Neil Cowley Trio
The Face of Mount Molehill
Naim Jazz
January 23rd 2012
In these times of throwaway pop strumpets and vacuous candy-coated marketing strategies dressed up as entertainment, it might come as a surprise to find that the restoration of my faith in modern British music would come from an instrumental jazz power trio. Ok, well perhaps it doesn't, but still, hear this: Neil Cowley and his Trio are the best band you've never heard of. Their new record, “The Face of Mount Molehill” is already my favourite for best album of 2012, before the year's even started and, to top it all off, you'll have the best time you've ever had at a show sitting down if you go and watch them on their forthcoming Spring tour.
Enticed yet? You should be. This is Neil Cowley Trio's fourth album, following the progressively more excellent “Displaced”, “Loud.. Louder... Stop!” and “Radio Silence”. Once described as providing “jazz for Radiohead fans” by Mojo, here the band have expanded their sonic palette beyond the trio of Cowley's piano, the effervescent double bass of Richard Sadler, and Evan Jenkins' shape-shifting drums, to include strings which shimmer and pulse throughout the record, alongside flourishes of guitar effects and soundscapes, to produce an exhilirating whole.
Without doubt this is their bsst work, drawing on all the (many) strengths of their previous output, and taking each of them to their logical extreme. It's a joyous romp through three quarters of an hour of technical brilliance, allied to a playful creativity, sense of adventure and simple, sheer joy, which is so sadly lacking as 2011 draws to a close.
One of Cowley's triumphs is the way in which, melodically and harmonically, the songs are so daring, and yet, at all times, maintain an accessability which will have you moving multiple body parts just to keep up with the competing polyrhythms, twists and turns. Neil Cowley Trio may be the only bombastic jazz trio whose songs you'll hum in the shower. Shower jazz. Perhaps a new genre is born.
Usually, reviews are peppered with comments on particlar songs, outlining which are the best three or four perhaps, giving the impression that the other songs don't really offer much. In our suck it and see culture, arrowing in on the key moments of a record seems like the desired approach. To do so with “The Face of Mount Molehill” would be to miss out. This is a suite of songs to be consumend whole, a proper album in the true sense of the word. Right from the openeing, restrained washes of “Lament” through to the epic closing moments of 'La Porte' and 'Sirens Last Look Back' this is a record to listen to in one sitting, to sit back and marvel at. Justice would only be served if Neil Cowley Trio's Spring tour is a sold out portent of greater glories to come.
You owe it to yourself to pick this up on January 23rd.
With thanks to Simon Drake at Naim and Kev Marston at Canonball PR
