Breach, Festival Pavilion, Saturday 21st July 2012.
I've been a fan of the Scottish guitarist Graeme Stephen since his appearance at the MJF a good few years ago now, so I was keen to hear what Breach were all about. There was a suite of interesting sounds in here, ranging from electronica, rock and folk, all delivered with a distinct jazz nous. Stephen went for a looping angular motif on 'Roon Toon', then layering over some long echoed twangy textures that reminded me of the best of Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. He then picked up speed with some fretful fast improvising that made for really exciting listening. The live electronica style drumming from Chris Wallace worked really well on this too, ensuring the track didn't stray too far into retro territory.
'The City From The Window' opened with more of Stephen's trademark echoed psychedelic tones, these following through into a raw and, to this blogger's delight, ring modulated guitar improvisation. Paul Harrison laid some rich reverbed long swirling Hammond organ chords below in support. Both restful and restlessly evocative stuff this was, veering in the direction of classic prog rock, but with a 5/4 time signature sequence coming in to keep things on the jazz end of the scale. Announced as an 'Aberdonian Macedonian folk song', the final track topped a fabulous afternoon set off with a cooking swing groover, both Wallace and Harrison getting in fine punchy solos. I bought the CD, so I guess that says it all.
No comments:
Post a Comment