bandwagon

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This week’s highlighted album comes from the Copenhagen trio Town Portal. While perusing random Danish music I came upon this band. Their new record “The Occident” was released just this May and is fantastic. This is really excellent math rock that reminds me of Polvo except in that it’s entirely instrumental. The only thing that could make this album better, in fact, would be some Polvo-esque vocals.

Bonus Trigger starts out the lp with some styling guitars. Reminds me a bit of the snazzy guitar licks Grass is Green might deploy (in more extensive proportions though perhaps). Eschaton slows things down initially. But this song has excellent rhythmic starts and stops, ups and downs, and moments of reflection. Deep Error is basically an awesome short bridge. Heavy, simple, and teasing.

K. was the first song that caught my attention on my first listen. It’s a great song and I played it on the radio show already. Again, this song strongly recalls Polvo for me. I’m not saying Town Portal is a Polvo clone, only in that they have tapped into a similar styling that really works. And it’s their own, so don’t be confused by that.

Yes Golem, however, might be my favorite track on the album. It’s hard, grating, and cascading. Then it will suddenly slow down and reset at just the right moments. The title inspires some kind of mythic darkness and adventure and the song does not disappoint on that front.

Dream Bureau falls on the quiet but lovely end of things. I appreciate that Town Portal is completely comfortable going from the heavy and aggressive to the more serene. Moon Treaty continues this trend before Town Portal cashes in with the tantalizing World Core and Peripheral Islands. Which is a completely epic song title. And the song is quite epic on it’s own. And randomly at some point in the tune there is some random June of 44 talk over for about 10 seconds. That was seriously tantalizing. I think more of that could be really effective with their style. But they don’t need it either. And on second listen I didn’t notice it so maybe I completely imagined that.

If you want to know more about the band, check out this interview via bandwagon. Otherwise, listen below. You can buy the vinyl or get the download at a reasonable rate on bandcamp.