Polar Bear bring desert dub to Village Underground

In a first for the veteran post-jazz pioneers, the album was mixed by Seb Rochford and LA producer Ken Barrientos at a studio in the southern Californian wilds. The result was a more ambient, spacious sound, blending Leafcutter John’s electronic beats with Rochford’s attractively laid-back dub rhythms, a more subdued role for the spiky sax duo of Pete Wareham and Mark Lockheart, and several passages of singing – a Polar Bear first – adding warmth.

At its live launch, they played the album straight through, drawing easy comparisons with the disc. ‘Life, Love and Light’, the dramatic opening narration of life-affirming lyrics by Asar Mikael (below), owner of Jamaican cultural institution The Light Shop, was stunning. Dressed head-to-toe in white, with a bolt of spotlighting from the Village Underground’s cavernous heights, Mikael embodied the hopeful spirit of his words.

For the remaining, mainly instrumental tracks, the balance was noticeably different from the album; with the saxes more prominent live, burying Rochford’s beautifully textured percussion in their twining, shiny brass sounds. ‘Of Hi Lands’, which on the recording is a mesmeric weave of Leafcutter John and Seb Rochford, was a noisier, less subtle experience live, though the end of ‘First Steps’, fading to white noise, had a lovely, chilly Arctic feel.    

‘Don’t Let the Feeling Go’ includes a chorus of Rochford, Hannah Darling and a choir of friends on the album; live, it was Wareham and Lockheart accompanying Rochford, with a sound that was more sporting than spiritual. Always a phenomenon in performance, Polar Bear staged a theatrical coup with Asar Mikael, but the rest of the album couldn’t help sounding a little bit less special than on disc.

– Matt Wright (story and photos)