Another purchase from last week, as someone in Oundle seems to have decided they don't like Portico Quartet any more, and given their CDs to Oxfam. I did also buy their album Isla only to discover I already had it at home.
So, it's just this live/remix double CD, imaginatively entitled Live/Remix.
The live CD opens with Window Seat, an ambient drone with a slow repetitive start, then City of Glass, a percussion and bass driven piece, which starts to liven up when the sax kicks in, but still lacks a melodic hook for the listener. And from there, it all gets a bit ordinary - Rubidium/Line is bright, a langud sax over a hang theme, but it doesn't really seem to go anywhere, Ruins is a little brighter while Clipper, 4096 Colours and Laker Boo slip by in an ambient way, easy to listen to, but leaving little behind. Steepless is a pleasant vocal number featuring Cornelia Dahlgren and the live CD ends with Dawn Patrol an interesting piece, with some frantic soloing, just staying on the right side of self-indulgence.
Unless it's some wonderfully frenzied performance where the adoring crowd adds to the spectacle, live albums are always prone to the experimentation and extension of solos losing impact away from the live setting, and this feels like a classic example. Little of the Portico Quartet's inventiveness and excitement in the more restrained setting of studio albums comes through here, which is a pity.
The Remix CD mainly consists of dance or stripped down remixes of material, mostly present on the Live CD. Listenable, but doesn't add a lot.
I couldn't find an upload of the album, but here's a live performance of Rubidium/Line
2* - Doesn't hold the attention in the way their lovely studio albums do.
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