Thursday 7 March 2013

Portasound - Sacrifice EP

Portasound's four-track EP Sacrifice was out on February 11th, and while we've been a bit quiet here recently, it's an energetic production that helps to kickstart things with a bang as we get back into the swing of things for 2013.

First of all, if you're thinking four tracks is what you'd expect to get on a CD single, then in principle you're right, but in practice Sacrifice is very much an EP.

In this case, though, the 'extended' part of the play time comes not from having six or seven tracks, but from each track being at least four minutes long - not operatic in magnitude, but a long way from being just a handful of radio edits.

Combined, the play time is almost 20 minutes of auditory bliss, and the individual tracks are epic if not in terms of duration, then in their progression, layering, and sheer complexity of sound.

Give them a listen, and you'll spot the places where a different artist might have put an extra track break, and added to the playlist with a one-minute 'song' simply called 'Intro'.



For the best example of the acoustic genius that underpins this EP, skip straight to Ascension, the final track on the EP.

This could easily be lifted straight from the finale of an 80s sci-fi movie - and from me, there isn't much higher praise I can give to a tune than that.

It has the sense of a virtual world being stripped away to reveal the reality beneath, of elements interacting outside of any control, either human or otherwise.

Good electronic music has been making a resurgence in the past year or so, and this is definitely good electronic music, complemented by all of the necessary cymbal crashes and other such elements needed to flesh it out into being more than just a pre-sequenced synth track.

It's my personal high point on an overall great EP - and one that I'm delighted to finally get mentioned on Popsiculture.

Visit Portasound's artist page on iTunes:
Portasound

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