Sunday 8 August 2021

NEW #33 - Porchlight

 

For the latest addition to the Breaking More Waves ‘NEW’ feature it’s time to return to Brighton and meet Porchlight, a 5 piece who by the sounds of their name and debut single Drywall are fans of housing construction. If their next single is called Floor Joists or Gutter we’ll know exactly what gets them going for sure.

But what of the music? Porchlight are, at least on Drywall, one of those bands that deliver their words spoken rather than sung. But unlike many of the current crop of post-punk retrobates that are filling up the UK’s stages of pubs and club venues this lot aren’t quite as sneering or aggressive, although there’s still some general shoutiness. This slightly softer approach starts right from the beginning, where guitars are accompanied by twinkling dabs of electronics that sound like they’ve been sampled from a cute video game. But it’s still guitars that propel Drywall forward, reminiscent of Black Country New Road in places, leaving space for the tough masculine sounding vocal delivery. The words don’t make a huge amount of sense to me, but they still manage to sound poetic; main road noise bathed in doubt, steel capped boots, cold winter sky, the comfort of closure and willowed countryside are all mentioned. 

Drywall immediately establishes Porchlight as a band to be reckoned with in the current UK indie-post-punk scene. Let’s see what they do next.

Porchlight play Brighton’s Green Door Store on the 16th August (a free show supporting Peeping Drexels) and their own headline gig at The Hope, also in Brighton, on September 14th.

Porchlight - Drywall

 

1 comment: