Physhy

No set list required. Pensive Phish were in their F3 incarnation, meaning three players: Mark, Miro and James. No set list because no key, no changes, no whatever - at least nothing preplanned - other than perhaps some starter drum grooves or crying babies and others (yes, a strange start for one tune). But these are such good players that even when they amused themselves with their indulgences, they were still playing fabulous grooves and wildly delirious tones and the rest. James joked that he had 3 loops going at one time and he had to turn off the effects to stop the last. And what effects! Some obvious ones, if neatly melded with the rest, and some unhinged ones, synths or ring modulators. And with James' rock solid funky feels and lithe fills and the rest. Then Miro with just his one pedal, a wonderfully effective harmoniser, but also percussion and a few mutes (not least the Miles mute, Harmon with no stem), playing some fabulous improvs, moving through harmonies, wistful or determined. And the electronics from Mark: a laptop with a trigger pad and a Mopho x4 synth and feeds from James and Miro and a mic. All mixed and merged and mangled as base and expansion. All fabulous, intriguing, meditative or deeply grooving, playful (always both playful and serious) and entrancing and enveloping. I rocked along with deep grooves and followed solos with appreciation and mischievous tones and tunes with awe and a few smiles. Great stuff and worthy of a few chuckles from the players after given the exhilarating audacity or it all.

Pensive Phish F3 are Mark Webber (laptop, synth), Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet, percussion) and James Luke (bass, effects). They played at Smiths.

Phishing

It's cold and wet in Canberra. Hippo is warm and enveloping but the numbers are down a bit. Pensive Phish were playing. It's Miro and James and Mark Webber with laptop and loops and the grooves are all Miles and Bitches Brew and the like. I caught one set and enjoyed it immensely. I imagine it's fully improvised, just a key and a groove and whatever effects appeal. Kay was sitting in on drums and this was determined and sometimes ornery with a few bar of suspended syncopations or the groove moving with new but sustained accents on snare or other. I loved hearing James with his firm grooves and deep octaves and various other effects, and Miro's trumpet, sometimes clear, sometimes speaking back from something happening on Mark's laptop. I didn't always hear Mark's laptop, but I guess the vibes fatten with it and certainly the few tunes (they only played two extended grooves for the first set) ended with fading loops and quotes from Miro and others. There was percussion there, too. I guess Miro, as he is wont to add, but also repeated by Mark, I also guess. Lachlan was the choppy, almost bluesy with, what, mutating minor third patterns (?), that give the slower grooves some scintillation. The beauty is in the insistence of the groove and the conversations of the variations of all the parts. But it must also be the tonal colours of instruments, the swirling sounds that repeat from the originals being formed right there in front of you. Electronics are key. It may use laptops, but it harks back to Miles in the late-60s. I just want to get out what meagre effects I have and toy with them. But then, it's not quite so easy, of course.

Pensive Phish were Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet), Lachlan Coventry (guitar), James Luke (bass), Mark Webber (laptop) and Kay Chinnery (drums) and they played at Hippo.

Phishing for the groove

The band was Pensive Phish. Not a serious sounding name and a good deal of good natured presence but the playing itself was serious. PP was James Luke, Miro Bukovsky, Mark Sutton and one-time student in electronic music at the School of Music, Mark Webber. Mark performs on laptop, so there's processing and contemporary approaches here. Then Lachlan Coventry also along for the ride, playing both Fender VI bass and Fender tele guitar. All that with the minimalist change of Miles of the jazz rock era. Determined and central drums from Mark S and firm and steady bass from Lachlan or James formed the intense rhythms. James might solo, all effects and processing, up the neck, against a riff from Lachlan. There was one riff that passed from Bass VI to James' fatter JB and that was a revelation in variation of tone. I liked Lachlan's firm resolve in bass; James was more playful, so different, but both held strong grooves. Mark S was there, always, solid, inventive when called for, but a rock in laying the foundation. The rhythm section is often all-important; perhaps even more so here. These were great grooves. And was Mark W in there with more grooves? I thought I heard some background percussion: this may have been loops on Mark S's percussion pads. He certainly was with a range of processing, echoes and loops, I guess. Lachlan picked up guitar for some passages, clean and reiterative, sometimes with a blues edge (blues scales made an appearance), even driving and distorted for some rockier sections. It was loud and the audience was following all this. Interesting to see the response to a rock-take on jazz, along with the electronics to make for the contemporary. Miro would fly over on trumpet with luscious modal phrasing, ending on all manner of scalar degrees; not dissonant but inquiring. Then leave the trumpet and enrichen groove with various latin percussions. This is incessant music, flowing and probing, demanding of space to listen and a good ear to follow, even when sitting 4/4 on A or whatever. The room was unusually entranced by a side of jazz we seldom here these days and in these places. There were times where it was a touch lost, but that's the nature of extended grooves, searching for that magic. So, great music and great band name, too.

Pensive Phish was James Luke (bass), Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet), Mark Sutton (drums), Mark Webber (laptop) and Lachlan Coventry (bass, guitar).