Leckie's track record as a catalyst for emerging talent is legendary: not only for the famous examples, Stone Roses, Doves, XTC, Radiohead, but also for pioneering systems orchestra Lost Jockey (which spawned Man Jumping, ZTT's Andrew Poppy, Orlando Gough, and soundtrack supremo John Lunn) and World Music stars such as Rodrigo & Gabriela and Papa Wemba.
There's no way to talk about the Portico Quartet without first talking about the hang drum. A UFO-shaped oddity that looks like two welded-together woks after a couple of well-placed whacks with a ball-peen hammer, its percolating, chiming pulse provides an exotic focal point to the unique saxophone, bass and drum instrumentals by these East London twentysomethings, whose 2008 debut was nominated for a Mercury Prize in the U.K.
For the follow-up, the group has teamed with producer John Leckie, who previously worked with the Stone Roses and Radiohead. And while the quartet's sound gains a new richness with a few well-placed flourishes of strings and electronics, its unclassifiable core remains intact. With Nick Mulvey's hang drums variously recalling a thumb piano, steel drums or even a vaguely electronic-feeling sonic backdrop, Portico Quartet's bewitching mix can sound like a noirish jungle cruise scored by Wayne Shorter and Steve Reich.
Rising out of an insistent bass line, the moody "Dawn Patrol" boils over into a flurry of saxophone and percussion acrobatics, while the hypnotic maze of ringing hang drums in "Line" recalls the widescreen sweep of Moby's early ambient days. Blending an almost futuristically elegant sense of atmosphere with flashes of raw, flesh-and-blood expression, Portico Quartet isn't the first to carve out such a pan-global sonic world, but it's created one that's welcoming to visit.
Paste Magazine recently revealed their 10 August Albums to check out, naming Portico Quartet's ISLA as one of them - rating it 8.6 out of 10.
"Considering their implementation of unconventional instruments like the hang (a slightly more temperate-sounding steel pan) and consistent but subtle electronic inducements, the four piece's genre-bending appeal is certainly warranted." Jennifer Ross
Press review from: Paste Magazine (USA)
If Radiohead tried to make 'proper' jazz and not the half-baked hybrid it attempts to now, it would perhaps sound somewhat like the Portico Quartet.
This is a four piece jazz band that deserve honorable mention alongside ECM's finest, a group who transcend genre boundaries and who are also stunningly talented musicians.
Hailing from Britain, the Portico Quartet aren't as obscure as you might think, their pop culture markings run deep. Nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2007 for their debut Knee Deep In the North Sea, two years later they recorded this album Isla in Abbey Road Studio 2 with none other than John Leckie (Radiohead, Stone Roses, Muse) and now have signed to Peter Gabriel's Real World Label.
But what's so astounding about this group is how truly individual and original they sound. Being so young, you would imagine the guys to be name-checking Lady Ga Ga and The XX but the group retain their beautiful, sentimental and unusual style throughout the whole album.
Think EST, Tord Gustavsen and Jan Garbarek for jazz fans and Philip Glass, Cinematic Orchestra, Steve Reich or even shades of Tortoise for others.
Brooding, urgent and unique, tracks like 'Shed Song (Improv. No 1)' and 'The Visitor' leave you feeling huanted long after you've heard them, with their screeching clarinets and detailed percussion. The hypnotic 'Dawn Patrol' equivalent to a long stretch of road that you can never get off, and 'Life Mask' is a tormented ballad that hits you from all angles.
For me the true star of this album is the innovative use of the Swiss instrument the 'hang drum' which gives a subtle melodic wash over each and every track.
This is certainly no chill out album or jazz album for that matter, they defy categorization, Isla deserves open ears and a leap of faith, listen to this album, it's brilliant!
Press review from: Electronic Beats (Germany)
Portico Quartet - Like Jazz. But Better!
The Crack magazine describe the Portico Quartet as "A genuinely innovative proposition, with talent oozing out of every pore!"
In anticipation for their performance at The Sage, Gateshead on 13th March
Press review from: www.thecrackmagazine.com (uk)
New limited Edition Four-Track EP, Abbey Road
Those who were captivated by Portico Quartet's Isla Album will want to investigate the foursome's new limited edition four-track EP, Abbey Road.
It includes three new non-album tunes, one of which has the questionable title Su-Bo's Mental Meltdown.
