The young drummer Luke Bainbridge graduated with a Masters in Jazz Performance from the Royal Academy of Music in 2020, but neither study nor Covid could prevent him from focussing on nurturing his quintet towards recording his debut release Surface Tension. Being from the same London neighbourhood, the band personnel were able to meet up for open-air rehearsals during the Lockdown period. Bainbridge, a winner of the John Dankworth prize for composition in 2017, favours angular yet snappy contemporary grooves and plays great alongside the fine Chaos Collective bassist Huw V Williams. Bainbridge’s compositions are melodically rather than harmonically-driven. Free of traditional harmonic constraints then, the trombone-vibes frontline shift mostly between looping riffs and improv-on-a-groove. The band synthesise elements from a diverse range of styles including twentieth century chamber classical, early-into-free jazz, through to rock and more contemporary post-hiphop styles. Ralph Wyld, who’s been one of our most impressive vibraphonists during the last decade recording with Yazz Ahmed among others, demonstrates a real clarity in his solos and the trombonist Kieran McLeod, a contributor among others to the bands of Julian Argüelles and Iain Ballamy, is in playful, garrulous mood. A promising debut then even if the melodic material presented by Bainbridge is a bit too low-key to really turn heads. Instead it’s the hyper-rhythmic, tightly-knit ensemble dialogue that’s the most exciting thing here.