Music
Troyka, Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh
Rob Adams
FOUR STARS
Serious listening is back. You could have heard a pin drop in the quieter moments of both London-based Troyka and their extraordinarily able, mostly local opening act, Trio HSK's sets on Sunday night. Mind you, neither band's music is exactly the ideal background for a conversation. This stuff demands your attention, indeed almost defies you not to give it your full concentration in case you miss a finely turned detail.
We hear quite a lot on TV talent shows these days about singers making songs their own. Well, Trio HSK, with London-based guitarist Ant Law here joining Richards Harrold (keyboards) and Kass (drums), take that concept somewhere else entirely, arranging jazz standards to the extent that the original theme is but one component of a rocking, urgent musical kaleidoscope. Their own compositions are likewise highly evolved and if it's no surprise to learn that they have a piece called Dux, they're at the top of the class when it comes to stringent application of a demanding but rewarding style.
Troyka uses the same instrumentation, with added electronica, in a no less knotty but possibly more relaxed, even naughty way. Theirs is a thrillingly technical, deeply detailed conversation, nowhere more exciting than on Tax Return, which gives every hint of having been possibly inspired by an approaching deadline. Itchy fingered guitar lines, squally keyboard riffs and superbly marshalled, potently percussive punctuation marks coalesce with jigsaw-like precision, and yet this is music that appeals to heart as well as head, with Arcades displaying as much brawn and gristle as brain power and Crawler heading at just that implied pace down an exhilaratingly sleazy, bluesy byway.
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