CORTO.ALTO - Some Small Fortune

Jazz fusion, afrobeat, wonky sound, broken beat: these are closely related strands, but the ease with which Glasgow bassist and multi-instrumentalist Liam Shortall blends them is unique, and it has bewitched Ninja Tune. “Some Small Fortune”, the third album from his project corto.alto, is indeed being released by the London label of Amon Tobin, Black Country, Floating Points – for over thirty years an inescapable reference point for the most urban and leftfield independent music.

The album opens with a chamber-music prelude, but this calling card is somewhat misleading: soon the rhythm takes over, limping yet feverish, propelled by Shortall's bass and the drums of faithful collaborator Graham Costello. The bpm climbs, and within a few tracks “Temple” sets off in pursuit of KNOWER over a neon carpet of chopped-up samples, where the composed elegance of strings and Fergus McCreadie's piano is torn apart by raucous trombone zigzags.

It's on the afrobeat front, however, that Shortall pushes furthest. “Go” moves through deeply jagged terrain, with an off-kilter beat over which Nigerian rapper Vector's verses are grafted. Equally kaleidoscopic, “Don't Listen” advances with a shapeshifting gait: offbeat triplets that land when least expected, and flashes of Latin flavor that spill into an almost dance-like coda. Rounding out the triptych is “Ijustidontknow”: over a deep, extremely rubbery bass, the track weaves consistently disorienting drum interlocks and builds by degrees, between atmospheric climaxes and abrupt reversals that repeatedly reshuffle the hierarchy among the instruments.

Elsewhere, the album slows down and looks to neo-soul. “Prayed We Would”, featuring Oscar Jerome of Kokoroko, moves through thinning-outs and build-ups. “Something”, entrusted to the voice of BINA., confirms this direction, and its opening phrasing stays lodged in memory like a glimpse of a fusion previously unthinkable between the mutant sounds of Mk.gee, Willow and Thundercat.

The sound of “Some Small Fortune” is effervescent and multifaceted, constantly derailing. Yet Shortall's personality remains clear and unmistakable at every turn. And, as incredible as it may seem amid such disarray, the album even arrives at a kind of refinement of its own: that of a garment of urban inspiration tailored to measure, its breakbeats hand-stitched by musicians with a jazz touch. In its day, the streetwear that hit the runway had bought its class with the price tag left clearly visible; the shapeshifting sound of corto.alto, which has no use for ostentation, achieves the same with far more nonchalance – relying solely on the finesse of the cut.

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22/10/2026