I first encountered The Blessing at Cardiff’s Jazz Caf? in early 2008. I was in the city anyway, was aware of the Portishead connection and been intrigued by what I’d read about this jazzy offshoot. And finally any band that wears paper bags over their heads just has to be interesting, right?

It was St. Valentine’s day by chance but anyone who’d taken their partner to the Caf? expecting to hear some nice laid back dinner jazz was in for a shock as the Bristolian quartet blasted and clattered their way through a set of material largely drawn from their d?but album “All Is Yes”. Like many others I was blown away and bought the album, the 7 inch vinyl single and very nearly the T shirt as well. They didn’t have my size but if you’re doing them for “Bugs In Amber” lads send one on to me -sizeXL, preferably black. End of plea.

“All Is Yes” proved to be an enormous success going on to win the prize for best album at the BBC Jazz Awards. I eventually got to review it for this site and caught the band again at the Brecon Jazz Festival (with Paul Wigens depping for regular drummer Clive Deamer), the gig forming part of our Saturday at Brecon coverage.

Not everybody entirely approved of The Blessing. Some questioned their jazz credentials citing the lack of improvisational content, the rock dynamics and even claiming that the band’s riffs and tunes were just too simplistic to be credible. I even started to have a few doubts myself but having seen saxophonist Jake McMurchie playing in a more conventional context with pianist Will Butterworth in a performance reviewed elsewhere on this site there can be no doubting his jazz abilities.

Now comes the “difficult” second album “Bugs In Amber”. Here The Blessing show that they are not just a one trick pony. Yes the hooks and riffs are again there in abundance but there is also more light and shade. Some of the tunes have a darker hue than before, perhaps owing something to Deamer and bassist Jim Barr’s involvement with Portishead. But Get The Blessing as they have now officially become (a US rock band had already swiped their chosen moniker) have a warped sense of humour that permeates everything they do and which quickly quashes any charges of pretentiousness. “Bugs In Amber” is a clear progression and deserves to do just as well as it’s predecessor. From the police siren ushering in the attention grabbing opener “Music Style Product” to the eerie glockenspiel tinklings of the closing “Trapdoor” this is bright, fiercely intelligent but also highly accessible and tuneful music that fuses many of the best elements of jazz and rock. “Bugs” ups the improvisational content without in any way diluting the group’s feral power and rock energy.

The band were in top form for their appearance at Cheltenham playing a late evening show to a packed Pillar Room. Dressed in in uniform black suits and with rock style lighting they looked the part. Sounded it too as they opened with live favourite “The Unnameable” a track from the “All Is Yes” era which appeared on the B side of the single “Bleach Cake” and now graces the new album.. From simple beginnings the tune builds in layers to embrace a sinister and malevolent wide-screen magnificence.

From “All Is Yes” came “Equal and Opposite” featuring Pete Judge on muted trumpet with Jim Barr taking a rare excursion on six string guitar. 

Back to the new album for “The Word For Moonlight Is Moonlight” featuring the unison horn lines of Judge and McMurchie above Deamer’s hand drums and Barr’s growling bass. Plenty of subtlety here proving that there is far more to GTB than just smoke and mirrors.

Mind you the band can still make a god almighty noise when they put their mind to it . The dirty sounding trumpet and honking sax of the next item proved it. If memory serves it was “Cake Hole” from the first album but by now I was just getting off on the music and my notes,  frankly, were becoming rather sketchy.

Jim Barr’s humorous and surreal announcing style is an integral part of any GTB show. “So It Goes” and “Yes I Said..” were played back to back here as they are on the new album, inspired by James Joyce and Kurt Vonnegut respectively. GTB are witty, intelligent, widely read guys.

The dark and moody “Tarp” was another example of GTB’s increasing maturity as writers. This is another piece that is more into mood building than just blasting the audience’s ears off. Barr again featured on decidedly spooky sounding guitar.

“Bleach Cake” was a re-arranged version of the “All Is Yes” opener featuring Judge on muted trumpet and McMurchie on honking baritone saxophone. There was also a bass solo from Barr as the band proved they can still do raucous.

“The Speed Of Dark” (as opposed to the “Speed Of Light” dead panned Barr) is one of the album’s key tracks combining a powerful hook with more abstract elements as Judge and McMurchie treat the sound of their horns with a range of increasingly extreme effects above the undertow of Deamer’s jungle style drumming. Live it is extremely effective with GTB coming across as mad scientist figures as the horn men manipulated the notes.

The live version of “Bugs In Amber” itself featured a vocal from Deamer which is absent from the record. Although he isn’t likely to give his sometime employer Robert Plant many sleepless nights Deamer has a perfectly acceptable voice. Maybe he fancies himself as the Don Henley of punk jazz.

It will be interesting to see if GTB pursue the vocal direction. The band are frequently compared to Acoustic Ladyland (our own Tim Owen drew the parallel in his recent album review), a nominally “jazz” group who now use vocals on a regular basis. They make a fair job of it too but for me the all instrumental “Last Chance Disco” is still the quintessential Ladyland album. I’d be loath to see GTB go down this path but it must remain a distinct possibility as their popularity increases.

“Einstein Action Figure” with it’s circling sax riff made for an appropriately energetic set closer.

This was the best performance I’ve yet seen from GTB. At Cardiff Deamer had rather overpowered the others and at Brecon they had used a dep but here the drummer was just right. A study of controlled power and formidable technique (well you wouldn’t expect Percy to pick a duffer would you?) he was at the heart of the band , stoking the fires as his colleagues took flight in an admirably tight, focussed and confident display. Only Clarence Penn with Dave Douglas on the last evening of the festival could top Deamer’s percussive performance

GTB take the music of Ornette Coleman (especially his idea of eschewing chordal instruments) and filter it through Pigbag, Acoustic Ladyland and “parent” group Portishead to produce sounds that manage to be simultaneously interesting and accessible. This is a group that is currently on top of it’s game but still with the potential for further progress. I’m already looking forward to the “difficult third album”.

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