Our very own Brighton Festival has a long standing hidden gem. The Lunchtime Concert series. It's been going for longer than I can remember but receives little fanfare despite it's invariably outstanding programme of jazz, classical, world and experimental music. It's where I first saw the Manchester based GoGo Penguin, in 2014, their first ever visit to Brighton. Admitting they were completely surprised at the sold out signs outside, the band put in a beautiful performance of jazz flavoured instrumental grooves that had me totally enraptured.

Forward to the autumn of that year, and it came as little surprise to me that they were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, for their V2.0 album, released on Matthew Hallsall’s Gondwana Records label. Unsurprisingly they didn't win (since when did a jazz flavoured outfit actually win?), but the fact they were nominated did them no end of good. Last year they played another stunning set, to a packed tent, at Love Supreme, and now they've got a new album, Man Made Object, another intoxicating journey into instrumental jazz, built in mind with the rhythmic grooves of trip hop, and electronica and classical influences in the mix. Moreover, it’s been released on the legendary Blue Note label…

“The title is partly inspired by my fascination with ideas of robotics, transhumanism and human augmentation,” says pianist Chris Illingworth. “We’re recreating electronic music on acoustic instruments. It’s like a man-made object that has become humanised.” Their music has been called acoustic electronic, although in fact there are next to no electronics within their music. But the key to their sound is that the music is sometimes founded on electronic music. Drummer Rob Turner will sometimes make the basis of a song via sequencing software and then the band will try and relocate and/or build on that acoustically. Hence the electronic feel of some, but not all, their music, the rest made up of good old jamming.

Man Made Object opens with the rising and falling classical piano sequence of All Res, a track inspired by the image of sunlight streaming through the clouds, before bowed and then normal double bass and percussive drums inch their way in to provide the backbone, while Illingworth slowly unravels his piano playing; unfussy, usually with a lightness of touch, with occasional dramatic outbursts of flair. This is followed by a couple of seemingly 'sequenced' tracks, firstly the glitchy sounding Unspeakable World – one of those GoGo tracks where the threesome seem to be playing as highly expressive individuals, but gelling all the same – and then the Four Tet inspired Branches Break, a more minimalist and gentler sound altogether, but beautifully spacious and enveloping, like much of their music. They can be utterly hypnotising at times, rarely less than engrossing.

As this is purely instrumental music, it can be impossible to know what the music is about, if indeed it is about anything at all, without help. As in the great classical pieces, it's about conjuring and evoking a mood, an atmosphere, almost totally open to interpretation in the 'era' of the listener. But, GoGo have helped a little in describing the impetuses behind certain tracks. So, for instance, Weird Cat is based around a recording that Rob made of a stray cat wailing one night (“it was a really great melody that this cat came up with,” he says. “It sounded like a Burial track."), while the delicate Initiate is apparently inspired by electronic innovator Amon Tobin. Both the soothingly melodic grooves of Quiet Mind and the slightly more minimalist Surrender To Mountain take their inspiration from I Am That, a book of conversations with the Hindu mystic Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Smarra is inspired by the Hindu idea of sleep demons, and features sometimes tremendously inventive and urgent drum'n'bass meets jazz drumming, in line with a rumbling bass, but a neat counterpoint to the gentle piano melody. One of the highlights of the album, the song eventually succumbs to transmission and distorted noise, then a deeply echoing sound that morphs into a distant piano, created by Illingworth dampening his piano strings with kitchen rolls. It's mesmerising stuff. As is the killer final track, Protest, a rampant groove fest of deep bass, big chords and a hi-hat driven beat. The sort of music that Ninja Tune would have released in their dope beats heyday. It interestingly includes (although not knowing this would not in any way deflect from the skill of soul of the music) a sound where Blacka and Turner have recreated a Roland 808 style beat fused into a siren that Illingworth had programmed into a drum machine in his iPhone…

Mixing exuberance, with 'swing' and plenty of energy within the grooves and melodies, GoGo Penguin also have this knack of making their music sweetly compelling and uplifting despite the experimental and improvisational nature of their music You could dance and/or nod to this. But you could also stroke your chin, and wonder at the beauty of it.

Jeff Hemmings

Website: gogopenguin.co.uk
Facebook: facebook.com/Gogopenguin
Twitter: twitter.com/GoGo_Penguin