4 ...according to our Business Lady on 29 October 2009.
Port-Royal are an Italian duo that specialise in the magical and wondrous sounds that can be created by mashing up shoegazing influences with modern ambient synth sounds. Last years ‘Afraid To Dance’ proved to be a favourite with a ton of peeps ensuring greater exposure and additional remix work for the keen duo. This new offering 'Dying in time' carries on from where they left of with 'Afraid to Dance' but incorporates a heavier electronic influence with an emphasis on synth pop and techno. The techno influence is subtle and old skool but it's certainly present and helps elevate these these compositions to new heights of creativity. Dull, thumping bass drum beats assist you through the cacophony of ambient tones, droning synth basslines, arpeggiated grooves and odd, inaudible vocal lines. As you expect this is journey music, as perfect after a big ol' boffer with the headphones on late at night as it would be in a field full of pilled up mongo's, 'Dying in time' has a little something for everyone, as long as you like it ambient and uplifting of course.
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Sound clips for Dying In Time by Port Royal: on CD at Norman Records UK. CD, N5MD, MD169 , £11.29.
Two years have passed since the release of Italian post-shoegaze band Port-Royal's ‘Afraid To Dance’ album on Resonant, but they have been keeping very busy with writing, recording, touring Europe and Russia, as well as creating remixes for the likes of Ladytron and Felix Da Housecat. For their third album, Port-Royal have expanded their sound to encompass the more electronically skewed perspectives of synth-pop and even techno while still holding steadfast to their roots and original core sound that has always lain somewhere between shoegaze and emotively soaring ambient. Hailed by fans and critics alike as the next evolution in post-millenial post-rock, Port-Royal's boundless approach to the genre fuses elements of ambient techno, shoegaze, and melodic IDM, recalling at times the mid-90s output of Orbital and Aphex Twin while indebted to the guitar-driven aesthetic of genre forebears Mogwai and Sigur Ros. With the exclusion of the three-movement, slowburning ‘Hermitage’, the majority of ‘Dying In Time’ finds Port-Royal burying their contrapuntal guitar work under layers of gauzy synths, pulsing four-on-the-floor beats, and more prominent vocals on over half the album. With tighter song structures and a new melodic focus, Port-Royal's latest effort manages to preserve the ethereal, dream-like quality of their previous work, while making room for the infectiously-catchy ambient pop of tracks like ‘Badling Generation (Losing Hair As We Lose Hopes)’ and ‘Nights In Kiev’. As the title may suggest there is an undercurrent of aching melancholy to ‘Dying In Time’, as if the band are expressing the feelings they have for the temporality of life's situations and feelings.
