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Touted by Gilles Peterson on his Radio 1 show this week this new project from Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley and Larry Stabbins is something pretty dam special. Check the uber psychedelic video for Wedgehead Gets Lucky here. And read on for lowdown...
Imagine
if you started with one of the UK’s most
celebrated and bankable jazz saxophonists and frontline musical innovators, and he wrote all the music, which he
then fed to a hungry young producer, who
happened to be the Cornish rave
scene’s most wanted - from way back when raves were raves – (surely the saxophonist’s sonic
nemesis, on paper at least); and then, once he got the sound all nice and filthy, like nothing
you’d heard before – especially not from a consummate jazz veteran - the guitarist from one of the UK’s most
famous and acclaimed bands came along and added his own Midas touch.
If you did all that,
crossed your fingers and hoped for a huge bestowal of je ne sais quoi, you would be on your way to creating your very own
Stonephace, whose self titled debut features
some of the best live musicians around, including main man, veteran jazz
dissident Larry Stabbins on sax, Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley and
bassist Jim Barr, with a guest turn
from Dizzy Gillespie collaborator Guy
Barker on trumpet. The dirty hip hop/breaks production aesthetic
comes care of your Cornish sonic alchemist Krzysztof
Oktalski, binding together electronica, jazz pedigree, indie credentials,
and a big swoosh of psychedelia in a Madlib-esque
genre brawl.
Larry Stabbins, co-founder of the enormously influential
band Working Week, reached number 23 in the UK album charts with
their 1985 debut ‘Working Nights’
and went on to enjoy worldwide success over the next decade, gracing the pages
of NME, Melody Maker, The Wire et al, and inspiring a jaded
generation to get up and dance. As a deeply involved, longtime supporter of the
anti-apartheid movement, other highlights of Stabbins’ illustrious career include
performing to over 250,000 people at the anti racism festival, Touche Pas à
Mon Pote
in Paris, 1985; and more recently in 2008, even Amy Winehouse singing all over his sax solo could not temper
the euphoric experience of playing in
Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday concert. He also joined Robert
Wyatt onstage for Last Will and
Testament: The Robert Wyatt Story in 2004.
Initially the baby of
Stabbins and Oktalski, 'Stonephace' came together over a
lengthy period in the wilds of Cornwall. Adrian Utley, who had
collaborated with Stabbins before, on hearing the music announced his
enthusiasm to play on it, and fitted the sessions around the recording of
Portishead's 'Third'. Playing almost everything first take – notably his
stunning solo on “White Queen
Psychology” – Utley’s input added another level of noise and vitality, and
a link between the weirdy electronics and jazz sensibility. From the New York
club-land gogo glitz of the opener, “Wedgehead
Gets Lucky”, to the fuzzy organ riffage, heavy-ass hip hop drums and
general craziness of the epic final installment - via spacey 7/4 time
signatures and 15 second bursts of drum ‘n’ bass semantics – ‘Stonephace’ creates a unique universe
and invites you to come and visit. The Stonephace live show features
Stabbins on sax, Utley on guitar, local Cornish hero Helm DeVegas on keys and Oktalski with
the down and dirty drums on vinyl and laptop, all bathed in visuals from VJ
Stella Marina.