Press review from: Recordcollectormag.com (UK)
A Powerful Album
...these hang-toting ex-buskers return with a powerful album that trips and disarms expectations with its hook-laden aural assault...Jazz, classical, folk, funk and avant-garde flourishes all jostle in the mix, building to a torrent-like head on 'Clipper' that glowers in impressively menacing fashion...Now sounding like a serious band hell-bent on discovering just how far they can push their own sonic envelope, their album 'Isla' packs a mighty melodic punch.
Press review from: Time Out (UK)
A Second Mercury Nomination Shouldn't Be Out of the Question
...the four-piece have made a follow up that makes their beginnings busking on the South Bank seem like a myth propagated by publicists. Receiving a nod of approval for their pigeonhole-defying venture really has emboldened them.
They've signed to Peter Gabriel's Real World imprint, brought in rock producer John Leckie (Radiohead's The Bends is among his many credits) and hit a brooding seam that sees the young band utilising fully a sound they stumbled upon last time. They're still wielding their percussive Hang - an instrument that looks like an upturned barbeque and sounds like a damped-down steel drum - but the intricate rhythms and twinkling melodies Nick Mulvey tickles from it give directions rather than drive Isla, for this is a moody territory overlaid with Jack Wylie's ghostly sax and subtle, shadowy electronics...in Portico's Balkan-infused melancholy, thrumming textures and skronking outbursts, it's a deeper, scarier world this time.
A second Mercury nomination shouldn't be out of the question.
Press review from: BBC (UK)
Proudly Unique
There is an ebb and flow to Isla and a timbral richness and warmth to Portico's sound that engulfs and woos the ears. Digested in its entirety the album reveals a coherent arch running throughout its nine tracks that aids the drama of the work. Despite Portico Quartet's reverence towards past masters and a shameless attitude to collecting new influences, Isla remains proudly unique and a totally individual work that shall in itself no doubt prove hugely influential to others in the future.
Press review from: Subba Cultcha (UK)
Can the Group Better It's Precocious Debut? Yes It Can
...Portico Quartet now releases that "difficult" second album. Can the group better its precocious debut? Yes it can. Portico has grown, as a collective entity and as individual musicians...The album is characterized by a brisk liveliness: even when a top line is slow and leisurely, as for instance in the extenuated soprano notes which state "Line," the underlying patterns played by the hangs and/or the drums and bass are frequently in double or quadruple time. Melodies are attractive and catchy. Rhythms are insistent. Improvisation is to the fore. Isla is the nuts.
Press review from: All About Jazz (UK)
Dense and Intelligent Music
Question: How do you follow up the Mercury-nominated debut album 'Knee Deep In The North Sea Answer': Simple! release your second album 'Isla' and hey bingo there's your answer!
It seems apparent there's no second album syndrome with this bunch, undaunted by critical acclaim. These bold young seem to take things well within their competent stride. Recorded at the famous Abbey Road studios and released on their new label (Peter Gabriel's) Real World. Things are on the up for these wistful melodists...This is dense and intelligent music with shimmering beauty and light.
Press review from: Blues and Soul (UK)
Like Jan Garbarek with Steve Reich
At the 2004 WOMAD festival, Duncan Bellamy and Nick Mulvey came across a Hang, a small Swiss pan drum like a flying saucer. They built a sound-world around the instrument, adding double bass, drums and saxophone to produce something like Jan Garbarek with Steve Reich. This, their second album, produced by John Leckie, adds a string quartet but leaves the template unaltered. The highlight is 'Line', which starts with shimmering Hang and takes off on a saxophone journey.
Press review from: Financial Times (UK)
Understated Melody
Having won a place on last year's Mercury shortlist with their debut album, the quirkily introspective group step up to the next test. Once again, the emphasis is on understated melody and the ethereal timbre of the trademark hang drums...Jack Wylie's saxophonic arabesques generate a ghostly ambience, and the spare use of electronica adds another layer of mist.
Press review from: Sunday Times (UK)
A Powerfully Atmospheric, Moody Masterpiece.
This follow-up to their Mercury-nominated debut was produced by John Leckie. The result is a powerfully atmospheric, moody masterpiece mixing electronics with Jack Wylie's sax and Nick Mulvey's hang, which hovers at the album's heart. The brooding "Paper Scissors Stone" sets the tone for an enthralling, warmly enveloping musical journey.
Press review from: The Independent (The Information) (UK)
Brilliant.
With 'Isla', produced by John Leckie, Portico have found their mojo: a thrumming, intensely textured and dynamic sound flowing between sax, bass, drums and hang. (Looks like a wok, sounds like a steel drum.) The subtle electronic shadowing and beefed-up bass recall EST, while the lead track traces a Balkan/Gypsy line and repetitious rhythmic measures reference Reichian minimalism without making you feel ill. All tracks are memorable and hang together like a suite. Brilliant.
