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Album Review
- Album title
- Isla
- Artist
- Portico Quartet
- Label
- Real World Records
- Release date
- 19 Oct
More info
Playing Electric Circus, Edinburgh on 4 Nov and The Arches, Glasgow on 5 Nov
myspace.com/porticoquartet
Portico Quartet – Isla
Jazz isn’t a genre that features heavily in these pages, so the question that arises when reviewing the new Portico Quartet album is this: does it have crossover appeal? Isla – the London outfit’s follow-up to their Mercury-nominated debut LP Knee Deep in the North Sea – does, though not in the cheap, populist sense (Jamie Cullum I’m looking at you.) No, this retains its musical integrity but reaches beyond jazz to skirt the outer shores of ambient electronica and modern classical; even the sort of harmonic arpeggios used by Radiohead of late (especially on Clipper, which is more than a little reminiscent of Yorke et al’s Reckoner). But despite the fact that John Leckie at Abbey Road produced it, this is jazz first and foremost, and there are segments of wild improv sure to turn off fearful jazzophobes. For less sensitive ears, though, this is a rich, rewarding, thought-provoking listen.
Comments (2)
Add a comment »It is a shame that Skinny don't, or feel they can't, give more coverage to jazz; but it's even more of a shame that when they/you do, you feel that you need to justify it as having some kind of 'crossover' appeal in that it use electronics or...i'm not quite sure what you expect, jazz IS music and, like hip-hop, can encompass every stylistic leaning, technique, eccentricity or instrumentation you'd care to conjure up and, more frequently than not, did so before any guitar/indie/trendy group "thought" of doing it...For my money, most modern jazz bands/combos could out-innovate Radiohead for breakfast...
Posted by | Tuesday October 2009 @ 14:26
Report to moderatorI don't think this is what the writer meant at all. I think he was bringing up the very valid point that The Skinny doesn't really cover jazz, so an obvious starting point from a journalistic point of view is to tailor the review to reference things the audience will be familiar with.
However, he then goes on to say that, with this album, there's so much going on that he doesn't even need to create some tacky journalistic gimmick. It 'crosses over' genres simply because of the innovation and tastes of the performers, not for any commercial purposes. So, by the end of the review, it becomes apparent that the writer is rejecting the idea that jazz artists should be judged on their crossover appeal. He's also celebrating the fact that the readers will probably like this album, despite not being knowledgeable about jazz, which is a valid point considering the audience.
Nick Mitchell - if I've got this totally wrong, feel free to knock me down...
'hQ' - out of curiosity, what do you think of the album? I'm only getting so analytical because I really like it myself.
Rosie x
Posted by | Wednesday October 2009 @ 14:40
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