Troyka
"Troyka are Chris Montague (guitars and loops), Joshua Blackmore (drums) and Kit Downes (organ), 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’ are replaced by is it any good? Who live in a post hip-hop world where you can take whatever source materials you like and do your own singular thing with it. In 2009 Troyka were featured on Micachus mixtape ‘filthy friends’ and their debut release was included in Jazzwise magazine’s top ten albums of the year list. In June 2012 to coincide with their 2nd release ‘Moxxy’, Troyka appeared on the front cover of Jazzwise magazine and were named by Timeout magazine as one of the top 10 live acts in London alongside Plan B, Zun Zun, The XX and Hotchip."
Highly impressed with Troyka’s music, composer Django Bates was commissioned by Cheltenham Jazz festival in May 2011 to write a set of music to be performed and broadcast for BBC Jazz on 3. He chose to put Troyka at the heart of this writing process, highly inspired by the trio’s use of rhythm and texture.
In October 2012 the band were included in the Jazz FM award nominations for 2 categories (cutting edge jazz innovation and best UK jazz act). They released a live big band album (from Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2013) in November 2013 (available here) and are currently working on their third studio album for Naim Records.
“Mingus-meets-Motorhead melange of garage rock, improvised jazz, metronomic beats and extreme volume.”
The Independent
“Troyka are fast becoming a force to be reckoned with; like King Crimson for the iPod generation.”
Time Out
“A fascinating conjunction of dance-derived beats, abstract electronica, ambient music, Schofield-like guitar funk, and John Zorn-ish free-iazz.”
The Guardian