Get the Blessing: Bristopia

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Pete Judge (t)
Jim Barr (b)
Adrian Utley (g)
Clive Deamer (d)
Margerethe Bjorklund (pedal-steel g)
Jake McMurchie (s, elec)

Label:

Karte

October/2018

Catalogue Number:

GTB08CD

RecordDate:

date not stated

Even as the BBC Jazz Award for best album was handed to them in 2008, Get the Blessing felt like interlopers in a disapproving scene. A further decade on and jazz's march in from the mainstream cold will likely still leave them outsiders, their cinematic soundscapes a more outré urban vision than that of the new London scene. These veteran British modernisers have instead dug deeper into their Bristol roots. Still happy to explore the soundtracking of imaginary films which Jim Barr and Clive Deamer's old band Portishead made a cliché, doing so for an actual, experimental city archive film, Bristopolis, gave conceptual focus to this sixth album. Deamer supplies rhythms which hint at his old job with Bristol drum’n’bass don Roni Size on ‘Tuathal’, with its additional playful winks to swaggering John Barry brass amid otherwise ominous minimalism, while ‘Rule of Thumb’ becomes a crazy-paved echo chamber, stalking forward behind Barr's spy movie bass. Atmosphere combines unpredictably with groove, trumpet solos float pensively in space, and diverse melodies and emotions grip sufficiently to ensure these pioneers’ ongoing worth.

Follow us

Jazzwise Print

  • Latest print issues

From £5.83 / month

Subscribe

Jazzwise Digital Club

  • Latest digital issues
  • Digital archive since 1997
  • Download tracks from bonus compilation albums during the year
  • Reviews Database access

From £7.42 / month

Subscribe

Subscribe from only £5.83

Never miss an issue of the UK's biggest selling jazz magazine.

Subscribe

View the Current
Issue

Take a peek inside the latest issue of Jazzwise magazine.

Find out more