Bristopia - Get The Blessing (2018)
A Bristol-based group of jam-band-style ramshackle jazz. Hailing from the home of trip hop (and featuring a couple of members who played in Portishead’s road band) has left a slightly bassy, dubby stamp on the band, but the music stays otherwise pretty close to the jazz side of things.
I enjoyed the gigantic space the basslines occupy thanks to the enhanced harmonics and wide open low end. The brass… I don’t play a horn or a reed and couldn’t possibly, but there are tones I find pleasant (Paul Desmond, but who doesn’t love Paul Desmond?), tones I appreciate for what they are (Coltrane and Charlie Parker had too much going on to worry about the occasional honk), and then tones that sort of make my skin crawl (Jackie Mclean, I know people love you but you just sound like a car horn to me). These guys are perhaps a bit heavy on the nails-on-a-chalkboard end of that spectrum for me, although they alternate that abrasiveness with more pleasant stuff enough to keep me listening.
