How much do I like this album? Well, it’s been filed at the hallowed right end of the shelf where we keep those that will make it onto the end of the year ‘Best Of…’ list which is a positive in anybody’s book. It’s a very good band as well, as you might expect from the comments above. Manington himself has played on many a good album, Ivo Neame was one of the stars in the early days of Edition records and Brigitte Beraha is one of those who, whether you like her voice or not, never seems to have appeared on a bad record. You’d buy an album she was on, like you’d watch a film Stephen Graham was in. It’s a guarantee.
Weightless
opens
with Strike The Harp which is all
about the space (man!). It builds in density as each voice is folded on top of
another, and those, once dominant, are subsumed back into the mix, with only
the insistent pulse of the drums as a constant. As a fine example of nominative
determinism in action, Tom Challenger contributes a full-throated challenging
sax solo, punching and probing as Neame’s piano chording leads into a series of
runs with both playing solos that drag your attention in two different
directions. A breakdown allows the drums to muscle forward in the mix. Spare
bass, pointillist guitar and Beraha’s floating, ethereal voice are the final
folds. All the voices, all the colours.
The award for the most
elegant tune named after an extinct pachyderm goes to Woolly Mammoth. It’s more late night, low light than a conjuring of
big beasts lumbering through the icy wastes. Beraha’s vocals float over
restrained backing and there’s that space again. Bass and drums anchor at the
back of the stage whilst Neame and Challenger dominate giving, again, two
contrasting lead lines to follow.
Mannington is not afraid
to break things down. You feel that the musicians must love this as it allows
such freedom and the opportunities to escape into the music. As if they are on
the outside and making their own way into each piece. After a collapse, the
rhythm becomes more stately as if echoing the mammoth’s tread but the mixture
of lines and melodies from the front are no more pachydermical than before.
Run
The Gauntlet is a piece inspired by running. Like me
(131 Park Runs done to date) Manington is a runner and this piece is a lope to
set your pace to. (I would say he’s probably looking at a 31:30 for a 5K). It’s
embellished by some lovely, probing Scofieldesque guitar over an insistent
shuffling, rattling drum beat. Beraha’s vocals conjure up the escape of an
early morning run with all troubles left in your dust.
River swimming is another
of Manington’s passions and River Swim,
in the vocals and piano, conjure up the river’s flow and, again, the use of
space evokes solitude and peace and the tranquillity of a river in summer. Hold It is more insistent from the start
with ticking drums and a dancing bass solo as an introduction, a sax sneaks in
at the side, guitar and piano join, all subdued and sotto voce, yet bringing
hope and good cheer, a soft celebration. Beraha’s voice pulls the whole ensemble
on. It ebbs and flows, like the tide, stops, and bass and drums come back to
support Beraha’s poem, “We matched our
dreams, at least some of them. Attempted to leave traces for others to seek”
whilst the guitar glisters behind her. Neame’s angular piano solo carries it
forward.
We roll into Weightless on the back of Manington’s
bass, all alone and floating in space. Shimmering cymbals, more glistening guitar
and murmuring sax are all separately hovering. The unearthly quality is
overcome by a series of more muscular statements, but it’s still individuals,
alone, making their own mark.
Closer, When Time Stood Still, is a post covid
reflection on a re-opening world. Tentative piano suggests fear of the outside.
This agoraphobia is overcome by a more optimistic run a ‘just, maybe…’ You can
imagine this as a dance with the characters unfurling back into the world;
cautious encounters. Beraha’s edgeless vocals and the tenor briefly flourish;
the bass rolls uncertainly through, optimistically probing as if trying on new
freedoms. The uncertainty remains even through the hopeful pulse of the bass
and the uplifting piano solo.
I expect that there will
be other releases this year that I will like as much or more but the use of
space here to conjure up images, to give the musicians the freedom to prosper,
the quality of the writing and the musicianship, the fact that there is so much
going on, so many paths to follow makes for an album that both challenges and
comforts. In simpler, human terms, this is a very generous, hopeful album.
Unfortunately there are no plans to tour this group up to the north east but Mr Manington’s website does promise a date on Neptune in March 2028 for a bargain £186,000. Start saving now would be my advice. Dave Sayer
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