Monocled Man - We Drift Waterloo

Rory Simmons

Monocled Man
Rory Simmons​ ​- trumpet​, f​lugelhorn​, ​keyboards​, ​guita​r, ​electronics
Chris Montague​ ​- guitar
Jon Scott​ ​- drums​, ​electronics
Emilia Mårtensson​ ​- vocals
Ed Begley​ ​- vocals

Date - 27th October 2016
Venue - Jazz Nursery, Waterloo, London, UK
Current Album - We Drift Meridian (Whirlwind Recordings, 2016)

Jon Scott

The minute islands and atolls amidst the vastness of our world’s oceans provide intriguing inspiration for Monocled Man’s second album, We Drift Meridian – a concept devised by trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist and composer Rory Simmons. With established colleagues Chris Montague (electric guitar) and Jon Scott (drums/electronics), plus vocal contributions from Emilia Mårtensson and Ed Begley, Simmons layers-up haunting electronic and acoustic soundscapes which reflect the remoteness and sometimes curious histories and characters associated with these far-flung, isolated spaces.

Chris Montague

Monocled Man’s cinematic beds of sound, carefully crafted with modular synths, sequencers and chopped audio, are all fashioned into an expansive framework which provides a springboard for individual artistry. Chris Montague’s characteristically oblique guitar style and Jon Scott’s hard-hitting, sparky drumming – both of which are unwaveringly inventive – join with Simmons’ plaintive trumpet in generating these appropriately drifting, searching panoramas.

Ed Begley

'Tromelin' (a small, uninhabited sandbank island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, with a history of shipwrecks and abandoned slaves) is depicted by electronic call signs, dramatic percussion and forlorn trumpet riffs, whilst 'Deception Island' bubbles with electronic vigor and Ed Begley’s punky vocals.

Emilia Mårtensson

One of the most eery island tales – interpreted in both Scott Moorman Adrift and Fiction Afloat – recalls when a 17ft whaler, with a crew of five, went missing off Hawaii. Several years later, a small, Hawaii-registered boat was discovered on atoll Taongi, 2,000 miles away… and a shallow grave alongide revealed a human jawbone which was matched to crew member Scott Moorman’s dental records. Such bizarre, aching hopelessness is represented by chiming repetition, seabird-calling trumpet and, later, Mårtensson’s and Begley’s intertwined vocals which speak of history becoming immortalised in stories.

AL.

Munk Montague - Jazz Nursery

Alex Munk

Munk Montague/Montague Munk
Alex Munk - guitar
Chris Montague - guitar
Calum Gourlay - bass
Tim Giles - drums

Date - 27th October 2016
Venue - Jazz Nursery, Waterloo, London, UK

Calum Gourlay

One of London’s most eccentric music venues, Jazz Nursery opens its doors on the final Thursday of each month and is currently resident at i’klectik arts lab, Waterloo.  The night showcases cutting edge talent, creating a stage for the best up and coming bands in London. Constantly reinterpreting jazz and improvised music, our artists play new material, try things out and bring their sound to a wider audience.
Entrance is £10, there’s a good value bar all night and two great bands over the course of the evening.

Chris Montague

Chris Montague is one of the most innovative guitarists and musicians to emerge from the UK in recent years, he is widely recognised for his skills as a composer and performer. As a founder member of Troyka he has garnered a reputation for his distinctive approach to the guitar and has gained much acclaim for his contributions to many contemporary recordings.

Having established himself as one of the capital’s most in demand guitarists, Alex Munk formed the group Flying Machines in 2014. Centred around Alex’s unique compositions, the band have established a sound that is entirely their own, fusing emotive melodies with visceral, rock out guitar improv and luscious backdrops. The musical influences are numerous, from the frenzied rhythms of Tigran Hamasyan to pearly pools of sound reminiscent of Bill Frisell.

Commodore 64 worm chasing itself, the pixels vibrate and jump. Colours rub against one another, static charged. Burgundy and red are the guitars of Munk and Montague, clashing sap-green and lime. Giles has a straight line speed that jags across the Jazz Nursery, he is a flickering etch-a-sketch.

Tim Giles

Bill Frisell's Strange Meeting lies a damp white towel across my face, I am Ronnie O'Sullivan, melancholy and forlorn. They adore me but I hate them, I need them but they don't care about me. They will never know what it is to be me, and I'll never know what it is to be them. Huxley says I will never know what it is to be Sir John Falstaff or Joe Louis.

The mystery train stops in this town of sun blanched store fronts, if ever a tune needed a solitary figure to populate it then it is this one. Just the one to talk of loneliness, otherwise it would a conversation about emptiness, which is a far easier thing.

AL.

Troyka - Transient lists

Joshua Blackmore - drums

Troyka launched their 3rd album, Ornithophobia, on Naim Records last Thursday (12/02/15) at Rich Mix in London. It was a night like no other. For good or bad it was a night you couldn't keep pace with. It was not a festival of speed nor one for showboating either. This description is about as useless as we sometimes felt in the audience. Troyka cannot be contained within the usual paragraphs.

Troyka were ambitious.
Troyka were adventurous.
Troyka's music is as slippery as an eel.

Troyka were sometimes like the static energy that won't leave you.
Troyka were sometimes soft and sometimes abrasive. This made you alternate between feeling close-to and far away.
Troyka like changing pace, sometimes many times in a short space of time.

The ripping supremacy of Troyka made you admire them with a cinematic glow.
The tune 'Tax Return' was broken into hundreds of shards. It tightened and unwound like a volatile clock.
When Troyka were slow you imagined you were Orson Welles in The Third Man.

Kit Downes - Keys

Kit Downes bends in the middle.
Kit Downes can transform himself onstage.
Kit Downes makes his keyboard sound like it is hyperventilating, like it was gulping mash potato, sucking it up through a straw.

Chris Montague

Chris Montague had the ability to crush us with his guitar.
Chris Montague squeezed us emotionally, spread us thin.
Chris Montague's music and sound was Hope itself.

Joshua Blackmore was always at the centre.
Joshua Blackmore rattles the panes that stand between audience and performer.
Joshua Blackmore is the hardest member of Troyka to keep up with.

Petter Eldh

Petter Eldh produced and mixed Ornithophobia.
Petter Eldh joined Troyka onstage.
Petter Eldh's music has a beastlike resonance.

Life is Transient is on the album and was played at Rich Mix.
Life is Transient feels like a fairground ride in the hands of Kit Downes.
Life is Transient is hopeful.

For a moment none of us were transient,
we were listening to Troyka.

But in truth, life is transient, and so are we.

AL.