Press review from: The Independent on Sunday (UK)
An Authentic Musical Force
This quartet, featuring sax, bass, drums and hang (a Swiss version of the steel drum), won friends with their Mercury-nominated debut. This follow-up, recorded with the rock producer John Leckie, is a more ambitious offering that takes their gently mesmeric sound farther. 'Paper Scissors Stone' has a new urgency, 'Clipper' hints at free jazz and 'Line' builds on the hypnotic, Steve Reich-like qualities in their music...Porticos are proving to be an authentic musical force.
Press review from: The Times (Playlist) (UK)
Strong Simple Melodies
A surprise choice on the 2008 Mercury shortlist, this south London outfit play melodic jazz on drums, double bass and saxophones, but their USP is an odd Swiss invention called the hang.
This tuned metal drum can sound like an electric piano, a Caribbean steel pan or an Indonesian gamelan, and it gives Portico's music an otherworldly quality.
Album No.2 sees them at Abbey Road with producer John Leckie, who steers Portico into pan-global territory: on Clipper and The Visitor, hypnotic rhythm tracks accompany ecstatic sax solos, while the chimes on Dawn Patrol resemble Pharaoh Saunders's Afro-jazz.
Crucially, Portico haven't abandoned the strong, simple melodies that have lifted them from the jazz ghetto.
Press review from: Metro (UK)
A Distinctive Sound
The ubiquitous use of the hang, a sophisticated modern take on the old-fashioned steel pan, gives a distinctive sound to this east London quartet. It's a surprisingly versatile instrument from which Nick Mulvey and Duncan Bellamy coax melodic and rhythmic patterns to complement Jack Wylie's inventive sax riffing. Elements of Terry Riley and Philip Glass mingle with the Coltrane and Miles influences - while tracks like 'Paper Scissors Stone' and 'Life Mask' shimmer with the kind of tunes and hooks seldom associated with the modern jazz idiom.
Press review from: Uncut (UK)
Mesmerising
With a Mercury nomination behind them for their debut Knee Deep In The North Sea, they recorded their follow-up, Isla, at Abbey Road with John Leckie, a man who has nurtured The Stone Roses and Radiohead.
Rock'n'roll credentials to die for, in other words. But while there's drum and bass aplenty to be found here, it's hypnotic, sultry and mesmerising in a way no guitar band could ever dream of being.
Throughout Isla's nine tracks, the quartet's unique selling point - the echoing steel percussion instrument known as a hang - is foremost in the mix, providing gentle repetitive beats to lull its blissed out listeners into a sense of warm, velvety security.
Press review from: Music OMH (UK)
Sophisticated
Sophisticated composing mixed with wonderful atmospherics and beautifully judged improvised departures abound on the second album from the London jazz collective. Full marks to star rock producer John Leckie (Stone Roses/The Fall) for bringing all aspects of the talented outfit - who served their apprenticeship busking in unusual outdoor spaces - into bloom.
Press review from: The Mirror (UK)
Rich, Rewarding and Thought-Provoking
...this retains its musical integrity but reaches beyond jazz to skirt the outer shores of ambient electronica and modern classical; even the sort of harmonic arpeggios used by Radiohead...this is a rich, rewarding, thought-provoking listen.
Press review from: The Skinny (UK)
An Absolute Joy
...this John Leckie produced album is an absolute joy to listen to...the sumptuous 'Clipper' expands on Sebastien Tellier's 'La Ritournelle'. The hang's steely presence tethers the airy trills of the wind instruments, then becomes mesmerising on the hypnotic 'Line'. 'Isla' is full of depth and detail. I'd play it to anyone.'
Press review from: Word (UK)
Genuinely Innovative
...when something comes along that's genuinely innovative, it can come as something as a shock. There isn't a band that sounds remotely like them...with 'Isla', their much-anticipated second album, Portico have exceeded the unreasonable expectations prompted by their impressive debut...Produced by John Leckie (Doves, Radiohead, the Stone Roses), and released on Peter Gabriel's Real World, it is more focused and better executed than 'Knee Deep in the North Sea'. You only have to listen to songs such as 'Line' or 'The Visitor' - on which Mulvey's gently pulsating chromium ostinato suggests Balinese gamelan going walkabout with a Jamaican steel drum band - to realise their music has gained much in creativity. Fitzpatrick's delicately poised bass and "less is more" ethic is the linchpin of the group's sound, contrasting with Wyllie's suave soprano sax as it unravels lines of increasing complexity. He stands out, particularly, on Paper Scissors Stone, the haunting opener which draws you slowly in, until it takes up residence in your brain...There may be only 12 notes in the well-tempered scale but people are still finding new and interesting ways of using them...
