New Portals

"There’s a comparison point with another duo: like Oh Wonder, who issued a new single every month throughout 2015, the intention for New Portals is to release a new song every few weeks. They’ve got loads of “really pretty tunes”, according to their PR, who knows that we’re suckers for pretty up here, especially when the prettiness is balanced by a powerful, pristine production that draws on modern dance styles from R&B to EDM.

The new single, Groove Boy, is crystalline pop with a divine melody, a keyboard pattern that gives “twinkling” a good name, and celestial sighs from Ms Aicken that make Aluna Francis sound like Aretha Franklin. The milieu is the discotheque but the mood is dolorous (“You took my love and you gave it away”). Immaculate use of finger-clicks, too.

Skyline is electronic pop in excelsis, not specifically referential of any beatgeist. It has the commercial potential of a Chvrches and you could imagine any number of superstar performers singing it – a sure sign of the quality of the songwriting.

Do It Right is lovely, with noir shades of the lugubrious R&B of Drake and the Weeknd. Their first single, Standing Over Here, proves they got it right from the start, that they knew exactly what they wanted to achieve with New Portals. The jabbing bassline is pure Motown, and yet it could be Taylor Swift herself behind such cutely cutting asides as: “You’re so off your head from last night on the dancefloor … You stupid so-and-so … All I know is I don’t need it.” And just when you’re thinking the protagonists are never, ever getting back together, there’s an absolutely heavenly chord change or transition where Ruth Aicken sings: “It’s not that I don’t love you…” And it should, if you’ve made it this far, convince you of the quality of this fabulously promising new act." - The Guardian

"Hailing from Belfast, New Portals create vibrant, unobtrusive PC pop."

Sonically, the duo's instrumentation on "Cage" is standard synth-pop, but it comes with a subtle twist of vocal augmentations and whacky lyricisms that bring elements of Tom Misch and Gotye to the fore. Despite the comparisons and the genre's overcrowded space, New Portals still manage to create something bespoke.

The lyrics on "Cage" (“don’t tell me how to feel”) are enunciated with particular rage - the plosives almost spat out. This disturbing dichotomy between the vocals and song's melody is explained in more depth by bandmember Mike Aicken:

"We had been talking about human trafficking, prompted by a local news story about it happening in Belfast. We had also just bought a pet Guinea pig.

"Suddenly, while writing one day, we realised the parallel between the issues surrounding both. Taking a living creature away from its parents, against its will. The feeling of resentment that must develop, but also the dependence on someone else for all of your needs and the feeling of being expendable.

"It's a messy set of mixed feelings that led us to the lines 'I'm not yours to keep', 'you owe me, but you own me', and 'don't tell me how to feel'. So it's not a love song and it's not an angsty - it's something different hopefully!”

Stream "Cage" below as Song Of The Day and catch the duo at Moira Calling Festival on 10th September. - Line of Best Fit

New Artist of The Week: New Portals
Northern Irish duo Michael and Ruth Aicken were known for the folk-pop music they created with The Jepettos, but during some downtime the brother and sister explored a electronic sound that has been impactful for them, thanks to the calibre of honeyed pop songs such as Do It Right and the indie-disco swing of Stay Here Tonight. - Irish Times

Here’s our current Track Of The Day Do It Right - possibly an indication to ourselves to actually focus on the various trials and tribulations that are incurred in moving one’s ass from one area of London to yet another, rather than giving it the “it’ll probably be fine” schwag all the time – from what appears to be one of them-there boy/girl duos called New Portals. We don’t know where they’re from. They don’t appear to have said anywhere, and by that we mean at least three at-a-glance social networking sites that we’ve had our way with in the last 10 minutes or so. At an educated guess, the vocalist sounds either Nordic or Irish (dunno the correlation there, but work with us here. It is Monday after all) given the very light twinge in her voice. Y’know, a bit like Robyn or Suvi. That sort of thing. We’re saying Irish because we saw a review from the Irish Times somewhere. Good one, Sherlock. She could be both, y’know? Any which way, this approach to the vocal gives the rather floaty-electronic musical backdrop the perfect accompaniment to become a formidable pop song, whilst simultaneously giving New Portals a clear platform and space to do that whole “development” thing that everyone in the British music industry seems fucking obsessed by these days. We mean, we are, so we’ll just assume everyone else is too. The music specifically causes us to to daydream of Solange somehow going back in time and laying it on pretty thick as far as the Drive movie soundtrack is concerned. We’re feeling this. - Killing Moon