MUSIC

(Thur 15 Dec, Canteen, Bristol)

They’ve clearly been missed. Get The Blessing’s 2011 hiatus (thanks to minor distractions including Portishead’s world tour and writing and recording a new GTB album) is officially over and this gig marks the return to business as usual. And that includes Clive Deamer’s absence – he’s also Radiohead’s drummer these days – which gives regular ‘sub’ Daisy Palmer the chance to get off the bench and share in the fun. The Canteen is packed and, for once, it feels like an audience that’s here for the music. And the music is great, in that it’s exactly what we expected – Get The Blessing music, firing on all cylinders from the word go. If there’s a formula to this instrumental foursome, it’s the explorations of contrast, thus many tunes switch from full-on blasting to tightly buttoned restraint and back again. ‘Bugs In Amber’ does this exactly, Pete Judge’s sketchy trumpet dodging Jake McMurchie’s sinuous sax line while Jim Barr’s pumping four-beat bassline stokes the drums. When Barr and Palmer take it down like this, it’s almost threatening, like the falsely calm moments in a slasher movie. You just know that something sharp and deadly will smash through the wall and it usually does: a snap-surge of pile-driving riffs, explosive drumming and impassioned brass howls. Even Barr’s stance – chin weighted down by a werewolf beard, eyes gloweringly fixed on Palmer’s smart percussive invention – suggests a man on the brink of something. They play a couple of new pieces and one ornate and contrapuntal number has a pleasing openness that leavens the overriding lock-down mood. But, let’s be fair, it’s the hard stuff we want and that’s what we get. If it’s a fusion of leftfield dance music, postmodern jazz and kraut-flavoured nu-prog you’re after, then nobody does it better than Get The Blessing. Which is why we love them. (Tony Benjamin)

Copyright Tony Benjamin 2011