2 Years have past in all our lives since the release of the port-royal's “afraid to dance” (Resonant) but the royals have been keeping very busy with writing, recording, touring the EU and Russia, as well as creating remixes for the likes of Ladytron and Felix Da Housecat. For “Dying in time” 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 laid somewhere between shoegaze and emotively soaring ambient. As the title may suggest there is an undercurrent of aching melancholy to the album, as if the band are expressing the feelings they have for the temporality of life's situations and feelings.

the skeleton crew quarterly

First thing’s first: ‘Hva (Failed Revolutions)’ absolutely kills. Layers of beats – some fuzzy, some as clear as a knuckle knocking for attention from deep within your speakers – percolate over growing vocal haunts, eventually stuttering into an enticing breakbeat of BPM-morphing proportions. Over the course of this opening track’s eight-plus minutes, several different beat-genomes are tested out and while each races in and putters out like a dry run, its final quarter is dedicated to a patient build-up that feeds right into the trance ambition of following ‘Nights in Kiev’. That being said, it’s fair to ask one of the following two questions: (1) “so after eight minutes, the opening track never actually delivers…?”, and (2) “wait, aren’t these guys supposed to be post-rock?”.

In short, the answer to both inquiries is “yes” but black and white answers really blindside the beauty behind Dying in Time. ‘Hva (Failed Revolutions)’ is not only an album highlight but an unstable template as well, as many of these tracks breach the seven-minute mark by undergoing sporadic structural shifts. ‘Susy: Blue East Fading’ is a virtual three-song suite, stretching its gloomy loops for nearly three minutes before a 4/4 beat pops in and leads to a tantalizing dancefloor of the mind, borrowing early Depeche Mode’s temper and trance’s androgynous energy. Slightly less straightforward is ‘Exhausted Muse/Europe’ which buzzes and echoes like the neon afterglow of a Saturday night when industrial beat-programming jumps into the mix and robs the listener of his/her senses. It’s a jarring minute that’s lost amid the other nine and a prime example of how port-royal’s seamless compositions can tease one’s patience. By the time ‘Balding Generation (Losing Hair as We Lose Hope)’ trickles in like M83’s take on a techno anthem, Dying in Time begins to make sense. An impressive split between post-rock determination and electronic aesthetics, this mammoth collection resembles the sound of running back and forth between a late-night dance club and the frigid, spaceous winter outside. Despite the album’s cover-art, remember: there are no black and whites here. This is truly an album of grays, shifting and folding over one another.

To keep momentum, port-royal include a few shorter compositions (the tragic to ecstatic ‘I Used to Be Sad’, the super-retro ‘The Photoshopped Prince’) but these tracks generally segue into lengthier pieces. As if I haven’t mentioned the term “mammoth” already, it’s notable that at seventy-two minutes long, Dying in Time asks a lot of its audience. All of these songs are committed to a near-gothic moodiness that can sometimes give the record a one-note feel… and while it’s an added challenge, I can’t deny how often port-royal’s latest reminds me of Disintegration. Equally confrontational and absurdly one-note, The Cure’s 1989 masterwork has all the draws and repulsions that Dying in Time subscribes to: how each track warms up slowly and devotes itself to references of aging and death, not to mention how mercilessly dark the whole affair is. port-royal may overstress their point in a few cases but there’s no refuting how instinctive and all-encompassing Dying in Time sounds. bearded magazine

In 2004 Port-Royal gained critical acclaim for their first full length LP Flares. This foursome’s now polished brand of electronic fused with guitars, encompasses all that is beautiful about shoegaze and post-rock. And on Dying In Time they have created a gorgeous sound for those reflective days, when being enveloped by atmospheric synth, and glitchy electronic beats, is the most profound experience this side of Antarctica.

In fact, this album is probably worth buying just for its opening track - the majestic ‘HVA – Failed Revolutions’. Floating melodies, ghostly whispers, and a syncopated rhythm that Icelandic pioneers, Múm, would be proud of, combine to soothe the soul. Then suddenly, a weirdly unnerving wet electronic groove arrives - it’ll blow your mind.

Port-Royal are a group that defy expectations – they’re a band from Genoa, Italy who’ve gained international recognition, and in an age when half of the so-called “post-rock” bands still sound like Explosions In The Sky, their music is undeniably original.

