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.