Porridge Radio last released new music back in 2016. Their first full-length record, Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers collected a lot of the band’s early lo-fi demos into an album proper. But since then the band, which we once described as “the perfect blend between cool lo-fi rock and strange, morbid sadcore,” have been quiet on the recording front.
But that’s not to say Porridge Radio, now a four-piece lead by founder Dana Margolin, have been laying low. Instead they’ve played lots of shows, and gained a reputation for live performance both locally (in Brighton and London) and beyond. New single ‘Give / Take’ is therefore a landmark for Porridge Radio. Not just because it breaks a 2+ year drought, but because it’s the first recorded in a studio.
And it really shows. The song displays a newfound clarity, the weirdo lo-fi bedroom pop vibes replaced with sharp and confident melodic pop. Best of all, this evolution is managed without sacrificing any of the emotional intensity that made Porridge Radio so great in the first place.
Margolin describes ‘Give / Take’ as a track “about desire and confusion and being a robot with constantly changing emotions,” and “also about learning how to know what you need, how to ask for it, how to take it,” a fact confirmed as she sings the lines:
And how do I say no?
And you do as you’re told
And how do I say no?
And I say what I need
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It’s a very exciting step forward for Porridge Radio, and it leaves us eager to see where they go next.
‘Give / Take’ is out now via Memorials of Distinction and you can get it via Bandcamp.