It is probably the European techno influence that separates them, complimenting their moods and stylistic approach, and also adding texture and contrast from other, purely guitar based soundscapes. One is reminded of an early Aphex Twin album – Selected Ambient Tunes, with its pulsing beats, and yearning emotional depths brimming just below the surface. Perfect for the night after the night out.

The more epic tunes like the oddly named ‘Balding Generation - Losing Hair As We Lose Hope’, are undeniable similar to the work of M83. But while M83 risk sounding like a parody of martian space rock on occasions, Port-Royal manage to avoid sweeping musical clichés.

This isn’t an album to put on when you’re in a hurry, it’s slowly building crescendos demand greater attention. It’s not happy music either - melancholy hangs like cosmic particles over dark matter.

But listen and you shall be rewarded - with this record, Port-Royal have made beautiful music to rival the likes of Sigur Rós and Múm. No mean feat. [sic] magazine

All the talk amongst port-royal fans, aficionados and critics alike, ahead of this, one of the more significant releases of the year, has concerned whether or not the Genoa boys are about to go ‘pop’? My own feeling is that they just might be, but why would that even matter? Think of the perfect pop song, any perfect pop song, giddying and unforgettable. Your humble servant/writer was still in short trousers the first time a radio song utterly floored him. It was Donna Summer’s ‘I feel love’ – fantastic, feverish and the ideal soundtrack to a very hot summer. Punk? I didn’t have a clue it was even happening. I was ten.

The meat in the sandwich of p-r’s third album proper comes a long way toward evoking the spirit of 1977. It is a sequence of tracks beginning with ‘i used to be sad’ and ending with ‘balding generation’ – a set of music that really belongs together. In a way, they couldn’t be apart. They are all variations on a theme.

And it all has something to do with Giorgio Moroder. Yes, the Italian maestro who influenced the likes of Human League, Japan and New Order, and who of course produced the lovely Miss Summer’s aforementioned europop classic. It’s all here. (Gay) disco stomping beats, mesmerising sequencers. Naturally it’s all given the ‘royal’ treatment as songs fade beautifully into and out of swirling ambient effects.

Here’s how good Dying In Time is: Somewhere (around track 2) you think ‘this is my favourite track’. By the next track, you’re changing your mind, or at least you are…until the next track. It goes on like that pretty much for the entire album. Yet it isn’t all plain sailing, as the album has to overcome the slightest of uncertain beginnings. ‘hva (failed Revolutions)’ gags and splutters like a mouthful of something dubious. The opening track and the band are searching for their rhythm. In a way they are stretching. Warming up. It’s like witnessing a great champion, a Roger Federer, knocking up before a match. He’ll try a few ball-tosses and serves, he’ll offer up a few lobs for his opponent to practice smashing. He hasn’t quite clicked into express mode. He’s fettered and yet you still know he’ll annihilate the other guy. It’s the same with p-r on this first track. They’re stretching, reaching for something. It is, perhaps, their most IDM track to date. They’re trying something different then and arguably not quite succeeding. And they named it ‘failed revolutions’. Clever boys, the Royals.

So we go from failed revolutions to successful revelations. ‘nights in kiev’ is a glorious example of p-r 2009. This is where they’re at, right now. This is the true appetizer for the album. This is game one of the match proper and Federer holding his serve to love. How to describe ‘nights in kiev’? The beats (from Afraid to dance) are still evident. Here they’ve been married up with the things that I think made p-r great to begin with, namely playful, child-like melodies and a gorgeous wash of effects noise. ‘nights in kiev’ could be ‘Anna Sehnsucht’ if ‘Anna Sehnsucht’ had been on ‘Flares’. I guess that’s really just a knowing way of saying the best of both worlds. The best of both previous albums, rolled into one.

What follows is more excellence. One cannot overstate the influence of Mogwai with p-r. I sometimes think that the pearls of genius that p-r have offered up in their brief career to date would have served as the perfect follow-ups to the Glaswegians first album proper, ‘Young Team’. ‘exhausted muse’ is a perfect example of this. It is gorgeous and it outshines anything on Come On Die Young. Other moments venture into William Orbit, trance territory. Give it a year and Madonna will beg to work with them.

And so the royals crank it up, track after track until, with ‘balding generation’, you wonder if it can go any further. It’s as though we’re in the closing sequence of Close Encounters Of the Third Kind. We’ve seen the Mothership. We’ve seen its inhabitants. Top that! Except….we’re going inside. It’s wonderful. It’s even more wonderful because it’s the special, extended edition with a further half hour of twinkly lights and Dreyfuss rapture. It’s even more wonderful because we’re taking off. We’re leaving the Earth. We’re passing the other planets and still it isn’t over. You see, before you leave our solar system, you have to pass the three gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Or in this case, the ‘Hermitage’ suite, parts 1, 2, and 3.

