Porches at Band on the Wall

New York-based synth-pop artist Aaron Maine AKA Porches plays at Band on the Wall this September, shortly after the release of his anticipated sixth album, Shirt.

Porches started out in the early 2010’s with a ’90s-inflected, spacey alt-rock sound. But pretty quickly a different and more distinct vision took hold: melancholy, highly stylised synthpop and indie electronica powered by yearning, softly auto-tuned vocals. 2016’s Pool caught the attention of the world’s music press, serving up 12 pristinely crafted pop songs for earnest shy kids and lonesome nights. For 2018’s The House, this romantic, slightly jaded synthpop was stripped back, and more powerful for it, the case in point being ‘Country’, a confessional whisper of a song that traces a narrative of vulnerability so complete that listening to it feels voyeuristic.

But the 20’s have seen Porches gradually delving back into those older influences, reclaiming some of the scrappier rock elements of his early output. Following in the footsteps of 2022’s All Day Gentle Hold !, his new album Shirt is reportedly his heaviest to date, with “grungry guitars that shine with a menacing glint, drums and bass that punch you warmly in the stomach, interspersed with moments of eerie calmness to create a physical sense of tension and release that resonates with each track.”

From the singles we’ve heard so far, it’s great. Part angsty fantasy, part confessional melodrama, the narratives oscillate between reality and make-believe as Maine treads the line between the innocence of suburban youth and the frayed reality of adulthood. ‘Rag’ certainly delivers on the heaviness promised, channelling the energy of a bratty ’90s band playing their first DIY party. Things then get brilliantly weird with the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it ‘Crying at The End’, which proposes an ungodly marriage of hyperpop and grunge. It’s familiar but uncanny, in the best way.

With any luck we’ll hear much more that when the full album drops on 13 September, giving you two weeks to get it around your ears ahead of Porches’ show at Band on the Wall.