What does Porch sound like?
Rustic and ethereal folk rock that’s collapsing under its own weight.
The review of Porch – In the End, You Choose Nobody
Charlie Burger is a prolific musician and artist. I’m more familiar with his shoegazing melancholic rock projects Slowly and Dormer. Porch is another musical project he is involved in, this time teaming up with Joel Saucy on acoustic guitar to create an ethereal slowcore folk sound. The thread throughout all these projects is a general sadness and hopelessness and Porch carries that lonely torch excellently.
Between Charlie and Joel, Porch sounds more like a band effort. The collaboration started with Joel writing acoustic guitar pieces for Charlie to arrange drums, guitar, bass and vocals around them. Usually, Charlie breathes in the long pauses and hanging notes between chords but Joel is happier to fill in the empty voids. This makes for a rustic yet ethereal layered approach of soft guitars, hazy vocals and drum machines with distant crunches for snare hits to set the sound.
‘Your Shadow’ has tempo and verve around it as two guitars interplay light chord patterns for Charlie to sing hushedly over. ‘I’d Love to See You’ has an empty, rigid finger-plucked 1-2-1-2 string twang that acts as a skeleton for the more fluid playing of other instruments to seep in. ‘Waves’ allows the guitars to fuzz in and out like a shoegaze-lite version of the genre. ‘Fighters’ has heavy vinyl spit as an atmospheric backdrop to add a taut undertone to the short track. ‘Sleepwalking’ is a dusty waltzing melancholic folk piece that showcases the best of Porch. Where other tracks feel a bit too rigid or empty at times, this track nails a ghostly atmosphere. It’s the strongest and most dynamic vocal performance but also the fullest-sounding track tonally too. Nina Nastasia would be proud of this kind of slumber folk.
Porch is a collaboration between friends. I enjoyed the low mood and introverted vibes and I think the step to filling out the sound with more complex arrangements was a wise decision. Ethereal folk and acoustic emo fans will enjoy this EP – as will fans of Slowly, which is possibly Charlie’s best-known project. It’s a folkier window into the world of slowcore rock and if you aren’t comfortable with that inherent slothlike approach to playing, this might not be for you. It’s a good crossover point to explore the slowcore genre from a folk rock perspective though and I’d recommend it from that point of view. A promising duo which I’d like to hear further work come from in the future.
Recommended track: Sleepwalking
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Porch - In the End, You Choose Nobody