Polar Bear, Village Underground

British four-piece Polar Bear have long made a habit of straddling genres and blurring distinctions, and with the release this year of their fifth studio album, the Mercury-nominated In Each and Every One, it's clear that their roving, jazz impulses will continue to defy categorisation for the foreseeable future.
Part avant-garde post-jazz, part pared-down ambient electronica and part lo-fi saxophone-led soul, Polar Bear have demonstrated at every turn the wealth of talent within their ranks and the ability to steer Seb Rochford's project in one of any number of different musical directions to unfailingly satisfying effect.
Back in 2004 they made waves with Held on the Tips of Fingers, a crossover hit which earned PB their first Mercury nomination – an unusual feat for a purely instrumental album, and since 2010's excellent Peepers, the members of Polar Bear have thrown in their lot at various times with bands as diverse as Melt Yourself Down, Sons of Kemet and Basquiat Strings, turning up on a range of records both broad and underrated and weaving together around themselves a nebulous and collaborative scene.
You can be sure, then, that now is as good a time as ever to catch the band live, seemingly at the peak of the powers but with the talent and creative ingenuity to take it even further.