So you see, if we’re saying this isn’t their best album I’m fine with that. Then I ask you this. How good must the others be? yorkshire evening post

“Italian electronic shoegaze” may sound like a deathly proposition, but Italian four-piece port-royal keep boredom at bay with huge throbbing sub bass and attractive broken beats woven amongst the ambient noodling, ethereal found sounds, and echoey waves of guitar and synth. Dying In Time is totally accessible and a strangely soothing, dreamy treat for fans of post-rock acts like Mogwai and Sigur Ros and electronic chill-out artists like Global Communications and Boards Of Canada. the line of the best fit

Hold on a second – what’s this? An Italian post-rock band? Wonders will never cease! And, they’re not that new either. port-royal (notice the lowercase and hyphenated name) have been around since 2000, releasing four previous albums, a host of EP’s and contributing to a raft of compilations. Also, like most modern bands, they seem to be a collective – cutting and pasting band members at each step and which ever musical thread is prevalent at that particular recording time.

However history, as always, is only part of the story: It’s really all about the music. Dying In Time is a wondrous and uplifting slice of modern music. Let’s not get bogged down in whether it’s post-rock, ambient, modern-classical or, indeed, some alien brand of trip-hop. Dying In Time possesses elements of all these genres, but blends them in such a way as they feel natural, that music has always sounded like this and possessed these qualities that inspire feelings of joy and wonder.

Their contemporaries would include M83, Vessels or Max Richter – this is music that favours instrumentals and sounds over vocals. ‘Nights in Kiev’ and ‘Anna Ustinova’ wouldn’t sound out of place on Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts for example, with it’s movie style voiceover and clipped, thunderous beats. Unlike, say, Vessels, guitars are pretty much nonexistent. To read that port-royal started out as a bedroom project using 4-track recorders shouldn’t be a surprise – you can imagine their live show involving them standing behind the now ubiquitous Macbooks, pushing away at keys as lights flicker around them. But that would suggest this is an unnatural, processed sound, and that does Dying in Time a disservice. As the album title suggests, there’s a human element to this and it feels organic. There’s a heart and a brain behind these sounds, developing this humane framework in which it sits. And, like a real consciousness, there are moments of darkness and moments of light. The delicate opening to ‘Exhausted Muse / Europe’ floats and picks its way through the misty clouds of an Autumnal morning, whilst the Top 40 Euro-pop of ‘The Photoshopped Prince’ should soundtrack nightclubs the continent over with its euphoric beats and feel-good lyrics. It doesn’t stop there either. There’s a playfulness here as well, see ‘Balding Generation (Losing Hair As We Lose Hope)’ as an example. Sparkling synths shine like the big, balding beacon it name-checks whilst shifting vocals wash over them until the beats kick in, turning this into another hidden-pop gem. Honestly, I can’t think of a reason why this album isn’t massive.

The darkness comes from the slower, more drone-inspired spectrums of sound, like ‘Hermitage Pt 1’ and ‘Hermitage Pt 2’. This is the more experimental arm of port-royal, creating shimmering waves of sound over more laid back beats and are deeply introspective. They’re wonderful segues of music, like placeholders for the more uplifting movements, and without them Dying In Time just wouldn’t work. As 2009 falters to a close, we come to review the year and, indeed, the decade, as a whole. In these endless lists of lists there’ll be hidden gems just waiting to be unearthed. If you’re after something particularly hidden and particularly awesome, then look no further. exclaim

Genoa, Italy-based quartet Port-Royal come out with their third remarkable full-length, Dying In Time, on n5MD. For the past two years, Port-Royal have been touring and honing their technical skills, including tackling remixes for Ladytron and Felix Da Housecat. The group's home label, Resonant, recently ended, but with a new focus on electronic executions, the transition to n5MD's roster appears effortless. On Dying In Time, Port-Royal deliver their original, emotionally elevated shoegaze ambience while incorporating distortions of techno and synth pop. "Susy: Blue East Fading" is a gorgeous, epic ride with blissful melodic builds, pulsating 4/4 rhythms and hints of dreamy vocals. "The Photoshopped Prince" is an infectious, uplifting vocal synth pop track and "Hermitage Pt. 3" is the perfect closer, leaving the listener with sentimental, guitar-driven post-rock. Port-Royal present an album of euphoric grand gestures and delicate melancholy, conveying a fragility of time, just as the title implies. pop matters

