Michelson Morley - Strange Courage

The Guardian 80

(Babel)

With their 2014 debut, the Michelson Morley trio mapped out a spacious electro-acoustic territory markedly different from that of the more hard-rocking fellow Bristolians Get the Blessing, who also feature saxist Jake McMurchie. Strange Courage adds the muscle and imagination of young rising-star guitarist Dan Messore – spikily tussling with McMurchie to produce an edgily free-jazzy group sound; but those episodes coexist with varied and painterly effects-music, testifying to just how good this band are at making electronics sound human. The opening Tamer As Prey threads a lamenting tenor sax sound into a snickety percussion chatter with a deep electronic throb beneath. Elsewhere, hip-hop beats clap under airily looping minimalism, skipping heartbeats pound with wind noises and distant sax pleas on Primitive One, and in its soprano-sax theme and resonating backwards-accordion sound, the title track eerily suggests a merger of Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way and Sgt Pepper. It’s really imaginative contemporary music, with a hot free-jazz core.