Sloth Racket

“Triptych”

(Luminous Label LU002)

Sloth Racket is a quintet of musicians drawn from the London, Manchester and Leeds music scenes. The group is led by saxophonist and composer Cath Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire but now based in London where she has become a prolific and highly active force on the capital’s jazz and improvised music scene.

Espousing an almost punk like DIY spirit Roberts and fellow saxophonist Dee Byrne are the founders of LUME, originally conceived as a weekly platform for jazz and improvised music at various venues in North and East London. The enterprise has now expanded to include a monthly residency at the Vortex Jazz Club in addition to the formation of the Luminous Label, a recording outlet for the music of Roberts and Byrne and their numerous musical associates. The inaugural LUME Festival will take place on June 26th 2016 at Iklectik Artlab in London, an all day event featuring seven different acts from the UK and beyond. 

In 2014 I enjoyed and reviewed the eponymous début album by Robert’s seven piece band Quadraceratops, the group name derived from the presence of no less than four horns in the line up. This excellent recording was a good showcase for Roberts as a composer as well as highlighting the individual talents of a highly talented young band. Elsewhere Roberts performs with the Madwort Saxophone Quartet, led by saxophonist Tom Ward, and the eight piece improvising saxophone ensemble Saxoctopus. She also performs as one half of an uncompromising improvising duo with Manchester based guitarist Anton Hunter (of Beats & Pieces Big Band fame) under the name Ripsaw Catfish.

It’s arguably the Ripsaw Catfish connection that paved the way for Sloth Racket, a group that includes Anton Hunter on guitar plus his brother Johnny at the drums. Roberts plays alto sax with Quadraceratops but Sloth Racket finds her on baritone in a twin sax front line that also features former Beats & Pieces alumnus Sam Andreae on tenor. The line up is completed by bassist Seth Bennett, a graduate of Leeds College of Music who has previously appeared on these web pages as part of the group Metamorphic, led by pianist Laura Cole.

Sloth Racket first performed at the 2015 Gateshead International jazz Festival as the result of a commission by Jazz North East. Whereas Quadraceratops places the emphasis on through composed pieces Sloth Racket is far more concerned with improvisation. For this project Roberts provided the quintet with written fragments incorporating graphic notations, these acting as the frameworks for improvisation as the quintet explored the balance between freedom and structure.

Following several other gigs the quintet then convened at Limefield Studios in Manchester in November 2015 to record their début album with pianist John Ellis of the Cinematic Orchestra at the mixing desk. The recording consists of three lengthy pieces with the band covering an impressive range of musical territory, much of it fully improvised. The closing “Endgame” lasts a little over twenty minutes and would once have represented one side of a vinyl LP.

However the album commences with the attention grabbing “Crossed Swords”, kick started by Bennett at the bass and featuring an introductory thematic squall distinguished by duelling saxes and distorted guitar as Johnny Hunter pummels his drum kit gleefully. The Sloths may delight in creating a joyous racket but the group members are also capable of considerable subtlety as they demonstrate when the piece morphs into a delightful three way conversation for bass, guitar and drums between Bennett and the Hunter brothers. However this is just the calm before the second storm as the saxes crash back in, Anton Hunter cranks up his amp and Bennett switches to vigorously bowed arco bass for an animated series of exchanges with Roberts’ baritone. Out of this emerges a heavy, jagged sax riff of the kind that Van Der Graaf Generator or King Crimson might have been proud of. This forms the basis for the ensuing improvisations as Roberts assaults her baritone in conjunction with Bennett’s busy bass and Johnny Hunter’s free-flowing kinetic drumming. The introduction of Anton Hunter’s guitar actually calms things down and the piece subsequently resolves itself with a quietly abstract group conversation that includes the sounds of saxophones, guitar and bowed bass. 

“Circling” evolves from seemingly random saxophone pecks, guitar scratchings and percussive rustles. Eventually a kind of minimalist pattern emerges with Anton Hunter’s needling guitar and Andreae’s tenor sax ostinato at its heart. The band develop this melodically with the music sounding almost conventional at times. However the subsequent improvisations see the group fragmenting into smaller units and featuring individual conversations between the players, notably the exchanges between Andreae’s tenor and Bennett’s bowed bass and the later dialogue between the two horns. Johnny Hunter keeps a low profile during these discourses, only to re-emerge with a surprising violence at the very end of the piece.

