Hosted By:
Porpoise Corpus

When:
15 October 2009

Where:
Pizza Express Jazz Club
10 Dean Street, Soho
London
W1D 3RW

Description:
Description:Another mega festival from the F-IRE collective. This time with 4 days of great bands. Our night will be a double-bill with the amazing and highly acclaimed Phronesis. Doors at 7pm. Porpoise Corpus on at 8.30 sharp. THERE IS A CONCESSIONS LIST AVAILABLE (£20 instead of 15). PLease send a mail to the good people of the F-ire colletive on office@f-ire.com by 7pm on the day to be on it.

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In fact the festival is saturday and sunday and I, for one will be watching the whole thing.

Hosted By:
Porpoise Corpus

When:
13 September 2009

Where:
In front of the Tate Modern
Bankside
London
SE1

Description:
FREEEE! Part of a two-day festival of F-IRE collective bands, which is part of a bigger festival of all sorts of wicked and COMPLETELY FREE stuff.

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Hosted By:
Porpoise Corpus

When:
13 September 2009

Where:
In front of the Tate Modern
Bankside
London
SE1

Description:
FREEEE! Part of a two-day festival of F-IRE collective bands, which is part of a bigger festival of all sorts of wicked and COMPLETELY FREE stuff.

Click Here To View Event

Thanks for your support.

Hosted By:
Porpoise Corpus

When:
05 July 2009

Where:
The George Tavern
373 Commercial Road,
London
E1 OLA

Description:
There's zero chance that you'll think of anything better to be doing anything better with your day. 12 of the most interesting bands you'll ever see in 12 hours, all for absolutely nothing. WE'RE ON AT 5PM SHARP. Also featurung Fulborn Teversham, Bilbao Syndrome, Hot Head Show, Stian Westerhaus, Metamorphic, Brainer, E:Laine, Matt Calvert, Roshi, Vultures and Yuri. BBQ also availabe.

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Dave "the dolphin" O'Brien has just been made a fully-fledged new member of the F-IRE collective, joining fellow porpoid - Jonathan Bratoeff.  For those who are not aware of the work of the F-IRE collective, please check out www.f-ire.com.  It is a fellowship of some of the best and most creative musicians in London, with the absolute requirement that they are willing to challenge an innovate.
   Other members include Seb Rochford (Polar Bear), Pete Wareham (Acoustic Ladyland), Robert Mitchell (Panacea) and Tom Arthurs (current BBC new generationa artist) to name a few.
  
In other news we have an east-london mini tour coming up:-

Monday 16th March
Corpus Monomorphous
(Two sets)
The Vortex,
11 Gillett St,
Dalston
N16 8JH
Doors 8pm, Show 8.30pm
£8/6

Wednesday 25th March
Corpus Dimorphous
(A self-curated double bill with Troyka - see our top friends)
Charlie Wrights International Bar,
45 Pitfield St,
Shoreditch, N1
Doors open all day, Show 8.30
£5

Wednesday 1st April
Corpus Metamorphous
(A new collaboration with contemporary dancer Pepa Ubera.)
The Others
6-8 Manor Road,
Stoke Newington, N16
Doors 8pm, Show 8.30pm
£5/4

You'd be mad to miss any of it frankly, even if you do live in the Philipines.

Hosted By: Porpoise Corpus
When: 30 Mar 2008, 21:00
Where: Sun:Charlie Wright’s. Mon:Con Cellar
Sun:45 Pitfield St,N1.Mon:42 St.Pancras Way,Camden
London, London and South East|66 london
United Kingdom
Description:
Porpoise Corpus

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Unfortunately, the law-makers of sod (aka the Iluminati) dictate that our best review will never be published as the man who wrote it - the venerable Ian Mann - was sacked from his job with the www.24dash.com site as they decided to remove their arts and entertainments sections just as he had written it.  They also dictate that "the jazz", being the only station to frequently play our music is down the pan after only just over a year.  Anyway, here's the review...

PORPOISE CORPUS "PORPOISE CORPUS" (F-IRE CD019)

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"The latest F-ire Collective band to make waves on the British jazz scene is Porpoise Corpus, an excellent young sextet led by the talented composer and keyboard player Dave O'Brien.

 

"Their eponymous debut album features eight of O'Brien's engaging compositions and embraces a wide range of styles, sometimes in the course of a single piece. There is a sense of adventure and a breadth of colour to O'Brien's writing that makes these stylistic shifts seem natural and unforced.

