From music conservatoire students to unlikely heroes of nu-jazz, the Manchester instrumental trio continue their remarkable journey from jazz-only clubs and festivals to a much broader-based audience. Indeed, as I write this, they are heading towards Brighton’s Concorde 2, a venue known for big indie and dance frills. Yet, their richly atmospheric music has always been more than jazz; a merging of trip-hop beats and grooves with jazz-like virtuosity, and an element of electronics in the mix. Not so much via the sound they create organically, but by virtue of the origins of some of the material; from ’sketches’ written by drummer Rob Turner on computer and then developed by the band with their traditional instrumentation.

They first came to prominence when their V2.0 album of 2014 was Mercury nominated. Now signed to the legendary Blue Note label, A Humdrum Star is their fourth album. Whilst largely adhering to the sound palette that is exclusively made up of double bass (Nick Blacka), percussion (Turner) and piano (Chris Illingworth), familiarity certainly does not breed contempt; as always with GoGo Penguin their sound is both immediate and a grower. Several listens are rewarded. Whilst focusing in on each instrument independently is rewarding in itself, the democratic nature of the threesome winning through via a succession of pieces (to use jazz terminology) that mostly emphasise the interlocking textures and grooves of the band, but also the many moments of individual expression; from the simple to the complex.

Indeed, the lead track ‘Prayer’ could be viewed as an inauspicious beginning, with the repeating one note simplicity of the piano the only sound on offer for a while. It’s an untypically short song, more of a taster really, that very slowly creeps forward via the rumbling bass sound (apparently captured by the uses of a tape measure held against the strings), but ends abruptly via what sounds like the closing of the piano lid.

However, in typical GoGo Penguin fashion, their songs often grow from these small seeds. Such as ‘Raven’, which begins with reverberated piano chords, and a lightly bowed double bass before tinkling percussion from the ever inventive Turner is the signal for the trio to turn on the turbo, the groove becoming propulsive and energising. Similarly ‘Bardo’ grows from minimally plucked bass before house-style key stabs pave the way for another propulsive groove, cascading up and down the keyboard whilst working off a central motif, the sound shifting almost imperceptibly thanks largely to Blacka’s bass, which takes on different characteristics; alternating between funky dope B-lines, and a driving rhythmic flurry.

According to Turner, ‘A Hundred Moons’ is an amalgamation of a Brian Eno vibe and a Caribbean hymn, a stark percussive tribalism leading the way, while ’Strid’ is named after a notorious section of the River Wharfe in Yorkshire. It’s eight short minutes of monster double bass, tom-heavy drums, and an unhinged piano motif that also features a middle section, prominently featuring a flatline electronic current accompanied by some meandering funk bass.

It comes together best on the stunning ‘Return to Text’, the trio alternating between individuals taking the lead, then playing off each other, then working in unison, whilst effortlessly changing pace and key as rippling piano and dexterous drumming patterns allow for the double bass to really let rip in places. Drums and bass also work in perfect harmony on ’Reactor’, this time allowing some space for Illingworth to work up a dazzling sweat on the piano.

A Humdrum Star is taken from a quote from the massively successful and hugely admired 1980 TV series Cosmos, which was presented by US astrophysicist Carl Sagan: “Who are we?” asks Sagan in that much parodied voice of that time. “We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” Insignificant we may well all be, but GoGo Penguin continue to make magical audio art that surely cannot be heard in any other corner of the universe. 

Jeff Hemmings

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