Though 2014 Mercury Prize contenders GoGo Penguin are a jazz-schooled trio who now record for Blue Note, they’re a lot more interested in the nuances of groove, and in the contact points between acoustic and machine music, than in jazz as most beboppers know it. This Blue Note debut follows the minimalism-to-maelstrom paths of Fanfares and the more electronic v20, but many of these tracks started life on sequencers and then evolved through real-time group acoustic improv. Chris Illingworth’s looping piano motifs with their casual classical flourishes, Nick Blacka’s bowed bass and Rob Turner’s hustling drums sometimes fuse with a hip equanimity reminiscent of Robert Glasper; Weird Cat and the folksy Initiate show that GoGo tunes don’t have to be sparse; and the captivating Smarra is a highlight for its threading of an echoey, synth-mimicking throb through a humming undertow toward a deluge of cymbals. It still feels like clubbing music, and perhaps best heard live, but plenty of house and techno fans might be surprised by how good at partying three closet-jazzers can be.
