Why do I enjoy listening to the Portico Quartet?

It’s a strange thing when a sound comes along which realizes a personal musical ideal which you weren’t even aware of. Toumani Diabate; Cinematic Orchestra; Radiohead; Steve Reich; a love of classic and contemporary European jazz; an irresistibly intuitive sense of melody: The Portico Quartet. I think I’ve just found my new favourite band. Great.

Then a week goes by.

Then on the third listen on an aimless Saturday afternoon, you’re gazing out the window and you start to worry...

“Wait a second. Maybe this isn’t that great. Mercury music prize nominee and Timeout magazine’s ‘World, Jazz and Folk album of 2008' might just be nothing more than middle class musical wallpaper. It’s very pleasant, the music makes friends quickly, but do I really want these hooks gouging into my ears for much longer? Maybe this is another case of the ECM syndrome: music that gets so preoccupied with its own aesthetic that you begin to question what musical content is actually there. I don’t know...every major newspaper and music magazine in the country is having a womad orgasm over these ‘post-jazzers’. Mmm. But. There's. Just. Something. I’m. Not. Quite...sure about.”

It was reassuring to hear the same uncertainty from friends. How much mileage is there in the music? Is it starting to get boring?

It's definitely been on my mind for a while, but I think I’ve worked out where the crisis of judgement comes from with the PQ. Things start to unravel when you try describing what it is. There isn’t really a genre to stick it in.

“Post-jazz -ambient-minimalist-groove?

Errrr.

World music? Oh fuck that...”

Nothing that any of the guys are doing is particularly unique in itself and can be broken down analytically without too much thought. The musicianship is certainly impressive, but that is not what breathes life into their music. I think the thing that makes their music dynamic is the sense of the creative process. In a word: busking.

Life for the Portico Quartet started with busking. Anyone who has ever tried busking, particularly in cold weather, knows that you’ve got to be pretty keen to do it. You need to find a groove which you’re happy in and can sustain for a good while. But above all, you need to be pretty good friends with the people you’re doing it with to want to carry on doing it. The Portico Quartet spent months and months travelling all over Europe. Performing together kept the trip going, and in doing so you can imagine how close they must be by now as friends. For me, the joy of their music is that you can actually hear this in the music. Never before, at least to my ears, has the sense of enjoyment and sheer joy from humans getting together to play music been better captured than on their album. It’s funny watching interviews on YouTube, as you realise how completely ordinary they are. There’s no mystique, no unpredictable frontman, no intellectualism. In fact, a recurring theme from interviews read online is disagreement and irritation with what critics have dressed them up as. I would say their music is even anti-intellectual. The irresistible catchiness of their tunes has not come from hours of introspective rehearsals in college, but is a dynamic response to the sensual experience of regular playing in the open air, a financial imperative to interact and catch people’s ears quickly and the on-going inspirational stimulus of a constantly changing environment. For me anyway, that’s the beauty of their music.

I do have a small fear that as they inevitably become more self-aware the spark will disappear and the music will lose its power. I’m hoping they can keep a healthy distance between themselves and the unbelievable industry that the music has generated. I suppose it gives hope that the music industry can get so turned on by a group like the Portico Quartet; a group which is essentially without genre and therefore more difficult to market to the consumer. I hope the music in the next album will continue to speak for itself.