Good Minton!

Here is a review from Nightshift two months ago. It's a slightly longer version that got printed, oh the joy.

In other news, I had a realisation on Saturday. Whilst I live relatively healthily, I discovered that if I wished to lose weight, I'd simply have to leave all my unhealthy foods in complex geometric arrangements, and have my apples and tofu jumbled up in a pile, so that the Asperger's streak within me dictates which one I eat. I call it the OCD diet.


WORLD IMPROVISING TRIO/ PHIL MINTON’S FERAL CHOIR, Oxford Improvisors’ Cohesion Festival, Jacqueline Du Pre, 14/11/09


Whilst free improvisation has grown in stature and acceptability over the past few years – more and more local rockers and technoheads are starting free music projects – we’re a long way from an intersection between improv and Saturday night TV. No chance of Lower Case Idol, Strictly Onkyo or Company Week Bootcamp happening any time soon. And yet, in a way, Phil Minton is edging towards the concept, by co-opting for his Feral Choir amateur singers from the area, including some Blackbird Leys vocalists who might be familiar from Channel Five’s The Singing Estate a few years ago. If they found three months with Handel’s Messiah challenging, an afternoon with Minton’s glossolalia must have been beyond culture shock.

But the music is incredible no matter where the musicians came from, conductor Minton playing the sixteen vocalists as if they were one huge instrument, opening with a queasily yawing, slowly rising tone, before dropping down into waves of hisses, clicks, andl jabbers. It’s alternately exuberant and unsettling, feeling like a cut price UFO cult invocation in an Anglican church hall, or the Wicker Man remix of Stockhausen’s Hymnen. Our only criticism is that the show became a catalogue of effects, and we’d rather the sonic palette had been limited a little, but this didn’t detract from a joyful performance, highlighting Minton’s good humoured inventiveness, and the impressive responsiveness and control of these amateur singers. Easily one of the best things we’ve seen all year.

The World Improvising Trio is John Bissett and Alex Ward on guitars, and Pat Thomas on keyboards. The first half of the set is lopsided, the guitar amps and effects pedals swamping the keyboards: clearly guitarists always play too bloody loud in any genre. Thomas evidenty realises this, and turns from the Cylon indigestion synth sounds we expect to the piano, reining things in with some surprisingly lush and simple chords, Debussy meets Coltrane. From hereon the players seem to find their natural balance, playfully brushing past musical structures, including one clipped lead line from Ward that sounds oddly like derailed AM country. To finish, Thomas dampens his piano strings to make harpsichord tones whilst the guitarists emulate low flying light aircraft, reaching a surprisingly stately conclusion. And that’s it, no fanfare, no fuss, just intriguing music from excellent musicians. Next time people think they’ll see a Moyles touted band at the Academy because they “sound alright”, they should take a punt on an Oxford Improvisors gig instead – they might find whole new vistas opening up, or be shocked into stunned, enraged silence. Both exciting options, no?