MUSIC

Portico Quartet announce Next Stop, a dynamic 4 track EP recorded at the same sessions as 2021's acclaimed Monument release. Released in November 2021, Monument was acclaimed as one of Portico Quartet's most accessible, direct records to date. Carefully crafted as an ode to better times, it pulsed with the energy of dance music and was one of the most melodic and carefully structured records the band have ever released. Next Stop is the brilliant follow-up, a pulsing powerful four-tracker that also features a wistful, elegiac side and perhaps provides a coda to Monument. Captured Time is a melodious and atmospheric tune that erupts out of layered synthesisers and strings. It's contrast between melodic simplicity and textural density is what lets it push through to an elated, ecstatic conclusion as the band draw you into an emotional journey as only they can. Next Stop is Portico Quartet at full power. Arguably the most rhythmically dense tune they have ever made. It's hypnotic groove driven by am off-kilter 7/8 drum and bass groove that ducks and dives with relentless intensity. Youth is a deceptively simple tune, nostalgic in tone, It's a paen to childhood and simpler days, with Wyllie's wistful sax melody perfectly offset by the low-slung slow-mo hip-hop beat of Bellamy drums. But is the beautiful strings that really turn this tune into something special.

Vertigo is album number 18 for Australian jazz trio, The Necks. They like to take a simple idea and allow it to develop organically through improvisation. They don’t know where they’re going when they set off but they always seem to get there. Their music is very human, it allows room for space, it’s ambiguous allowing the listener to interpret it in their own way.

In the previous work "Isted Serenade", the amplification was modest and the emphasis was on the deep acoustic sound, but in this work, his new frontier is heard with the electro sound that has been synthesized (synthesized). On the surface, that's the case, but his philosophy "isophonic" is still pierced in the core, and what is expressed through Young's unique conprovisation (composition and improvisational compound word) is "isophonic. His world that continues from "Bugiugi". Therefore, the degree of discipline of the sound is different from that of the electro guys there, and the density is able to withstand deep listening. Also, the sound pressure and facial expression of the sound was a problem until the end of completion, and his realism still living in Brooklyn is reflected in the tension of this aggressive and tingling sound.