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| Portico Quartet + Sweet Billy Pilgrim – 18/03/10 Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton |
| Wednesday, 14 April 2010 10:07 | |||||||
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Portico Quartet openly admit that they don’t want to be classed solely as a jazz group and the decision to choose fellow Mercury Music Award nominees, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, along as their support tonight was a heavy nod in this direction. Climatic and heady, SBP had the retro instrumentation of Arcade Fire and the rhythm of Doves. Their set was tantalizingly short but it certainly snuffed out any expectations of a typical jazz gig. As a live group, Portico have progressed radically on this tour for their second LP, Isla. They have gained massive confidence to experiment and completely abandon the marked route if something works. Duncan Bellamy was on fire on the drums and the new tracks provided him with the chance to shine. With an extra hang and all the variations it brings, Portico are starting to feel like they are turning in18/03/10 Portico Quartet + Sweet Billy to a different band. Their trademark eastern drone persists throughout the tracks, passed between the hang and the bass, but experimentation with looping and effects pedals really shifted everything up a gear. The pieces on Isla create huge, ever-evolving soundscapes that are pretty easy to get lost in. Admittedly there are a couple of points in the evening when the direction loses its way a little too; wandering aimlessly down a route with no real purpose and never quite reaching a firm destination. Saying that, more often than not Jack Wyllie’s sax would bring it roundly back into focus with unexpectedly Coltrane-esque quirks peppering the calm trajectory of the music. It wasn’t just half the band’s newly acquired, and suitably fashionable, glasses that showed they’d matured; I think their next album may be even more hotly anticipated than the last. Catherine Marks
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