Porn Cal

Stoke-based laptop soloist Porn Cal has only been producing for half a year but has already nailed a confident, cogent sound. Describing himself as a maker of electro in a Mr Oizo / SabastiAn mould, his music is lent extra depth by well-chosen and well-punctuated samples which are woven into, rather than slapped onto, his tracks. In songs like the stand-out ‘schweat’ and ‘MÖTORBITCH’, menacing saw-toothed electro is lifted by synthetic vocal cut-outs and chord progressions, creating an atmosphere not a million klicks from that evoked by Matmos side project The Soft Pink Truth whose cybersexual, boy-girl blurring sonicsphere left dancefloors strewn with detached, twitching prosthetic limbs.

But Porn Cal is not afraid of melody. The Air / Daft Punk / Justice-inflected ‘estranger oppenheimer’ is Frenchly rhapsodic and could have been written by someone called Gaston while ‘swedish winter depression’ is a temporary refuge of contemplative tranquillity – until the end, that is.

While the buzzsaw engine doesn’t relent for long, there is enough thoughtfulness and narrative potential in Porn Cal’s music to make it headphone – as well as dancefloor – friendly.