Polar Bear
Wednesday 15th April 2015
Leafcutter John + D/J (DJ)
At
Doors 7:30 pm
Price £15 / £17
2014 Mercury-nominated Polar Bear, return to Brighton with their experimental jazz, loads of left-field electronica and mutant rocked-up funkified grooves; spicing up the mix with freely improvised magic.
Since their debut album ‘Dim Lit’ in 2004 and being nominated for the ‘Best band’ award at the BBC Jazz Award in 2004, Polar Bear have gone on to huge success, having been nominated for several Mercury Music Prizes, including a 2014 nomination for their album In Each and Everyone, and gaining continuous critical acclaim.
Their second record, Held on the Tips of Fingers merged elements of cool jazz, funk, dance music, free jazz, electronica and drum and bass and was, by comparison, a massive crossover hit. The success was all the more unusual for an almost purely instrumental album. The album was nominated for a BBC Jazz Award 2006. It was selected as one of “100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World” by Jazzwise magazine.
Polar Bear members are a stellar line-up, featuring saxophonists Pete Wareham (Melt Yourself Down, Acoustic Ladyland) and Mark Lockheart (Loose Tubes, APPJAG’s Musician Of The Year in 2010), Tom Herbert (The Invisible) on bass, as well as electronics wizard/guitarist Leafcutter John.
“Delightful rhythm games… Rochford’s creative mix makes the album seem like an integrated, large-scale work, and the overall effect is eerily beautiful”
5/5 The Guardian
“One of the great brilliant jazz bands of our time… Totally redefines the way we think about jazz” – Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2
Support comes from Leafcutter John:
Leafcutter John is the recording name of John Burton, a UK-based musician and artist. He makes frequent use of Max/MSP in his compositions. Much of Burton’s style is based in computer music and use of samples of everyday sounds. However, he also has roots as a folk musician, and this influence is apparent in his more recent work.
DJ set by D/J
D/J DJ is James Vella and Daniel Neal from yndi halda. James also works for FatCat Records and releases solo records as A Lily. Daniel programs music software and is an accomplished violin player. D/J DJ is the only yndi halda side project that doesn’t compose original music.