Starting out as the solo project of Dana Margolin, Porridge Radio made its name through raw emotions and idiosyncratic styles, marrying the immediate and the strange to capture the high weirdness of being a living, breathing human being. After Margolin relocated to Brighton, Porridge Radio welcomed three other members into its fold, becoming a post-punk band that provides a rich substrate of pop melodies in which the singular style can flourish.
This spring, the band put out two standalone singles with Memorials of Distinction that hinted at this newly vibrant sound. The first Porridge Radio songs to be recorded in a studio, the songs feel like both the end product of a band that have put in the hard yards, cutting their teeth with live shows, and the first steps into a new era where Margolin and co. are more fully-equipped to realise their artistic visions.
“The song displays a newfound clarity,” we wrote of ‘Give / Take‘, “the weirdo lo-fi bedroom pop vibes replaced with sharp and confident melodic pop.” But most importantly, the switch sees not a hint of betrayal of their DNA. “Best of all,” we continued, “this evolution is managed without sacrificing any of the emotional intensity that made Porridge Radio so great in the first place,” opening up an avenue of possibilities and representing a watershed moment in the band’s life.
Today the band release a video for ‘Give Take’, directed by Dream Wife’s Bella Podpadec, which probes further into the strange and tactile world of Porridge Radio, a dissociated cool juxtaposed with bright colours and absurd imagery. Despite a playfulness that veers between a decidedly 90s goth teen angst and even more 90s kids TV show bustle, mortality lurks behind every frame, as well as a bodily squash of flesh and fluid. “The video,” Popadec explains, “is a juicy exploration of messy polyamory, messy fruit, sex, death and that your pals and music are just as important as any of that shit.”
Indeed, the video helped to further develop exactly what the song means, even to Margolin herself. “We had a lot of fun with it, but we also had some big honest conversations about what the song was about,” she says, “and I think that openness translated into something really exciting and quite raw, and I love how it turned out.”
‘Give / Take’ is out now via Memorials of Distinction, as is the other stand alone single, ‘Don’t Ask Me Twice’, and you can buy them both from Bandcamp.
Photos by Christopher Fenner