twenty one: Portico Quartet

So as September draws closer, so does the ominous certainty of there being a Nationwide Mercury Music Prize barfathon. I have to say it is one of those ceremonies that I love to bitch about. The judges, the presenters and the eventual winners are 9 times out of 10 complete and utter ?@!!. I will leave you without my opinions...for now. Who knows, maybe this year will prove different. They've certainly managed to pick a good "virtually unknown" artist this year.

Portico Quartet are a brilliant instrumental quartet, as their name would suggest. As seems to be the way, they are from London, and play a beautifully sombre form of music with certain instruments as mysterious as their name. The Hang, as it has been christened, is a very recent instrument only developed in 2000 in Switzerland. Think of an inverted steel pan and you'll sort of be there.
PQ's mixture of the hang, a saxophone, a double bass, a glockenspiel, a marimba and drums gives their songs a very unique sound, and as you'd probably assume this gives them aeons of room to explore their vast boundaries (if there are any...). In tracks like News From Verona the saxophone dominates the track for the majority but then it also wanes into silence in parts, letting the double bass and hang strengthen, later returning to build the track up to a climax.
Their album Knee Deep In The North Sea is worth its weight and more in gold and is a beacon for the more contemporary side of Jazz, it certainly is a sad thing when any genre of music is thought of as a guilty pleasure.
Another strong song on the album is Monsoon: Top To Bottom. It begins delicately as if describing leaves falling in autumn and then snaps back into a hand clapping, squeaky speeder. It also gets you wondering if the sax player (Jack Wyllie) could possibly play with any more agility without hurting himself.
My definite favourite on the record Cittagazze reaches weaving and writhing highs and then slams down on the pedal, powering forward into a rich and vibrant atmosphere of vitality that really separates these boys from the rabble.
Only time will tell if those judges will be able to see past their hard-ons for Radiohead and recognise Portico Quartet's undeniable genius. They really are something else and everything inbetween.
Listen to News From Verona here.