Troyka by Troyka

Troyka are Chris Montague, Joshua Blackmore and Kit Downes, three young musicians based in London whose intense live shows have seen them hotly tipped to follow in the foot steps of Polar Bear and Portico Quartet and become the next young band to explode from the capital’s fertile jazz scene. A multi-textured trio with a febrile imagination where no role is pre-defined, their music twists and mutates in an ongoing dialogue inspired by a shared love of Aphex Twin, the angular world of iconclastic New York saxophonist Tim Berne and the blues-jazz-rock groove of legendary Steely Dan and Billy Cobham guitarist Wayne Krantz. With their visceral mash-up of rock, jazz and dance music, Trokya sound more like Tony William’s Lifetime remix by Burial than the classic hammond organ trio. But then that’s the point, they’re part of a new generation of young musicians who refuse to be constrained by the old boundaries.

To whom the old question of ‘what is it’ is replaced by ‘is it any good’? Troyka live in a post hip-hop world where you can take whatever source materials you like and do your own singular thing with it. Recorded by noted engineer Robert Harder (Acoustic Ladyland, Babyshambles, Brian Eno etc), Troyka’s self-titled debut distills the essence of the bands intense live shows in to a finely focused album.

From the elemental groove of Tax Return, to the slide-driven throb of Clint, sly groove of Noonian Song, shimmering, tricksy Twelve and the twisted beauty and carefully calibrated mayhem of Born in the ‘80s, it perfectly nails the bands dark-toned lyricism, shape-shifting grooves and intense improvisational power. Play Troyka loud, they won’t let you down.