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Press release for Astronautilus ›

Astronautilus

“Seriously creative … wonderfully irreverent.”
Mojo Magazine

“A blast of assured electro-jazz”
Bristol 24-7

“… a welcome addendum of mystique, intrigue and flat out bravado to the jazz vernacular”
Buzz Magazine

“… pounding rhythms, spacious atmospheres and strongly-crafted melodies – plus, of course, the unpredictability and musical mischievousness that have made the band so exciting and successful.” High Violet

Live at Cheltenham Jazz Festival

“… that inspired quartet of British nonconformists Get The Blessing proved that fusion doesn’t have to be bombastic of humourless. Their brief but exhilarating set, drawing on their excellent new album Lope and Antilope, juggled themes that often resembled a head-on collision between Ornette Coleman and Lalo Schifrin. The sax-and-trumpet-based melodies were brassy, accessible and cliché-free; the inventive washes of electronica created the illusion that a mini big band had sneaked on stage. Quite a treat.” Clive Davis, The Times

Lope and Antilope

“Lope and Antilope has got to be Get The Blessing’s most strikingly original statement on disc so far.” Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise

“Jazz-rock, yes, but not as we know it. Bands attempting to combine the two traditions so often slip into gee-whiz bombast or bland modal ambience. Not so the Bristol-based quartet Get the Blessing. A collection that was, it seems, mostly improvised from scratch in the space of a few days, this is fiercely intelligent music in which muted trumpet and saxophone, enhanced by thoughtful washes of electronica, perform pirouettes over refreshingly melodic vamps. The Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley drops by, too. Clive Deamer’s drumming is astonishingly measured and precise throughout.” Clive Davis, Sunday Times

“It’s probably their best album yet, and the titles aren’t bad either.”
John Fordham, The Guardian

“Get The Blessing stand out for producing distinctive music that doesn’t require a B. Mus (Hons) to appreciate … instantly likeable for its pungency and humour.
Jazz Journal

“This album is an incredible achievement in which there is not one bad aspect. A Masterpiece of temperance and understatement, a career defining moment in which we all fall in love with ‘The Blessing’ ”
Philip Allen, Louder Than War

“Lope and Antilope is an extremely powerful, memorable, atmospheric and original album, built on the jazz tradition, but to which the label ‘jazz’ is pretty much an irrelevance. One of the best records I’ve heard in a while.”
Oliver Arditi

“this is an excellent album”
The Quietus

“The only element to expect is more understated intelligent brilliance.”
Spiral Earth

‘Lope and Antilope’ is simultaneously Get The Blessing’s most and least jazz record. Most because of its birth in improvisation, least because of its use of electronic textures and non jazz rhythms as the group edge closer to post rock, ambient and dance music. As such it’s perhaps their least classifiable album to date, certainly the most interesting, and arguably the best… they remain one of the most interesting bands around – and a terrific live act”
The Jazz Mann

“This quartet comes strong with the electronic effects on their newest recording, but they put it out there in a way that makes it stand out no more, no less than trumpet, sax, bass or drums. Grooves still induce motion like they always do, melodies still make the heart throb and the foot tap, and those harmonic moments that bring the music together in heavenly cohesion still happen… it’s just that there’s some warped notes and electric sizzle and cavernous reverb that helps see it through. This album is all kinds of cool, a quality exceeded only by it also being all kinds of fun. Pick of the Week.”
emusic.com

“Get The Blessing have successfully achieved in Lope and Antilope the right balance between what once was and what now is.” God Is In The TV

“This is an album to listen to and revisit, full of creative interplay, sonic tricks, clever minimal solos and huge and varied atmosphere.” Fatea

“…bristles with more improvising and ensemble ingenuity and the result is an album that manages to unleash the momentum trip hop hampered by the constraints of downtempo dance music could never really tackle.”
Marlbank

OCDC

“… mixes scorching rock with Ornette Coleman-like sax and much more besides to thrilling effect …” The Guardian

“OCDC reveals Get The Blessing as a contemporary music combo with even more delicious potential than we realised” Venue Magazine

Praise for GTB live

“Get the Blessing deliver daft between-tunes gags with a winningly apologetic resignation, but there’s nothing resigned, apologetic, or frivolous about their music” The Guardian
“Take one trumpet, one sax, a modicum of electronics and see what magic you can create” London Jazz News
“…they may well be the most original and exciting band on the British scene at the moment.” – Jazzwise (review of Cheltenham Jazz Festival)
“GTB harness rock and jazz with uncompromising power” – Time Out
“És un so diferent que deixa els sibarites del jazz convençuts d’una gran troballa, potser la mateixa sensació que va tenir el primer europeu que va tastar a Amèrica la xocolata.” – Ara Estiu, Spain