It’s hard not to gush about Town Portal, whose three albums thus far have blended sludge, post-metal and math rock into a riffy, angular soup. The three-piece has ever excelled at dark, moody music based on hypnotic rhythmic interplay between bright guitar, tight drum grooves and earthy, thudding basslines. Seriously, just listen to these basslines. We at FB have been writing about TP since 2012’s Chronopoly, which certainly makes me feel like an old man – and you can read our review of their gnarly new record Of Violence here.
It’s also hard to not gush about Small Pond. The Brighton-based studio is a pillar of the UK math rock community, outputting releases from premium bands, putting on festivals, and recording live sessions for the internet tubes – they’ve videoed everyone from Delta Sleep to the Dillinger Escape Plan since they began in 2014. They also had a neat cameo in Of Violence’s recording – they were responsible for the brass sections that artfully swell under the more melodic passages of the album.
Imagine our excitement when we learned that the stars had aligned – Town Portal have returned to Brighton to record an in-studio (rather than in-fieldhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opQsxtnGNFA) version of ‘Archright’, from the latest album. We’re thrilled to be able to preview it here. Archright is a dynamic track that carries the trio from rolling 3/4 swells to more contemplative passages and back again – and it sounds even chunkier live.
Town Portal are on tour in the UK with Kowloon Walled City and Wren from the 19th July – check them out!
19.07 – London: facebook
20.07 – Bristol: facebook
21.07 – Brighton: facebook
‘Of Violence’ is out now on Small Pond (UK) and Art As Catharsis (Australia). You can purchase the album in digital and vinyl format right here.