Portico residency at The ICA, London

An evening spent at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts was always going to be a civilised affair. The suitably artsy crowd waits patiently. As Portico take to the stage for the first of their two night residency at the gallery, it feels more like we’re gazing expectantly at an art exhibit than ready to experience a gig. Interactions with the crowd are few and far between but Portico let the music do the talking, and speak to us it does, in swathes of ambient electronics, shuddering basslines and pulsing beats.

Richly textured, intelligently composed and with a plethora of seriously jazzy time signatures, Portico perform a set lifted heavily from their 2015 album, Living Fields. It’s a record that saw the band wade progressively farther into an electronic sphere, as four became three and subsequently ditched the ‘Quartet’ from their moniker. The move aligns them more readily with electronica contemporaries such as Koreless or Mount Kimbie, producing a sound no less experimental but perhaps more familiar and accessible.

There are fewer instrumentals and a heavier vocal core to each track. Ninja Tune’s Jono McCleery provides the vocals on all but one of the songs this evening, demonstrating a breathtakingly diverse vocal range, that soars and scales perfectly through layer upon layer of dark and brooding electronics.

McCleery deserves as much credit for tonight’s performance (and arguably for Living Fields) as the band themselves. Combining strength and fragility, he outdoes himself with each new song, from title track ‘Living Fields’, to ‘Where You Are’ and the sublime ‘Colour Fading’. As the performance nears its end, he is slightly overshadowed by the appearance of Jamie Woon. The crowd whoop the loudest when the band introduce Woon to the stage for their penultimate track, a stunning performance of ‘Memory of Newness’.

Needless to say, Portico put on a considered but consuming show and we witness 70 minutes brimming with structured, ethereal soundscapes. They also sail through a cover of Arthur Russell’s ‘This Is How We Walk On The Moon’ in the midst of their set. It will be intriguing to see how far they’ll continue delving into the realm of electronica and away from their jazz roots. Watching them exhibit their songs live tonight is like coming up on a wave of synths and air. The feeling is expansive and climactic; at its peak it’s hard to know how to come down again.

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COMMENTS

• Alex Horner
  so good