So, you play modern (world) jazz. Your debut record gets nominated for a Mercury Prize (Knee Deep In The North Sea was eventually edged out by Elbow in 2008). How do you then go about following that up? If you are a member of Portico Quartet, you get yourself along to Abbey Road Studios, hire a top bollocks producer (John Leckie) and you lay down nine intensely moody tracks and call it Isla.
Modern Jazz… It really conjures up a variety of nasty images, doesn’t it? If it’s not Jamie Cullum and his poppy Jazz Cowboy sound it’s Fast Show-esque beard stroking and nodding along to 40 minute improv tracks and using catchphrases like “Nice, Smooth…” etc. Thankfully, in Isla, Portico Quartet have managed to capture none of the former and only some of the latter. (more…)
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Patrick Wolf
Crying The Neck
