PORTICO QUARTET — Knee-Deep in the North Sea (review)

PORTICO QUARTET — Knee-Deep in the North Sea album cover Album · 2007 · Nu Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
snobb
One-and-half decades after the album's original release, it is easy to say that "Knee-Deep In The North Sea" is one among genre-defining albums of English nu-jazz in the first decade of the new Millennium. Young quartet's debut album combines airiness and lightness of the genre's classic Nordic nu jazz from late 90s, adding more tunes and some meat to songs, making them sounding more British. More important - even on the English burgeoning nu jazz scene of the time, Portico Quartet were a stand-alone figure, mostly because of their use of "hangs"(or Caribbean-style tin-pans) and their music strongly influenced by renown minimalists.

Fate would have me hear Portico before the release of their debut, just a warm sunny day playing right in the Downtown square. It's catchy melodies and characteristic tin-pan sound was what attracted a lot of people to stay near and listen to their music with smiles on their faces. After repeated listens to their recordings, one can find that there are lot of influences from around the world, including from China to South Europe, and some free improvisation as well. Still, this debut album sounds quite accessible, and in the time of it's release was positively received much wider than only in jazz lover's circles. The 2011 reissue added three live tracks and offered a remixed sound.

A decade later, specific Portico early music's sound influenced all of the new generation of electronic sound adopted by nu jazzers, with their love for repetitive minimalist songs. Portico themselves, after a few releases in a similar style switched towards a more electronic sound with only partial success and nowadays still trying to find a new ground working as "two-members quartet". Their debut album however most probably will stay in history as one of most influential English early nu jazz releases.
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