Polar Bear, Polar Bear

 

Seb Rochford's Polar Bear named themselves after an animal that can seem cuddly, intimidating and fascinating - adjectives also appropriate for their brilliant third album.

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The quintet's attractive melding of contemporary jazz with indie, electronica and avant-garde abrasiveness can sound surprisingly delicate. Tomlovesalicelovestom has a light pulse that never sounds trite; Brian features contrapuntal saxophones that seem to come from a swinging parallel universe; Appears, Moves and Sails reassembles jazz and funk like postmodern kit furniture; Tay's tasty reverberation becomes part of the tune. Leafcutter John's electronics are now fully integrated with the otherwise acoustic line-up: Peter Wareham and Mark Lockheart (tenor saxes), Tom Herbert (double bass) and Rochford, who leads magisterially as both drummer and prolific writer. He's a proper jazz composer, whose themes are spare, colourful and strong enough to frame and support extensive improvisation from his talented crew and guests.

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