Dying in Time enters with only some hesitation and leads to cinema-sized-scene changeovers that sound as if they’ve been blended by a veteran DJ. Its frosty cover art conveys distance and signals one might find a lengthy dub-techno endeavor tucked within its 72 minutes. While the Italian four-piece Port-Royal won’t shy from slowing the pace of its post-rock/electronic work with serene, still segments, the band’s latest, Dying in Time, is more urgent than the premature judgments that the album sleeve encourages. Port-Royal’s third LP (but first at n5MD, the band’s new home) is luminous—a guitar-and-programmed-beats-strewn outing that is as hazy as it is chaotic and digitally pattering—and it gets going immediately.

A generous interplay of musical elements (shoegaze, ambient, and techno) lends marvelous diversity to Dying in Time. It’s a much louder record than Dntel would make or more artful than labelmate Near the Parenthesis ever gets on L’Eixample, but Dying‘s rushes of sound and meticulous segues probably make for such comparisons. While no particular track here best represents the whole, “Anna Ustinova” is a highlight, lifting off like a piece or two from Ulrich Schnauss’s A Strangely Isolated Place (the German techno producer added an edit to Flared Up, a remix comp of tracks from Port-Royal’s 2005 debut, Flares). Processed vocals from guest Natalia Fiedorczuk are buried partly in a swirl of pristine synth lines and reverberating guitars on “Anna”, and a volley of hard-clipped beats thundering through the center do nothing to disturb the vocalist’s contribution. “Nights in Kiev” makes up a small part of Dying‘s shimmering dance music portion, or what eventually becomes dance music after periods of beatless shoegaze. This frequent mutation is the record’s most admirable trait, and when the closing suite, “Hermitage”, morphs from gently knocking electro-pop to vigorous rock in under 20 minutes, it proves to be the kind of exercise Port-Royal demonstrates masterfully in the studio. textura

It's great to see port-royal (Attilio Bruzzone, Ettore Di Roberto, Emilio Pozzolini, Sieva Diamantakos) now comfortably ensconced at n5MD following its tenure with the now-defunct Resonant, especially when the band's current style feels so much in sync with the n5MD aesthetic. Following on the heels of 2005's Flares and 2007's Afraid To Dance, the Italian outfit's third full-length, Dying In Time, shows that the group's sound has evolved from an epic shoegaze-and-post-rock hybrid into something even more stylistically encompassing and electronics-oriented (techno even surfaces in a couple of places). The poppy synth effects, rousing vocals, and big beats that inaugurate “The Photoshopped Prince,” for instance, might sound to listeners familiar with the band's previous output as the work of an entirely different band. One thing hasn't changed: as the album title indicates, port-royal hasn't traded in its music's melancholic disposition for something carefree and light-hearted.

Anything but shrinking violets, the group opts for a sound that's wall-to-wall epic in the extreme, with electronics, synthesizers, beats, vocals, and guitars all caught up in an immense, dizzying vortex of sound. Rather than hewing to a single style or mood, many of the tracks change shape a number of times, something that generous running times (many in the eight-minute range) accommodate. Though “Susy: Blue East Fading,” for example, begins in ethereal dreamscape mode, it's not long before the music swells into a throbbing powerhouse perched halfway between techno and shoegaze. “Balding Generation (Losing Hair As We Lose Hope)” likewise spends it first half in pulsating techno-shoegaze mode before decompressing for a less intense second.

Starts strongly with the epic, symphonic post-rock-and-shoegaze of “Hva (Failed Revolutions)” where the vocals of guest Natalia Fiedorczuk are almost buried under the group's reverberant swirl of beats and electronics. Hyperactive in spirit, the restless track abruptly shifts time signatures throughout, resisting any urge to stabilize itself for long. The even more aggressive “Nights in Kiev,” a blizzard stomper that exudes all the propulsion of a feverish techno throwdown, downshifts from its 4/4 throttle midway through before just as suddenly picking itself up again for an equally grandiose coda. The group catches its breath during the peaceful first half of “Exhausted Muse/Europe,” which allows Alexandr Vatagin's cello and Linda Bjalla's vocal whisper to be heard, before the decimating storm rolls in during the second. In prog-like fashion, port-royal caps the release with the three-part “Hermitage,” which rolls out dramatic sheets of sound for seventeen slow-burning minutes.

At seventy-two minutes, Dying In Time is a long album and, because of its dense sound and epic attack, draining too so listeners accompanying the band on the undertaking are advised to settle in and get comfortable. Some bands mellow over time but the new release finds port-royal producing music that's as powerful (if not more) than anything it's issued to date. etherreal

Resonant ayant mis la clef sous la porte, Port-Royal se devait de changer de label et on n’a pas été étonné d’apprendre que c’est la structure d’Oakland, n5MD, qui accueille à présent les Italiens (hébergés en France par debruitetdesilence). Cependant, il est assez savoureux de constater qu’au moment où Port-Royal rejoint un label quasi-exclusivement dédié au post-rock électronisé dont la formation s’était faite l’un des chantres avec ses premiers disques, cette dernière choisit d’accentuer très nettement l’aspect électronique, presque techno, de sa musique… l’art du contre-pied en quelque sorte.

De fait, les onze morceaux de Dying In Time, s’ils conservent leur durée (un peu moins de sept minutes de moyenne), leur capacité émotionnelle et leur aptitude à évoluer d’un style à l’autre en leur propre sein, laissent de côté toute dimension post-rock instrumentale pour enchaîner rythmiques appuyées et entraînantes (Balding Generation (Losing Hair As We Lose Hope)), interventions vocales féminines (trois invitées sont créditées et chantent sur la moitié des titres) et nappes de synthé à gogo. Quelques exceptions toutefois : le début d’Exhausted Muse\Europe parcouru d’une simple guitare électrique évanescente, celui d’I Used To Be Sad et ses crépitements ou la première partie d’Hermitage avec ses nappes prépondérantes.

Mais, dans la majorité, avec ce Dying in Time, le Port-Royal sur disque et le Port-Royal sur scène ne font plus qu’un, ce dont nous ne saurions nous plaindre, emportés par des réussites comme The Photoshopped Prince (potentiel tube sur toutes les pistes d’indie-dance), Susy : Blue East Fading et sa montée en puissance progressive ou Night in Kiev et sa boucle mélodique entêtante. En tatillonnant un peu, on relèvera néanmoins que le tempo est le même sur la plupart des morceaux et que le recours à de simples tierces pour passer d’une nappe à l’autre est plus que fréquent. Nonobstant ces remarques, c’est une bien belle évolution discographique que nous offre ici Port-Royal. thegap

Ihre Live-Konzerte schaffen den einfachsten Zugang zur Musik von Port-Royal. Und das liegt nicht nur an der zusätzlichen Kommunikationsebene durch Videos, über die live Textnachrichten an das Publikum geschrieben werden: Vielmehr kommt in der Konzertsituation die Breite ihrer Musik noch mal besser zum Ausdruck, die flächigen lang gezogenen Sounds, mit den die Stücke starten, und die durchaus knackigen Beats, die den Nummern gehörig Druck machen, aber eben auch immer wieder auf sich warten lassen. Port-Royal sind deswegen als Vorgruppe von Depeche Mode im Stadion genauso vorstellbar wie als Morgen-Act im verschwitzten Club oder auf einer Vice-Party. Zumindest, wenn sie ihre Sets dem Rahmen ein wenig anpassen würden. Aber auch auf Platte funktioniert das in verschiedensten Situationen ganz hervorragend. Nicht zuletzt, dank den wirklich feinen ausgetüftelten Sounds zwischen noisig-melancholischen Flächen, Beats aller Art und akustischem Post-Rock. Der Vollständigkeit wegen sei erwähnt, dass Alexandr Vatagin (Tupolev, Slon) die italienische Band im Studio und auf der Bühne unterstützt. xlr8r

Though the album's starkly snowy cover might have something to do with it, Genoa's port-royal does evoke a crystalline, wintery quality on its third full-length. High-frequency washes, plaintive delayed guitars, and tinkling synths abound amidst rhythm structures that evoke Squarepusher and Aphex Twin. The icy sheen makes the listening process feel a bit like a slalom ride down Mont Blanc, the apex coming towards the album's midpoint with the M83-like glassiness of "I Used to Be Sad." Other tracks, like "Susy: Blue East Fading," recall Stars of the Lid, but with a nice shuffle behind the synth swells. If one can stand its brilliant cold without shivering, dying in time might be one of the most fulfilling records of the year.

20 comments so far (post your own)