The sprawling “Endgame” begins with a brief saxophone conversation before Bennett sets up a menacing arco bass motif around which the subsequent extemporisations develop including further saxophone dialogue and a stunning guitar solo from Anton Hunter that mixes glitchiness with sustain and distortion, the spirits of Fripp and Frith informing his extraordinary sound as he and the rest of the band head for the outer limits culminating in a series of wildly exciting free jazz exchanges between guitar and baritone sax. Hunter’s guitar remains central to the proceedings even after the return of Bennett’s bowed bass steers the music in a different direction leading to what the group describe as a “Louis Moholo Moholo inspired free jazz incantation”, the effect of which is strangely and thrillingly mesmeric. The five musicians initially seem to be working independently of one another yet somehow coalesce to harness their individual talents towards a common goal. Having reached a peak of spiritual intensity the music resolves itself with a long, delicate, ethereally beautiful fade.

“Triptych” is a less accessible album than the Quadraceratops release but it does have much to recommend it to the adventurous listener with a good balance between form and freedom and just enough structure for listeners who are not improv die hards to hang on to. Sloth Racket are far from slothful and the music never stays in one place for too long, it is consistently evolving and developing, which again serves to hold the interest of the listener. There are fine individual moments and performances throughout the album but Sloth Racket also impress as a unit, their cohesion and easy familiarity in part stemming from the fact that most of these musicians have worked together before in other musical situations – Ripsaw Catfish, the Hunter -Andreae Quartet (HAQ), Beats & Pieces etc. “Triptych” represents a challenging listen at first but the album gradually reveals more and more of its secrets with subsequent listens, it’s the kind of record that’s worth sticking with, one that becomes more and more rewarding with each subsequent hearing as one gradually gets one’s head around Roberts’ intentions for the band. 

Reviews for Triptych have been universally good with former Jazzmann contributor Tim Owen praising it on his Dalston Sound website (http://www.dalstonsound.wordpress.com) and comparing the group’s music favourably with that of such luminaries as Tim Berne, Peter Brotzmann and Ken Vandermark. Daniel Spicer also wrote approvingly about the album in the May 2016 edition of Jazzwise magazine.

Sloth Racket toured this music in May 2016 and it’s a little surprising to note that they won’t be performing at the LUME Festival in June. However the event should still be well worth attending with an exciting and intriguing line up as detailed below;

26th June @ IKLECTIK: LUME Festival

We’re extremely happy to be able to type this: LUME Festival is going ahead! With the support of our awesome 131 Kickstarter backers, Arts Council England and the Austrian Cultural Forum, we’ll be hosting an all-dayer on Sunday 26th June at IKLECTIK in London.
 
The line-up, in reverse order of appearance, is:

Article XI (Manchester)
Freewheeling large ensemble led by guitarist Anton Hunter, with: Oliver Dover (alto sax), Tom Ward (tenor sax), Cath Roberts (baritone sax), Johnny Hunter (drums), Seth Bennett (bass), Graham South, Nick Walters (trumpet), Tullis Rennie, Richard Foote (trombone)

Blueblut (Austria)
Coming over from Austria! With Led Bib’s Mark Holub (drums), Pamela Stickney (theremin) and Chris Janka (guitar)

Kjær/Musson/Marshall (London)
Fantastic trio of Julie Kjær (alto sax), Rachel Musson (tenor sax) and Hannah Marshall (cello)

Little Church (Birmingham)
Quintet led by David Austin Grey (nord/synth/FX) playing compositions inspired by Miles Davis electric period featuring Rachael Cohen (alto sax), Chris Mapp (bass/electronics) and Tymek Joswiak (drums).

Hot Beef Three (Leeds)
Trio with some of Leeds’ finest improvisers: Oliver Dover (saxes), Andrew Lisle (drums), Craig Scott (guitar)

Ant Traditions (Manchester)
Top notch Manchester improv from Adam Fairhall (toy pianos) and Dave Birchall (electric guitar)

Word Of Moth (London)
Collaborative quartet from the founders of LUME: Dee Byrne (alto sax), Cath Roberts (baritone sax), Seth Bennett (bass), Tom Greenhalgh (drums)

We’ll also have artist Gina Southgate capturing the day on canvas!
 
A lot of tickets were sold through the Kickstarter campaign, but there are a limited number available from our Luminous Bandcamp site.
https://luminouslabel.bandcamp.com/merch/lume-festival-26th-june-2016-iklectik-all-day-ticket
Grab yours now and we’ll see you there for a great day of music!

Doors 1pm, music 1.30pm-10.30pm, with late bar afterwards.

http://www.lumemusic.co.uk

IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, SE1 7LG.

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