PRESS

Adelaide Advertiser - bo5n @ Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, Sunday November 23

John McBeath, Adelaide Advertiser, November 2003.

Band of Five Names
Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, Sunday November 23

SYDNEY players Matt McMahon, piano, Simon Barker, percussion, and Phil Slater, trumpet, have their enigmatic title because of the different band names they've used over several years.
In fact, there are five instruments in the group, counting McMahon's additional electric keyboard and Slater's laptop computer.
Irrespective of titles, this group is at the cutting edge of contemporary jazz.
Their work is highly original and, although based in jazz, takes music in new directions.
Mood and atmosphere are paramount, electronics and an extended percussion kit play important roles and solos are couched in an unpredictable but recognisably jazz-influenced language.
The first piece of the night Severance, shows the band's approach.
Against a backdrop of dream-like sound files from Slater's laptop, the Rhodes keyboard starts bending the notes of an abstract theme as Barker draws a violin bow across his drum rims, quickly changing to mallets, then brushes, sticks and a variety of bells, clackers, shakers, jinglers and rattles for a range of sensitive effects.
By the time Slater picks up the trumpet (he won the 2003 National Jazz Award at Wangaratta) a foundation has been established on which he starts to improvise – slow and beautifully ballad-like at first, then up-tempo as the notes pour out at high speed.
This is one of the most interesting jazz-style groups heard in Adelaide this year.
It combines originality, technical mastery and that spark of intelligent musical exploration that has always driven the evolution of jazz.