Saxophonist Binker Golding and drummer Moses Boyd captured some magic one evening in June 2017 at London’s Total Refreshment Centre, running through the first half of their 2017 album Journey to the Mountain of Forever (Gearbox). So many of the compositions on Escape The Flames are opportunities for Boyd to find every impeccable beat to push behind Golding’s playing.

Boyd holds down the groove, grounding the duo even as the improvisations start to open up more; where a lesser drummer might get lost in their own racket, Boyd remains locked in tight, and in turn frees up Golding to take the crowd down his own melodic tangents. Golding’s sax shrieks, much to the delight of the audience, and he sounds like he’s hardly drawing a breath throughout…