Polar Bear: In Each and Every One

In Each And Every ONe
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Artist: Polar Bear
Genre: Jazz
Label: The Leaf Label

Improbably hirsute drummer Seb Rochford and his genre-defying Polar Bear have been shaking up London's experimental music scene for the best part of a decade. They juggle punk, free-jazz, dance beats and electronics, refuse to be snared in the jazz ghetto, and frequently push the envelope until it tears. Polar Bear's first album in four years, eagerly awaited in very hip quarters, is an evolution of the group's anarchic sound, softer spoken and more spacey but also more radical, showing the influence of Rochford's freelancing with other sound pioneers, notably Brian Eno. But despite the density of the programmed beats, the ambient noise, the tape loops and the sound processing, In Each and Every One has a gloriously lo-fi, home-made atmosphere that makes its post-industrial noise-scape strangely emotional – emphasis on the "strangely".
polarbearmusic.com

Cormac Larkin

Cormac Larkin

Cormac Larkin, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a musician, writer and director