Polar Bear

“Same As You”

(Leaf Records BAY 98CD)

It’s now over a decade since the Aberdeen born, London based drummer and composer Sebastian Rochford became a key part of my personal musical landscape, initially through his involvement in saxophonist Pete Wareham’s group Acoustic Ladyland and then through the leadership of his own band, the brilliant Polar Bear.

In those early days the two groups shared many of the same personnel and despite the incandescent punk jazz brilliance of Ladyland’s “Last Chance Disco” (2005) it was Polar Bear that eventually proved to be the longest lived and the most interesting ensemble thanks largely to Rochford’s other worldly persona and visionary composing skills.

Polar Bear have developed an immediately recognisable group sound thanks to the twin tenor sax front line of Wareham and Mark Lockheart and the powerful but infinitely flexible rhythm pairing of Rochford and double bassist Tom Herbert. Since the group’s second album, the Mercury Music Prize nominated “Held On The Tips of Fingers” (2005), the line-up has also included the electronics artist and occasional guitarist Leafcutter John who has become an increasingly essential component of the band. 

Although the group’s début album “Dim Lit” (2004) seemed to signal the arrival of a band already fully formed and with a distinctive sound of its own each subsequent recording has been subtly different and in the main each has shown clear signs of continued development. “Peepers” (2010), the group’s first album for the Leeds based leaf label was particularly impressive and this was followed by “In Each And Every One” (2014), another superb offering that earned the band their second Mercury nomination.

Away from Polar Bear Rochford has been a phenomenally busy musician, a serial collaborator who has worked as a co-leader or sideman with a wide variety of jazz and improvised music bands and solo artists. His involvement in a project is pretty much a guarantee that it will yield something of interest.
A brilliant technician Rochford has also been courted by the rock world and has worked with artists as diverse as Yoko Ono, Pete Doherty, Brett Anderson and Adele.

Given his frantic schedule it came as something of a surprise when the follow up to “In Each And Every One” appeared so quickly with “Same As You” being released at the end of March 2015. Although both records feature the unmistakable paw print of Polar Bear they are also vastly different; “In Each…” was comprised of mainly short, intense pieces and with Leafcutter’s electronic beats at the heart of the group sound, “Same As You” features looser, long form compositions and also includes the fairly extensive use of vocals, something of a group first, the 2010 EP “Common Ground” recorded with Portugese rapper MC Jyager notwithstanding.

The music on “Same As You” was originally conceived as a single continuous composition and the album exudes a pronounced semi-conceptual, suite like feel as a result. Now sub-divided into six distinct tracks the album was mixed at a remote location in the Mojave Desert by Rochford and the Los Angeles based producer Ken Barrientos. There is a relaxed, spiritual feel about the album as Rochford celebrates humanity itself in all its diversity.

The album commences with “Life, Love and Light” which features the spoken words of Asar Mikael, owner of the North London based Jamaican cultural centre The Light Shop. A habitué of the Light Shop Rochford explains “Asar and the people I’ve met in his shop have been a really positive part of my life. This album is about love and positivity, so I asked him if he would write something for it”. I’m not always a big fan of narrations on jazz albums but Mikael’s simple, positive, life affirming message works effectively, part rap, part sermon set to an organ generated electronic drone. It represents something of a manifesto and sets the tone perfectly for the album.

“We Feel The Echoes” develops from an electro-acoustic percussion groove and features the intertwining sax melodies of Wareham and Lockheart above a fluid and ever evolving rhythmic background anchored by Herbert’s bass and featuring some fascinating rhythmic patterns that are generated both acoustically and electronically. Rochford’s drumming explores elements of afrobeat and dub reggae and the more straightforward passages are also punctuated by the glitchy ambience of Leafcutter’s electronics. It’s all very relaxed and organic, a little like an extended jam. 

“The First Steps” also has its origins in an electro-acoustic drum groove, more powerful this time and acting as the springboard for an attractive Afrobeat style sax melody. As the track progresses the saxophone exchanges become more abstract and the percussive rhythms more complex but the piece still retains a rhythmic drive and melodic focus that continues to engage the listener. Leafcutter adds some electronic fairydust to the proceedings, dubby one moment, ambient the next and provides the link as the music segues into “Of Hi Lands”, initially an extended passage of droning, atmospheric electronica from which an electro-acoustic percussive groove eventually emergences together with a weaving sax melody and the distinctive sound of Herbert’s eerily bowed bass. Leafcutter continues to be a key presence throughout the track, his musical relationship with Rochford is as key to the band’s success as the one between drummer Rochford and bassist Herbert.

The uplifting “Don’t Let The Feeling Go” is arguably the album’s centre piece. It features Rochford’s Polar Bear vocal début as he joins singer Hannah Darling on an incantatory vocal chant of the tune’s title. The piece is also enlivened by some strong and colourful rhythmic grooves, both electric and acoustic, plus some urgent tenor sax soloing. I believe that Shabaka Hutchings, Rochford’s band mate from the Sons Of Kemet group may have been involved somewhere along the line but the precise nature of his contribution is not made clear. A version of this piece was also made available as a single.

The album closes with the drifting, near twenty minute magnum opus that is “Unrelenting Unconditional” an extended jam that combines elements of modal jazz, dub reggae and electronica in a constantly unfolding stream. Herbert’s bass acts as the anchor as Rochford delivers a series of ever shifting rhythmic patterns and the twin saxophones weave in and out, sometimes solo, at others in tandem. It’s a kind of updating of the spiritual jazz of John Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders for the 21st century, with contemporary rhythms and an element of electronica, rather more laid back but still recognisable in terms of both form and effect. Following a towering tenor sax solo the piece appears to end with an electro-acoustic percussive groove created by Rochford and Leafcutter but this eventually ushers in a reprise of “Don’t Let The Feeling Go” as the album ends on the same life affirming note with which it began.

With the exception of a very dismissive review in The Wire the critical reaction to “Same As You” has largely been very positive. It’s certainly a very different record to either “Peepers” or “In Each And Every One” but the loose, organic approach works well and the whole album has a warm, almost spiritual glow about it as Rochford successfully realises his ambitions for the record.

Collectively Polar Bear are highly accomplished musicians but their music has never been about mere technique, there’s always been an ethereal, quasi-spiritual quality about Rochford’s writing and that’s something that comes out here even more fully than before. Like William Blake and Jah Wobble his mysticism has always been filtered through a London shaped prism but his temporary move to the Mojave Desert seems to have liberated him and as a result “Same As You” is Polar Bear’s warmest album to date. Rochford has always had an air of child like naivete about him but here he embraces both his inner child and inner hippy full on. The result is a sprawling, but always charming album that compares well with Polar Bear’s best work.   
 

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