Portico Quartet - Time To Move On

Dominated less by the sound of the hang, the instrument the band has become closely identified with, and moving instead into a more electronics-based path, there’s also an important change in personnel with new member Keir Vine replacing Nick Mulvey. Daniel Spicer rings the changes.

Real World Studios, near Box in verdant, sleepy Wiltshire, is a cosy idyll. Swans glide gracefully on calm, glassy waters. Grass-roofed domes meld seamlessly into manicured lawns. Spend any time there, and you might start thinking you’ve been transported to Teletubbyland. It’s not exactly where you’d expect to encounter thrusting young musical radicals. But that’s where I caught up with Portico Quartet in September, while they were in the process of mixing their eponymously titled third album, due out on January.

For sure, it seems a little incongruous encountering these four louche twentysomethings, with their fashionably ungroomed hairstyles, saggy jeans and flip-flops, slouching around in this pristine, tranquil setting. It’s certainly a long way from grubby old London, where the new album was recorded during two weeks in August – the very same month the capital was ravaged by the blind, destructive frustration of rioting youth.