Jane Cornwell25 August 2017
Manchester’s Portico Quartet have been AWOL for a while, and the break has done them good. This fourth studio album sees them embellishing their signature sound.
It’s a glorious collage: the stuttering breakbeats and loose percussive grooves on opener Endless, the sparse techno workouts and floating sax lines on Current History, and the addition of full horns and a string section on the layered, down-tempo title track see the band playing with innovative textures and techniques.
Telling organic instrumentation from digital trickery isn’t easy, which is part of the album’s immense charm. Portico Quartet play the Scala, N1, on October 19.
