Back in 2012, a little-known act going by the name of Port St. Willow released a debut album called Holiday. It turned out to be the work of one man, Nicholas Principe and it was so beguilingly beautiful that it attracted the attention of Brian Eno – someone who knows a thing or two about making minimal music which can tug on the heartstrings.
Upon hearing Principe’s falsetto you couldn’t help but think of The Antlers, and so it came as no surprise to learn that Pete Silberman was a childhood friend, and sometime collaborator, of the Port St. Willow man. Yet the music of Holiday was no lifeless carbon copy of Silberman’s band; build around understated rhythms, ambient patterns and textures, and threaded together by Principe’s heavenly voice Holiday was intended to be…
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…a “one-piece” listen: no single entry points, no easing yourself in. You had to give yourself wholly to the record, but it was completely worth it.
Port St. Willow return with new album Syncope, released through Principe’s own label People Teeth.
Whereas Holiday was very much a bedroom project, produced and self-released on Bandcamp — not to mention the extensive use of reverb and atmospheric ambience that seemed to compensate for the innate “placeless-ness” of a bedroom album made by one dude in Brooklyn — Syncope has many guest players and many surprises. The album flows as one movement, and there are fewer melodies, with more emphasis on assembling and untangling enigmatic drone passages.