Crack

The ever reliable world of knowledge that is Wikipedia informs us that the word ‘Portmanteau’ is 'a word formed by blending sounds from two or more distinct words and combining their meanings'.
The best example of a Portmanteau Crack could muster was ‘brunch’; the classic combination of breakfast and lunch.
In musical terms the meaning is a little more subjective, but is extremely apt for a Bristol two-piece who have taken the term on as their name. Forming a unique sound by cherry picking the choice elements from a myriad of genres, Portmanteau have the knowledge, the right attitude and a sense of fun that separates them from much of the competition.
Pete King, 27, and Mark Good, 26, have been making music together for a couple of years, having first met each other at art college in Oxford. There's a distinct musical progression that has led to Portmanteau’s full and focused electronic sound.
Mark explains: “I think I went through the standard progression as far as music goes. I was in to rock early on, then heavy metal and then quite experimental, thoughtful electronic music.”
Pete elaborates on this: “I don’t know whether we are too reactionary, but we grew up with all the naval gazing, introverted, electronic music. We were really quite in to it and then I remember thinking it would be cool to make something brasher, bolder and a bit more fun.”
Their sound is as relevant at the moment as it could possibly be. With dance music veering off into a whole multitude of bassline-focused sub-genres, Portmanteau find their music in a popular place at the moment. Grabbing bits of electronica, electro and house, the Portmanteau sound is full to the brim, but with the bass as its focus.
Mark is particularly aware of this trend: “It’s big at the moment with this multitude of sub-genres called ‘funky’ or ‘wonky’ or whatnot. I think for a while there was this real trend towards the Ed Banger style, trebly, mid-range, rock production and now there seems to be a recoiling and it’s all about bass again with Planet Mu, Hyperdub and labels like that. It seems there is a really expansive bass heavy sound everywhere.
“I don’t think there is a particular scene of people making bass heavy music, it just happens to be that loads of music at the moment is bass-heavy. I think it’s exciting. Here and in Berlin. People like Modeselecktor are really pushing it.”
Portmanteau’s productions are slick, dirty slices of multi-generic bassline influenced music that sound slightly unhinged. This crazed sound has directly translated itself into their live show, which pushes the limit of electronic performance.
Having steadily grown from what was by their own admission a very limited set-up, to a live performance which incorporates a lot more opportunity to push the boundaries, the Portmanteau live animal is a lot better off.
Pete explains: “How we are playing together now is completely different to how we began as a live act. We started off just making songs in the bedroom, but we decided to put that to one side and concentrate on doing DJ mixes and playing out with a Kaos Pad over the top and a sampler. We also had no decent mixing software. It was weird because we constantly improvising the whole time in between tracks.

Mark elaborates: “We used samplers and a laptop, playing other people’s music and including some of our own stuff to mesh with it when we were beat matching in and out of each others drum samples. It would occasionally mean mixing and playing over someone else’s song. Their song would end and we’d have to go into something else on the hop, with varying degrees of quality. We’d be playing a song and just constantly working around it. There was absolutely no concept of anything being MIDI’d and technically it felt like it was about to fall apart at any point.”

Now the set up is a lot more complex, but a lot more polished with both Mark and Pete using a vast array of electronic gadgetry that allows them to construct a truly ‘live’ performance. The sophisticated nature of the equipment they use allows them to skip off on tangents and improvise, but with more polished results and less emphasis on other people’s music.

“I think it’s become more synthesised now”, Mark explains. “We still DJ, but we aren’t combining the two any more. We keep those things separate. I think we are trying to do the opposite of what some people call ‘live set’. When a DJ or dance act is billed as playing live and they are just playing Ableton on a laptop it’s not especially live is it? We’ve got lots of guitar pedals and synthesisers, so we are physically doing a lot of it.

“If you are going to be doing something live it almost implies there is a bit of a spectacle. Even if you were just walking around the room with your laptop, it implies some kind of performance that isn’t just beats coming out of a stereo.”

Pete is in agreement: “You want people to know you are doing something. If you are just behind a laptop screen you could be doing anything.”

Crack’s conversation with Portmanteau veers off on various musical tangents with Pete confessing he’s listened to very little else of late other than Steely Dan and how the band could do with some WAG style celebrity associates to increase their profile, with all parties tactfully realising that Stokes Croft probably wasn’t the ideal place to hunt down poodle accessorised celebrities.

Mark also gives glowing endorsements to French house producer Don Rimini and Mad Decent boy L-Vis 1990, both of which are making huge waves at the moment.

“I’m also listening to a band called Everything Everything”, Mark explains. “We did a remix for them; they sound a bit like Battles. They sent us a CD to do the remix and on the front cover they had drawn this stick man with a massive cock. Very odd.”

With a dry sense of humour Portmanteau are not too far removed from their name. Taking ideas from each other and from the diverging and fascinating ideas that are emanating from electronic music at the moment, they find themselves in a good place to construct fresh and exciting music. With a host of remixes in the pipeline and an offer to soundtrack a short film, their work is in demand from a number of artists.
Crack is thankful to see two guys with the right attitude blending a whole array of influences with such good results.

Tune: Get Up

http://www.myspace.com/0portmanteau0

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