Press review from: Observer Music Monthly (UK)
Defies Categorisation
The story of the Portico Quartet is a fascinating one, not least because it describes how four talented (very) young (British) musicians have grown into one of the world's most creative instrumental groups. Debut album KNEE DEEP IN THE NORTH SEA for me remains one of the most justified nominations for the Mercury Music prize (for several years) and by rights should have won. In a great album release year so far, ISLA, if entered, could finally secure it.
ISLA almost defies categorisation in that the guys have gathered inspiration from a variety of cultures and genres (not least jazz and classical). Their use of the percussive instrument, the hang, and great skill in being able to coax lyrical 'vocal' performances from their more conventional instruments has to be heard to be believed. But perhaps the group's major achievement is to compose and perform music that vies with some of the world's greatest contemporary composers, and yet is so accessible.
Opening track 'Paper Scissors Stone' is a wonderful example. Delicately plucked double bass and wandering piano notes introduce the song in such a way that one is anxiously waiting for what comes next. And what comes next is Jack Wylie's soprano sax playing that weaves the most magical spell as it winds its way around the most subtle bass rhythm. These guys have an ear for a melody and through John Leckie's expert production (of what is effectively a live one-take recording), the reproduction of a great song and performance is stunningly good.
'The Visitor' is a darker piece with an eerie opening and again the double bass playing a major part. The piano appears to play a rhythmic role here with the hang also playing an important part in providing an Eastern influence. Towards the end the sax soars and sings, drums improvise and the Hang bubbles away in the background as a major crescendo is finally reached before the song finally, quietly fades away. 'Dawn Patrol' offers even more adventure with superb percussion, drums, double bass and screaming sax eventually giving away to tumbling piano notes. Hell, it's so difficult to pick a favourite track here but this has to be one of the contenders
Gamelan style sounds, courtesy of the hang, provide a long intro to 'Line', a song that creates an image of a pier stretching miles out into the see with seagulls soaring along it, and occasionally transversing from one side to the other. It's a relentless, almost monotone sound with flashes of hang, sax and bass creating momentary respite. This reminds me of Steve Reich's beguiling work, and is superb.
I could go on about the remaining brilliant (and often moving) songs and performances on this album - the diversity of sound and mood, etc. - but I would bore you with the endless wonder and praise I would heap on these brilliant young musicians and their producer. But, I can sum the album up as one of the most important contemporary instrumental albums emenating from these shores for very many years. It's therefore essential listening to anyone who takes their music seriously; a contemporary and accessible masterpiece; and one wonders just where and how far these guys will go
the mind boggles.
Press review from: Shakenstir (UK)
Brooding Ambience
...the follow-up to the Mercury debut has a brooding ambience...it also demonstrates, to the nay-sayers especially, the young lad's commitment to evolving and creative music-making. Bass and drums are high in the mix and hints of electronics and string overdubs have added a haunting sonic texture in places. The hang is still Portico's secret weapon though, a Swiss-made hand drum that chimes with an ethereal, as much as hypnotic, presence this time round...this highly atmospheric album stands on its on merits.
Press review from: Jazzwise (UK)
Exotic and Hypnotic
If any group demonstrates the glorious eclecticism of the modern music fan it's Portico Quartet. Based in east London, this twenty-something foursome display a knowledge of jazz, modern-classical, electronic and world music that would shame someone twice their age...The plaintive gamelan clang of the hang might still be central, but under the direction of producer John Leckie, and filtered through the venerable ambience of Abbey Road Studio Two, Isla feeds on Steve Reich mathematics, Radiohead dread, African desert grooves and ECM northern melancholy to travel into a new, chiming cavernous sound-world that is both exotic and hypnotic.
Press review from: Mojo (UK)
Has jazz running through it's veins
It's apt that Portico Quartet used to jam in club chill-out lounges, since their soothing, hypnotic music has many of the same qualities of high-grade electronica. Richer and more rewarding than their Mercury-nominated breakthrough, Isla still has jazz running through it's veins, based as it is largely around sax and double bass, but the London band have broader ambitions. The hang, an instrument vaguely akin to a steel drum, adds wisps of African flavour, and these nine instrumentals boast a melodic accessibility and cinematic scope as liable to woo Radiohead fans as patrons of Ronnie Scott's.
Press review from: Q (UK)
Kalashnik Love
Hobo
