I make no pretence to impartiality: I love Portico Quartet. I urge you to stop reading this stupid review right now, and to go and buy their first two albums. Or listen to them on Spotify. Whatever you kids do these days. I’ve wanted to see them live for ages, but for various reasons the best I ever managed was to hear a few muted chords through the plastic of a festival portaloo during a particularly unpleasant morning.

But the five stars are not merely a mark of my pathetic admiration for the band. They really did play a great gig last night at the Junction. The eerie opener set the tone for the evening. The night was a chance for Portico Quartet to experiment with playing their new material live before the upcoming album release in January. Those hoping for a run through of all the old classics were disappointed – for a little bit. Their new stuff sounds great. The four young men are refusing to be typecast by the sound which won them a Mercury prize nomination and unexpected popular success. During the evening the bassist used a bow as often as he plucked, and the saxophonist, hang player and drummer exploited a bewildering array of electronic instruments to play with new sounds, including one song which sounded like techno.

“Techno!” was the gobsmacked word on everybody’s (well, some people’s) lips as we filed out at the end. This kind of music is a far cry from the effortlessly melodious jazz of their first album, but that doesn’t matter, because it’s good. A potential criticism would be that this new sound seems to sideline the excellent saxophonist in favour of the drummer and the bassist. But in such a consistently skillful group of musicians it does not matter if the focus shifts, because wherever it lands there’ll be good music. If you didn’t stop reading earlier, you have to now, so go and buy the first two albums (Knee Deep in the North Sea and Isla) and get ready to book tickets for the next gig in January. You will not be disappointed.