 

"In the main the music is a bright, intelligent and particularly British brand of jazz-rock that borrows from 70's funk and fusion, the M Base stylings of Steve Coleman plus more overtly British influences such as Nucleus, Partisans and label mates Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland. Indeed "Predicted Consequence", the albums shortest cut at just fifty-three seconds is a vicious but uplifting squall of Ladyland style skronk.

 

"Porpoise Corpus should have the same kind of crossover appeal as Polar Bear and Ladyland and deserve to win the ears of discerning rock listeners. There is scope here to attract a following beyond the normal jazz demographic.

 

"The music is not without it's gentler moments, the opening track "Neverending" and "Out Of Sight, Out of Mind" and "Silence Is Gold And Diamonds" feature attractive melodies and showcase the leader's skills on acoustic piano.

 

"Elsewhere "Severage On All Other Lines" "Blind, Insane" and "The Seventh Trip" are lengthy funk inspired excursions but the strength and originality of O'Brien's writing means they avoid all the standard jazz-rock clichés. The band also revisits "Neverending" in this vein to close out the album.  Strong themes, odd time signatures and killer riffs abound giving the music an unfolding, cinematic quality. There are powerful solos from saxophonists Tom Ward (alto) and Tom Challenger (tenor) plus Jonathan Bratoeff on guitar. The guitarist is also highly effective as a texturalist throughout the recording.

 

"Bratoeff is of course a leader in his own right and his albums "Between The Lines" and "Points Of Perception" also appear on the F-ire label. The latter is particularly impressive in it's imagination and execution and features Guy "Wampa" Wood as a key collaborator. Wood is heard behind the drumkit with Porpoise Corpus where he forms a flexible, powerful and intelligent rhythmic alliance with bassist Spencer Brown.

 

"Porpoise Corpus have already gathered a good deal of attention and the critical response to their album and live shows has been universally favourable. The album arrived a little too late for the "best of" lists of 2007 but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them as Mercury Music Prize nominees when the time comes around. Definitely one of the acts to look out for in 2008."

Thank you Sir Ian.

BIG IN 2008-
PORPOISE CORPUS
Amid a throng of incoherent groups operating in that uncharted area where jazz rubs shoulders with punk, rock, free-improv and electronica, Porpoise Corpus stand out like beacons of sanity and invention.

Whereas most such bands produce nothing more than a chaotic racket, this adventurous sextet has an impressive underlying architecture which holds everything together. Their debut album and nightclub performances involve vigorous improvisation over a sequence of sketches that produce a witty and absorbing set, full of changes in style and pace.

Looked at individually, pianist David O'Brien, the brains of this refreshing outfit, and fluent tenorist Tom Challenger are clearly stars in the making. This could be a busy year for them all.

Jack Masserick - Evening Standard
28/12/2007

"A strikingly original debut from keyboardist Dave O'Brien, Porpoise Corpus is among the most intriguing Britjazz albums I've heard all year. The band's fusion of raucous punk fusion, complex, electric Headhunter-y grooves and gently melodic acoustic jazz is dynamic and utterly European. O'Brien – winner of last year's Peter Wittingham Award – is a fine pianist, angular and Monkish at times as demonstrated on the characterful opener 'Neverending'. Yet it is his vision as a composer/arranger that is even more striking, be it the racy 70s outer space fusion 'Severage On All Other Lines', featuring a fiery sax solo from Challenger, or 'Out of Sight, Out Of Mind' – a gorgeous apposite straight ahead ballad. O'Brien's sidemen are also out of sight – guitarist Bratoeff combining devilishly with dummer Guy Wood and bassist Spencer Brown on the excellent riff-based 'Blind, Insane'. Meanwhile, O'Brien's musical shapeshifting also occurs in the space of single tunes ('Silence is Gold and Diamonds' a case in point: as bold as it is beautiful with a lovely solo piano that moves into a whirlwind of horn arrangements). Porpoise Corpus might be an odd name, but ut comes highly recommended: one to watch."

Tom Barlow, Jazzwise, Dec 07

(Tom also put us at number 4, in his top 10 new releases of 2007.)

 

Here's one from the Manchester Evening News....

Alan Brownlee
16/11/2007

****

AMBITIOUS and adventurous jazz of dazzling variety, the fare ranges from buoyant fusion (The Seventh Trip), to haunting loveliness (Neverending). Predicted Consequence crosses Mahavishnu Orchestra with Death Metal and is over in a minute.

The strengths lie in the writing - all the tunes are by pianist Dave O'Brien, a mercurial melodist - and the top-class musicianship.

The elegant, impassioned saxophone of Tom Challenger announces a star in the making, while Spencer Brown and Guy Wood make a marvellously funky and fiery rhythm team.