Bar Academy, 16 Parkfield St, in the NI Centre, N1 0PS
By Eddy Lawrence
Posted: Mon Sep 24 2007
Experimental music has a bit of a bad name among ordinary music fans. This might have something to do with what a lot of it sounds like – a Guantanamo Bay torture tape. But just because a music is trying something different doesn’t have to mean it must also sound off-puttingly exclusive. Portico Quartet are a band who prove this with aplomb.
Although Portico Quartet sound like nothing you’ve ever heard (certainly in the case of one of their instruments), they’re also melodic, emotive, and most importantly of all, highly danceable. They blend elements of jazz, minimalist classical and hip hop rhythms in a way which you can easily see bounding over genre boundaries, drawing in the Gilles Peterson crowd along with IDM types and the more traditional jazz fans.
They’re already causing a stir on the Vortex scene – so much so that they’re the first signings to The Vortex’s own record label, which is about as ringing an endorsement as you can get from the capital’s premier leftfield jazz institution.
PQ also utilise a new instrument, if you can imagine such a thing, known as a hang. It’s a kind of inverted steel drum with gamelan influences, which makes a sound which has been described, very aptly, as ‘organic techno’. Obviously, that also sounds like the most horrifying genre in the world, but in PQ’s capable hands, it’s merely a powerful element in a holistic musical whole. And thanks to our spectacular generosity, you can hear it live for free! To be fair, this isn’t the first opportunity you’ve had to catch the band for free – they honed their skills busking outside the NFT ‘back in the day’ (as they say in minimalist classico-jazz-hop circles). Still, live dance bands are a rarity these days, so dust off your dancing shoes (or other comfortable footwear, it’s not like there’s a dress code).
