ALBUM REVIEWS
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ALBUM REVIEWS |
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Portico Quartet
ISLA REAL WORLD RECORDS 19.10.09 @www.vanguard-online.co.uk
We dont get a lot of jazz sent to Vanguard Towers and have to content ourselves with the random finds we make in record shop sales and accidental discoveries at clubs. Portico are unusual, in that: Their record got sent to us Their 2008 album got nominated for a Mercury Music Award They have not one but two of an instrument so unusual that the poncey manufacturers insist you travel to Switzerland to buy it. A four-piece, comprising double bass, sax, drums and other percussion, this is a rhythmic ensemble. They build on multiple repeating patterns played on the chiming, slightly gamelan / xylophonic Hang the aforementioned obscure musical beast. So far, so Steve Reich. The patterns are less intense and in your face than Reich, more a laid back hypnotic environment. On top, the double bass adds swashes of colour in a lonely tone at times quite distant and chill, like Jan Gabarek, at other times closer and smaller. The big star is the double bass: Deep, organic and rationed, it pulses at just the right time to propel the music into slight changes. The band have drafted in some chamber strings for texture, perhaps unnecessarily emptiness is nothing to be scared of. This music sounds through-composed, almost modern minimal classical, rather than the improvised swing I expect from jazz. Contemporaries like Medeski, Martin & Wood or The Bad Plus have a sense of danger and changes in direction about them. Though Gabarek, who I mentioned earlier, gives out a similar feel of having it mapped out before. Leaving that aside, the texture of this album is remarkable, warm and detailed, the playing is something you can feel happening before you and it all makes sense. The percussion elements meld together, making a backdrop for the sax. Id have been happy with it as a double bass and drums record, such are the melodic smarts and timing of the bass. The album was recorded mostly live in the studio, in one take and that accounts for a lot of the real feel of the collection real instruments interacting in real time. Some will find this becomes background, particularly those prone to chatter (especially those that chatter behind me at gigs! Grrrr.) Others will find this is a rewarding vessel for some focussed listening, full (perhaps too full) of quality sounds and shapes. www.myspace.com/porticoquartet |
