Portico Quartet are four musicians hailing from East
London, who started a band together in 2005 and chose to spend a good deal of
their time busking. From there, they perfected their atmospheric instrumental
sound, with the addition of the relatively new-to-the-world inverted steel
drum, the hang. Picked up by Babel records, their debut album sold handsomely
with strong word of mouth, leading to a nomination in the Mercury music awards
(which thankfully they didn’t win, winning the award being much akin to being
cursed, and would you really want to share the dubious company of M People?).
A strong and successful first album buoyed by equally
successful tours, the Portico boys regrouped mid-2009 between two separate
tours to record new material with assistance from famed producer John Leckie. On
this, their second album, the quartet have expanded their array of instruments
from the acoustic line-up of saxophone, double-bass, drums and hang, to include
some electronics, loop pedals and even some strings. Recorded live, mostly at
Abbey Road, together with Leckie they have made something that sounds both
bolder and darker than their pastoral more ‘worldly’ debut, but still
unmistakably sounds like them.
Every track oozes mood and atmosphere, with crucially none
out-staying its welcome. Opener ‘Paper Scissors Stone’ opens with a strong
group workout, Jack Wylie’s sax clearly to the fore, and the hang drum in an
almost jazz piano rhythm role. Second track ‘The Visitor’ then ups the ante
with Wylies melismatic eastern sounding soprano, the subtle electronic effects
(all live) and manipulations melding with the saxophone as it lays down a
hypnotic and repetitive figure. ‘Dawn Patrol’ changes focus with Milo
Fitzpatricks robust bass leading a two-minute ‘walk-in’, with only some drums
for support. Driving and pushing everything forward, even when the usual leads
of hang and saxophone enter the fray, the bass stays well to the fore.
Ever so slightly reminiscent of Michael Nyman, the
arguable centrepiece of the album comes in ‘Line’. Beginning with Nick Mulveys
hang rhythm line, sounding both hypnotic and fragile, Duncan Bellamys drums
come skipping in and out of the mix throughout, the two combining and occasionally
delicately crescendoing, before returning to a quieter groove. The bass
sometimes strolls in and out, and the eastern saxophone offers long and slow
rides over the top of the continual and hypnotising hang drum. Where perhaps
‘Steps In The Wrong Direction’ came to be the favourite and centre of ‘Knee
Deep In The North Sea’, ‘Line’ also occupies the same space and will easily
come to be a new live highlight. Indeed it already was when we had the chance
to see them play it in during their 2009 tour.
‘Life Mask (Interlude)’ offers a gentle piano,
subtlely leading into ‘Clipper’, a maelstrom of sound with all of the band on
fire, before ‘Life Mask’ returns as a full track - opening with a synth drone,
snatches of sax and bowed bass float along the top, before a mournful and
gently melodic glockenspiel comes in from Bellamy. Featuring a strong solo from
Wylie, it’s also a superb Portico-style ballad.
‘Isla’ heads toward the end of the album with a
swelling anthemic ensemble, before the album closes, brilliantly, with ‘Shed
Song (Improv No.1)’ – recorded appropriately in their shed. Swirling and captivating,
it is the ideal closer, and leaves you wanting, oddly, more shed recordings.
A gorgeous and haunting album, in many ways it
improves on their first. Revealing fresh nuances on every repeated listen, this
is an album that hits you and then continues to grow and grow.
****
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