Portico Quartet – Isla

Jazz isn’t a genre that features heavily in these pages, so the question that arises when reviewing the new Portico Quartet album is this: does it have crossover appeal? Isla – the London outfit’s follow-up to their Mercury-nominated debut LP Knee Deep in the North Sea – does, though not in the cheap, populist sense (Jamie Cullum I’m looking at you.) No, this retains its musical integrity but reaches beyond jazz to skirt the outer shores of ambient electronica and modern classical; even the sort of harmonic arpeggios used by Radiohead of late (especially on Clipper, which is more than a little reminiscent of Yorke et al’s Reckoner). But despite the fact that John Leckie at Abbey Road produced it, this is jazz first and foremost, and there are segments of wild improv sure to turn off fearful jazzophobes. For less sensitive ears, though, this is a rich, rewarding, thought-provoking listen.