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“intricate and mood changing arrangements of each of these original pieces…sublime”
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Variations on VortexJazz.co.uk


25 January 2010
VortexJazz.co.uk
Chris Parker

Trichotomy cite EST, later Radiohead and fellow Australians the Necks among their chief inspirations.

From the first-mentioned trio they get their pleasantly rackety but carefully controlled robustness, a dynamic variety that sees the album's opening track, 'Island of the Sun', for instance, build naturally into a gloriously exuberant three-way musical tussle, but which can also see them muse quietly through passages of subdued minimalism to equally dramatic effect.

Like Radiohead, they are not averse to taking an immediately affecting melody and examining it from all angles, exploiting the odd electronic effect along the way, and from the Necks they have taken patience, the ability to wait and see where the group 'flow' is heading.

If this makes the band - pianist Sean Foran, bassist Pat Marchisella, drummer John Parker - sound derivative, it's misleading, however; although (particularly when joined, on 'Start' and 'Ascent', by strings and alto and trumpet and electronics respectively) they do bring Scandinavian jazz strongly to mind, pieces such as 'The Unknown', which uncontrivedly incorporates seriously broken rhythms into its relatively straighforward momentum, or 'Variations on a Bad Day', which juxtaposes the sparest piano playing with densely packed clusters of notes to great effect, are original and striking enough to make the band's forthcoming UK tour (they play the Vortex on Tuesday, 2 February) a mouth-watering prospect indeed. Recommended.


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