Corto.Alto: Some Small Fortune album review – Cinematic jazz soundscapes
The latest record from Liam Shortall’s jazz-pop project is self-assured and cohesive, merging sugary strings, sombre rap tracks and mournful operatic tones
It comes as no surprise to learn that Liam Shortall creates dozens of tracks as he begins to work on an album and then selects, in this case, the 15 that make the cut. In his role as multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, performer and leader of the Mercury Music Prize-nominated Corto.Alto project, the Dumfries-born, Glasgow-raised Shortall has ideas coming out of his pores. Marshalling these ideas might be his strongest skill.
Some Small Fortune reveals Shortall to be a romantic as much as a grooving long-time fan of the hip hop and rap scenes. In among the intensely wrought detail of slamming beats and worming keys behind Nigerian lyricist Vector on the single ‘Go’, for instance, there are strings that might have sneaked in from a classic Hollywood soundtrack.
These strings also introduce the album itself on the brief opening title track and are used to fine effect to sweeten the hyperactive ‘Thief’. As well as Vector, Shortall calls on a range of voices including London-based French Senegalese singer-songwriter Anaiis, whose softly expressive vocal enhances the catchy ‘April’, and Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins on the moody ‘Whodis’. There are also contrasting contributions from South Londoner Bina (insouciant on the swampy ‘Something’) and Fife’s own Jacob Alon, who stretches operatically over the acoustic landscape of ‘Noblehill’.
Instrumentally there is much to admire also, not least Shortall’s lithe bass figure on ‘Nothing’ and Fergus McCreadie’s fluently searching piano solo on ‘Prayed We Would’. If the most memorable tracks are the ones that feature the simplest lines emerging through complex detail, there are numbers, too, that have the potential to be epic live. Shortall’s generation might not go for the hard rockers’ foot up on the monitor stance but the guitar riff and gradually building impact of ‘Ijustidontknow’ could be ripe for it.
Corto.Alto: The Sun Never Sets is released by Ninja Tune on Friday 4 September.