Sam Dunn: guitar
Jamie Taylor: guitar
Riley Stone-Lonergan: tenor sax
Ben Lowman: tenor sax
Spencer Brown: bass guitar
Steve Hanley: drums
The Perpetual Motion Machine blends improvisational rock with jazz, surrounding the listener with its stereoscopic twin guitar/twin tenor sound.
Following a 16-date UK tour last Autumn, in support of the debut album “Ignition”, the Leeds-based Perpetual Motion Machine brings its distinctive brand of improv to The Vortex on Monday 23rd July. The essence of PMM is its unusual lineup of twin guitars and twin tenor saxophones, creating a cinemascopic sound that surrounds the listener. Sam Dunn’s intricate post-bop lines on stage left meet the art-rock inflections of his guitar partner Jamie Taylor to stage right. Likewise, the saxophone pairing of Riley Stone-Lonergan and Ben Lowman, which delivers everything from ferocious free jazz and funk, through to exquisitely poised melody whenever the machine engages its slower gear. Bassist Spencer Brown and drummer Steve Hanley not only underpin the above with febrile grooves, but feature equally prominently throughout as solo voices.
“Keep an eye on the Leeds jazz scene – so much adventurous and interesting music coming to the surface just lately. Case in point, the Perpetual Motion Machine” Stuart Nicholson February 2018
“At one end, chicken-scratch guitar that sounds like the work of some disgustingly lecherous space cockerel. At the other end, gently propulsive ostinati and the grandfatherly [sampled] voice of poet ‘Skylark’ Durston. In between…feral free improv, all wailing saxes and face melting guitars. I’m genuinely excited to hear what PMM comes up with next.” Thomas Rees, Jazzwise May 2018
“Perpetual Motion Machine utterly ripped the JATP rug here. Only the second night of their “Ignition” tour and there’s flames lickin’ out the back already. Only God knows what they’ll be like by the time they reach Aberdeen but it will have to be super-special if the JATP gig is any measure. Stunning – a MUST see!” Martin Powell, Jazz At The Priestley, Bradford, September 2017
“With a line-up like this, the risk is that the music will be of the ‘wall of sound’ variety. But these are jazz musicians after all; it is a special musical treat to see the musical differences between two instrumentalists played out in an improvisatory setting.” J.Whitman, Wakefield Jazz, April 2018