Biography
“Extraordinary instrumental music blending improvised Jazz, Funk, Orchestral backdrops and clever snippets of Electronica”
- The Times
“Massive Attack meets Charles Mingus”
- Jazz-FM
Phuse are defiantly high-brow in the music influences they acknowledge and incorporate into their sound - namely those bastions of jazz, Coltrane, Davis and of course Charles Mingus – yet their influence is sonically skewed with the electronic music scene’s avant-garde: Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Amon Tobin and Venetian Snares. Although strongly rooted in jazz, the bands ruthless genre-mashing melds hip hop, drum & bass, funk, electronica and breakbeats with a mix of live instrumentation and electronic sound manipulation.
The band started out as an experiment on how to blend electronics and samples with the live interplay of musicians, anchored by the powerful funk-inflected hip-hop and drum & bass grooves and break-beats of Denis Cassidy on drums. The samples and electronics – often made from electronics designed by the band members themselves – create dark backdrops for the soloists to weave in and out of as though locked into some otherworldly dialogue with one another. On the frontline, Gavin Lockhart directs the music with his growling double bass and frantic walking bass lines while Daragh O’Kelly provides the harmonic backbone on keyboards and piano, delivering an already thundering back line. Finally the inimitably well-versed reed man Brian Wynn takes on solo duties on tenor and soprano saxophones.
Now with their second release “Mingus Lingers”, the band continue their exploration of combining improvised group ensemble playing with live sampling and live sound manipulation. Where “Mingus Lingers” is fundamentally an acoustic based record with elements of electronics, the band’s next album - “Air Sculpture” – will be a more electronic sounding affair with elements of acoustics.
Phuse are currently unsigned and looking for a label to make their home. Please get in touch if you like their music!
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