Hi-Res Downloads

44.1kHz/24-bit WAV/FLAC/ALAC, Naim CD210 (supplied by www.naimlabel.com)

So what’s with the Hitchcockian title? Well, London-based trio Troyka tells us the title of its new album comes from guitarist Chris Montague’s fear of birds – this ‘escalated into an album set in a fictionalised London: a post-apocalyptic dystopian nightmare in which people have contracted a form of avian flu that is slowly turning them into human-size birds’. Hmm… so the concept is high, but fortunately so are the playing and production values: the sound is dense and convoluted, but retains good impact and clarity, while the ever-changing rhythms and clear musicianship lift this set above being yet another teenage rough-book jotting – always a danger when jazzers get an idea for a ‘concept’. Producer Petter Eidh holds it all together well, despite the complexity, and this is an album with demo-quality sound that you might actually want to listen to a second time. AE

Sound Quality: 90%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

Densely recorded in parts with plenty of percussive energy right up to the end stops of this (necessarily band-limited) 44.1kHz file, it’s clear that a substantive chunk of ultrasonic content – real or distortion – has been lopped off! PM