Portico Quartet - Portico Quartet (Real World)

Embarking on new musical territory (and a tour, too) is a daunting thing for any type of band. But not unless you’re a jazz band, and certainly not if you’re Portico Quartet, Mercury nomination-garnering four-piece, who’ve produced their best album yet.

Taking its cues from angular electronic motifs - ‘Rubidium’ the best example - yet inherently belonging to a more traditional jazz standard (their acoustic instruments haven’t been completely abandoned), ultimately the most interesting thing about this LP is the band’s ingenious articulacy with timbres; on ‘Lacker Boo’, a natural-sounding synthesis of different instruments and pedals, all harmoniously melting into each other, is the record’s biggest treat.

Portico Quartet have managed to find that difficult middle ground between two ideals: in this case, jazz and electronica, or rather a much-loved genre taking on a more exciting guise. Thankfully, a virtuoso prowess for combining the best elements from their own ingenuity and faculty help make Portico Quartet not just a more accomplished record than the two that came before it, but a better one.