Portal Frame
Houston, Texas, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2015 | SELF
Music
Press
Portal Frame is killing it out in Texas with their melding of alt and post-hardcore. Their latest release Sharing Air came out sometime in 2016 and it needs your attention!
“Let Your Hands Go,” doesn’t waste any time pulling in your attention, with tasty licks on the guitar that balance nicely with the vocal melodies of Austin, while dancing leads take the spotlight sporadically. Tight drum rhythms drive the track forward and add differently depths between alt-rock simplicities and post-hardcore intricacies.
Title track “Sharing Air,” comes with a more atmospheric approach and driven rhythms/leads. Their catchy choruses are contrasted with bluesy solos that soar the basslines. Their approaches to arrangements aren’t mold-shattering, but the tried and true format really lets their transitions shine as they slide effortlessly through bridges, choruses and melodic segments.
Breaking out the technicals, “ANY,” offers a very intricate drum approach that adds so much dimension to the verses of the song. The free wandering basslines act as much as a lead as they do a rhythm, perfectly placed between the delayed guitar parts.
Stealing the show is the incredibly fun lead riff in “Captives,” which doesn’t seem to stop moving. There is a wonderful vocal quality in the way the guitar takes over the eye of the song and just keeps the flow moving. Portal Frame really does nails the messier parts, which is trickier than people think. Their perfect execution sets them apart from other acts that try to capture the elements of post-rock and indie and filtering them through alternative rock ideologies.
Portal Frame is on the path to bigger, better things and I urge you to get in on the ground floor so you can tell your friends (in a snooty hipster voice) that you heard them first. Head to portalframe.bandcamp.com and snag their EP Sharing Air for just five bucks. - The Anthem Music.net
Discography
Electric Spirit - 2015
Sharing Air - 2016
Aftershock/White Zinfandel [SINGLE] - 2020
Photos
Bio
Portal Frame began as a solo project by guitarist/vocalist Austin Hill. After writing the songs that would appear on the Electric Spirit EP (2015), he enlisted former bandmate Kristen Fernandez on drums and soon after, Dwayne Bethel joined on bass. Lane Galloway was the last to join, playing his first show with the band in January of 2016. The band spent the year writing in a shared house in Cypress, TX and performing locally. The songs written during this period were released as the Sharing Air EP (2016), which was produced and mixed by Joseph Milligan of Anberlin. Early 2017 would find the band with a new drummer, Jon Clarke, and further establishing themselves in the Houston music scene, opening for bands such as Emarosa, Further Seems Forever, Enter Shikari and others.
After a few runs of shows through Texas and the surrounding states, Portal Frame took a hiatus from performing. With the exception of a few one-off shows with various fill-in members, the band remained silent most of 2019, but never stopped writing songs and honing their musical abilities. With over an albums worth of new material, Portal Frame reunited with Austin Hill, Dwayne Bethel, Lane Galloway and Jon Clarke back in their respective positions in late 2019.
2020 will find Portal Frame back on the road, showcasing their new songs in preparation to record their debut LP that summer. With a sound that ranges between loud, sing along choruses and hypnotic, ambient passages, Portal Frame's unique songwriting aims to thrill and tug on the heartstrings.
Band Members
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