With Snipe, taken from their newly launched debut LP Fossa, Portnova channelled the warmth of lust right into a sonic stress system solid between the remoted stillness of Rivington’s forests and the cruel mechanical pulse of a North Manchester industrial property. That friction formed the monitor right into a visceral juxtaposition of sultry and savage.
The UK duo, Matt Hindley and Ben Parsons, held nothing again as they laced seductive French vocals by darkish techno hooks and electro-pop momentum. The vocals lick lust proper by the rhythmic pulses, making sensuality really feel each imminent and inaccessible.
Portnova show they’ve a exact intuition for merging the soiled with the demure. There’s a discernible class woven into the throbbing basslines, but it by no means dilutes the discharge’s chemical efficiency. Transcendence temporally oscillates all through the manufacturing, hitting exhausting with hyper-pulsative beats that blur the road between dissociation and euphoric readability.
Whereas many producers try and alchemise stress and launch, few do it with this a lot physicality. Snipe doesn’t passively play by headphones, it leaves its imprint in your thoughts, physique and breath. That is sound design that hits tougher than the afterglow of the hedonistic haze it emits.
Snipe is now out there to stream on all main platforms, together with Spotify.
Evaluate by Amelia Vandergast
