Italian quartet poLO (poly oriented Language Orbits) buck the southern European trend somewhat with their hard-edged jazz meets post-punk meets grunge mash-up, sounding more Anglo-Saxon than Latin, with echoes of the Blue Nile, Joy Division and some punk-jazz outfits on the current London scene.
Clearly a band rather than an collection of musicians, poLO’s compositions are gnarled and multi-layered, polished without being worn entirely smooth, wherein carefully arranged ensemble sections set up some searching improvisation from saxophonist Paolo Porta and guitarist Valerio De Paola.
Bassist Andrea Lombardini and drummer Michele Salgarello lay down grooves that flirt with odd meters and metric modulations without ever loosing the clarity of a rock rhythm section.
