage drum machine pattern, ‘Another You’ is a romantic ballad awash with light rain and moments of sunshine. Too blue for London, perhaps an Italian downpour, a sticky warmth clinging like Tom’s shifting electric bass or Sam’s expansive blowing in the second half of the song as the clouds break. It starts like D’Angelo and ends like Francis Lai, which is obviously a good thing.
‘What We Were Waiting For’ is a dreamy new interpretation of a song that Greg recorded with his big band outfit Teotima on their 2019 ‘Weightless’ album. Without Ellie Rose Rusbridge’s gorgeous vocal to lead the line this time around, and at a slower tempo, the new version is a graceful, skipping number with an African heart. Greg’s Charlie Hunter-esque thumb and finger technique is the key to the song, the harmonies and rhythmic counterpoints all stemming from his joyful, bouncy melodies. Tom plays his electric like a double bass, Ben provides stellar snare and ride work and Sam, who played on the Teotima sessions, breathes freely and elegantly, no need for a full horn section here. Gorgeous.
Speaking of Africa, the title track certainly harnesses the particularly positive sonics of South African jazz. Once again, Tom plays like he’s holding a stand-up bass, a classic walking bass line allowing Ben to shuffle around the mark, flicks and fills punctuating the groove as Greg and Sam trade solos, Greg‘s tightly picked bluesy solo a highlight before the groove intensity lifts just a tad into full jive happiness.
Imagine more, says Greg and on the late night ‘Ball In A Street’, I imagine the closing number of a late night in a smoke-filled shebeen. The band is still tight, the remaining patrons are a bit looser. Again, there’s a hint of township in the chord structures, Sam’s sax sensual and contemplative as the band keep the feet tapping as the last drinks are washed down.
Like on ‘Fallout’ from their debut, ‘To Friends’ showcases Greg’s love of West African guitar but as with the last two songs, he appears to have been in thrall to the sound of the Mzansi township during these sessions. Ben Brown is also a connoisseur of various African styles, his Waaju band have mined West African techniques on their excellent albums and even released an extraordinary live performance with the Moroccan gnawa master Majid Bekkas, so they’re no dilettantes. Sublime guitar and bass interplay, Ben’s signature slip-slide drums and the most jubilant sax improvisation raises the energy as the song develops into an irresistible dancing tune that warms the heart and hips.
Delicately psychedelic and with one of Ben’s more idiosyncratic time signatures, ‘Fry Before You Buy’ feels like a fully improvised piece despite its cohesion. Less immediately catchy than the other recordings, it demands close listening and what reveals itself is a complex, introspective number filled with meditative moments, brilliantly angular bass playing (what a tone Tom has!) and the immensely satisfying experience of listening to musicians completely in tune with each other.
The mysteriously titled ‘Two Of The Three People That Aren't Me’ is calling out for a brave music coordinator to drop this into a film scene. A complex arrangement and with a lead riff that hints again at D’Angelo’s sludgy soul-funk, the composition stops and starts with cinematic tension. Romantic interludes swap seats with brooding drama as James Coburn chats up Claudia Cardinale, gun still inside his suit jacket. Just in case.
Two magnificent albums in one year, it’s like the Sixties or something! Three days of inspired, improvised recording have delivered a wealth of music, an identity that is recognisably Lophae and a glorious reminder of the creative power of collaborative freedom. 9/10.
Released on Oct 3rd 2025