For whatever the reasons at play, the UK has a bristling jazz scene that’s rife with all sorts of amazing bands. The nu-jazz corner seems to be specifically prolific and forward thinking, embracing the limitless medium of electronic sounds. Portico Quartet are no strangers to experimentation, basically looking in a new direction over the course of each album. I had basically only praise to sing to their 2019 release, Memory Streams. It was a spectacularly smooth and free flowing collection of sounds which I catch myself revisiting fairly often. Having been a fan of the band for several years now, of course that I was very much looking forward to the band’s next record. I wasn’t particularly drawn in any way to the EPs we saw in the interim, Terrain and We Welcome Tomorrow. It just didn’t seem like things were going anywhere. It became obvious upon first contact with Monument that they sort of act like a bridge between Memory Streams and Monument.
Monument, for all intents and purposes, picks up from where Memory Streams left, although leaning further and deeper into more atmospheric areas. Where the backbone of the tunes felt like it was firmly grounded in hypnotic grooves on Memory Streams, on Monument things tend to revolve more and more around slowly evolving textures. I don’t hold this as a critique or anything of the sorts, it’s simply how it feels to me and I’m cool with it. Both sides are equally entertaining in the way they are put together. I would note that the catchy hook of the tunes is intact.
Something I realized only several listens into the record was its meditative side. The way its flow plays around the slowly evolving textures (or vice versa) manages to craft a mood which is highly conductive for a meditative state of mind. This is also catalyzed by the somewhat neutral tonal palette employed, for the lack of a better phrasing. The tones are soft and wavering, never really hinting towards something shimmering nor dark through the harmonic content and/or the rhythmic backbone. I guess it all really boils down to how the process of meditation goes, it just is. I think this point ties very neatly with how the fourth track feels and how oddly appropriately it is titled “Ever Present”.
After several other listens the idea that the album was meant as a meditation device only intensifies. This is further backed by how I can’t really detect any narrative thread so to speak. It does flow very well and the action is always engaging even when its pulses are shifting, but everything balances/evens out somehow, one way or another. There also doesn’t ever seem to be a starting point or an ending point, things pretty much just go. Hence the narrative thread remark. There’s no actual story told, but rather, I feel that we get to tell our story via this device. A conclusion which leads me to how exactly does it make sense that the record is titled Monument. It’s not a monument of virtuosic musical expression, nor is it one of sound design, but rather a kind of edifice which amplifies our explorations and through our personal lenses we reach our inner monument of clarity.
If this all sounds oddly philosophical and maybe even spiritually inclined, it’s because it seems to be pretty much this way. Obviously though, that’s more or less just me and regardless of that, you should definitely give Monument a spin, as it’s a very neat album.
