Portico Quartet
100 albums of 2021 you shouldn’t miss, plus playlist
In a moment a folly, I (not me and my editorial team, or my writers, or indeed anyone) decided to make a playlist of the year. Not one of those in order ones, just a playlist of good records, written by the esteemed writers here at Backseat Mafia. I don’t know what possessed me to …
Album Review: Portico Quartet – ‘Monument’
I can still remember the kerfuffle Portico Quartet sparked off at Womad 2012…Where’s the hang drum? What’s this, loops? Is this dance music? For a crowd expecting the pastoral acoustic soundscapes of their first two records, the Mercury nominated ‘Knee Deep in the North Sea’ and follow up ‘Isla’, the sweeping electronica fused with upfront …
Album review: Portico Quartet – ‘Terrain’: a truly reflective journey
PORTICO QUARTET have always been a vibe. Since their formation, in my opinion they’re one of the few instrumental jazz-psyechedelic-electronic bands to live up to that musical blend, and furthermore, they’ve always been able to tell a story. Their latest album, Terrain, actually exceeded all my expectations in that sense, delivering a much more emotionally …
Album review: GoGo Penguin – ‘GGP/RMX’: deus ex Mancunia as the jazz trio take the remixes album to new heights
THE EXCELLENT, leftfield Mancunian trio GoGo Penguin, who work out in the truly creative zones where dancefloor and intelligence and jazz bump into each other, decided they could be lifelong friends, are all set to release a really exciting remixes album, GGP/RMX, for Blue Note in May. They’ve been creating their particular forward-forging meshing of …
Track: Portico Quartet’s gliding ‘Terrain II (edit)’ unveils a three-part suite of a new album in late May
PORTICO QUARTET, whose Jack Wyllie we last encountered in these pages at the end of last summer with his exhilarating Afro-ambient project, Paradise Cinema, reconvened at their East London base during lockdown, the events that swathe us necessarily informing the new music they began to fashion. The world we all suddenly precipitated into necessitated a …
ALBUM REVIEW: Paradise Cinema – ‘Paradise Cinema’: shimmering, vivacious, percussive, Afro ambience
Paradise Cinema, the self-titled project of Portico Quartet’s Jack Wyllie, sings of new Afro-ambient futures to immerse in. It’s vivacious, swathing and haunting
Track: Portico Quartet – Endless
Portico Quartet have revealed a new track “Endless” ahead of their forthcoming album “Art in the Age of Automation”. Minimal beats and industrial soundscapes gradually peal pack to reveal a warm sensuous soundscape. The blend of live instrumentation and electronics combined with the industrial theme harks back to electronica pioneers such as Basil Kirchin, but …