Review: Let Spin, Strange Brew – ‘They are a group of contrasts and striking dynamics’

Love is in the air. Happy Valentines everyone. If the greeting card from the shop on the corner or the past their best garage flowers haven’t hit the mark with your intended your going to be need a plan B.

For a few lucky couples that meant an evening of cutting edge improvisational jazz based music in downtown Bristol. Let’s see how that worked out for them shall we?

First up are Phenomenal Kissing. Dan Johnson starts behind his kit. He is clearly an exceptional player from his first engagement, complex polyrhythms seem to drip from every pore.

He’s joined by Celeste Cantor-Stephens intent on investigating every top, bottom and side of her muted trumpet finding some extraordinary tones as she explores.

It’s a very free improvisation and a performance art piece. Dan stalks the stage, and occasionally leaves it, looking for the next bit of kit to rhythmically attack.

Bubbles are blown and percussion is found from a straw in a water bottle. The audience are variously part enthralled, bemused and occasionally amused. All responses seem entirely reasonable.

Our headliners are Let Spin. Something of a supergroup grown from Manchester and London jazz scenes, they are a decade into this project now and a buzz is growing.

They are here on the back of their recent Thick as Thieves album. Variously described as post punk, post jazz or post prog so take your own post genre choice.

They are a highly democratic unit; pieces seem to start with a snippet or groove from any of the players. Themes are found and the collective can find itself in duo, trio or full band blast modes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBPZKQBumUU

They play tonight uninterrupted for the hour they are on stage. The music is in distinct sections separated by short improvised moods. There is no room for calling songs or any banter, this is serious stuff all about building moods.

They begin tonight with a full on attack, they are heavy and loud with a deep groove.

Moss Freed’s guitar is angular and harsh, Ruth Goller grooves behind with big bass chords.

There’s a track on the record titled Red and as they continue the assault into the second theme they seem to take a nod to that era of King Crimson from that beloved album so famously admired by Kurt Cobain.

Freed is playing Fripp like lines and Chris Williams’s sax blasts join in the dark epiphany. It’s thrilling stuff.

They eventually find their way to calmer water with Bill Frissell sounding guitar ably punctuated by skittering percussion from Finlay Panter. As they lead us through they are clearly as adept in the light as the shade.

A gorgeous sax and guitar duet section which is a lovely piece of interplay and some of the more gentle, cosmic feels that they find in their improvisations.

They are a group of contrasts and striking dynamics and their decade of playing off each other has built a vital energy and joyful creativity.

The audience listened to this complex and demanding music in almost complete silence, with rapt attention, greeting both bands warmly at the end of sets.

Kudos to promoter Benny Dart and Strange Brew for creating a sold out, music centred space where that could happen. A valentine couple next to us gave each other a loving smile.

All was well with the world if only for that moment.

Main photo: Jonathan Riley

Video: Jonathan Riley

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