Portico Quartet: 23/11/2009, The Kazimier, Liverpool.

Check out the endless procession of 2009 Best-Of lists and you may struggle to find an entry from the Portico Quartet (and several other worthy records). It’s that generic blind-spot, that ‘what box can you drop this one into’ syndrome. At worst, it may be the ‘which advertiser do we really not want to upset, or please’ scenario or the over-bloated ‘it’s number one because we put it there’ and the ’safe-as-houses’ mediocrity of it all. For us it’s so easy: drop in into the one and only  ’great music’ box. And that’s precisely what we will do, at a point when the music chain dries up in ‘09, so that any great record is given its just reward (and isn’t conveniently slotted into 2010’s list, or forgotten altogether…). For us, listening to the record is where our coverage always starts and ends; if it’s great, we’ll desperately try to cover those responsible in a live performance scenario. And so it was with Portico Quartet who we have also played on our radio shows.

I set out having established the whereabouts of The Kazimier and arrived at the rather dull little Wolstenholme Square, along with a couple of other fans of the group. We started looking for the place but couldn’t find it, which was kinda strange because there was so little there. It took us about 15 minutes to discover that it was right next to Cream, with a tiny letter K next to the door. Well, we know now and happily because The Kazimier is a little gem of a place, made for great music, especially of the non-mainstream kind. It’s also a hyper-friendly place where people and place are formulated to make one feel at home, and enjoy…

This gig is part of the group’s national Isla (album) tour which finishes in Nottingham tonight (24 November). After tonight’s show I know Nottingham has a real and memorable treat in store. But here in Liverpool there are a couple of adventurous support acts who were a bit coy in revealing their names… First ‘Journey To The Moon’ (which I’m now pretty sure is the name of the presentation and not the two people involved). Performing in front of a video screen on keyboards and drums the players improvised music to an amusing, ancient monochrome film, as they watched it. The last time I saw this done was by Boxhead Ensemble around 6 years ago, and I loved it. Tonight’s show was of course much smaller but this modern-day version of the movie organist impressed for all of its fifteen minutes duration.

Then ‘Ex-Easter Island Head’, a duo who set about preparing for the set by meticulously assembling an elevated horizontal jigsaw of three Fenders, while we all wondered about what was coming next… I noticed that on each of the guitars were taped patters resembling that of a landing pad on a hospital roof. And in actuality, that’s precisely what they were. For the next fifteen minute the duo hammered those ‘landing pads’ with soft-ended drumsticks to produce an interesting (rather than spectacular) percussive display. Not bad, not great.

Finally at 10pm, the act we had all been waiting for. By the time Portico mounted the small stage the club had pretty well filled with around 150 punters who stood and sat on the club’s sunken floor, stairs and galleries. As a photographer, my only criticism at this point was that only Nick Mulvey on Hang drums was properly lit, while Jack Wylie (sax), Milo Fitzpatrick (double bass) and Duncan Bellamy (drums) languished in the dim, dark shade. As the band opened with ‘Dawn Patrol’ is also became apparent that the club has a fine acoustic quality which must have been a prime reason for selecting the venue to play. The combination of the club’s intimacy and acoustic helped create one of my performance highlights of 2009…

Before I talk about the performance, I’d like to mention the nature of the audience which was one of the most mixed I have ever seen. It covered an age range of around 18-65 years, with about 75% made up of 20-30’s. I really didn’t know what to expect but it was gratifying to see the group attract such a wide range of ages, and a real plus for the musicians in their current and future career.

And so to the performance, which I can summarise as both dazzling and compelling. ‘Dawn Patrol’ opened the set with an early example of how important Hang drums are in creating the group’s sound. Their relentless journey was accompanied dominantly by the double bass with sax eventually entering the fray, together with the frenetic rush of drums and percussion. It was glorious, spine-tingling stuff, and especially during the passage where Wylie on sax let rip with a lyrically blinding display. I then understood why the group had chosen to open the set with this song rather than the album’s opener ‘Paper Scissors Stone.’

Then came the title track ‘Isla’, a glacially-paced, contemplative piece with Mulvey and Wylie dominating the opening passages - beautifully. It is unfair to highlight a single musician in this stunning group, but Wylie’s work was deeply moving, and in my view more pivotal than than Mulvey’s Hang. The song subtly builds its momentum throughout before wonderfully fading away. ‘The Visitor’ followed, a darker and more threatening piece with Mulvey and Fitzpatrick setting the tone. It’s arguably the most ‘jazzy’ piece here that reminds me of Miles Davis at his contemporary best. There’s also a distinct Eastern vibe that develops as the song progresses with the Hang contributing in no uncertain terms to the track’s vibe and mysticism.