The Night Porter — Somewhere, There Is A Light

Somewhere, There Is A Light is a three-track release from British noise/ wall project The Night Porter.  The digital release severs up three fairly different and rewarding ‘wall’s that move between the tight ‘n’ taut, onto the fizzing and uncomfortable droning, through to the huge ‘n’ rapidly rolling.

The release is a self-release, which can be downloaded here. The cover artwork is of a monochrome picture of a young man having his eye attacked with a knife- I thought it was from still from  Pasolini's Salò, it doesn’t seem to match up with pics I can find online, so maybe it’s from something else?!.. Anyway, the image fits nicely the three ‘walls’ on offer here.

Things kick-off with “And these things, the Father has revealed to me”, and this comes in at the nearing the eight and a half minute mark. The track is a very tight ‘n’ tense blend of a beaded low-end hack, jittering rip bound texturing, and a taut-yet compressed bass purr. Together these elements create a wonderfully constricting example of wall-craft, which I could easily have listened to for over half an hour, as the ‘wall’ really is so moorish.

Second up we have “Slowly, lines begin to merge and then you will see”- and this is the shortest of the three tracks here, coming in at just over the five and a half minute mark. The ‘wall’ is centred around a constantly sweeping back ‘n’ forth static grain- that has a dragging/ uneven edge to it. On top of this we have a slurred and bluntly chugging bass tone, and line of rough tumble. Together these elements create a feeling of depleting energy brought about by prolonged pain- with each layer nicely balanced and mixed, so as you can hear each clearly, yet the whole things atmospheric constriction remains true and clear.

Lastly, we have “We become messengers of the most high God” and this slides in at the eight and a quarter mark. Here we find a roaming ‘n’ muffled drone, moving with rubbing -to- grating junk tones which are set out into an even clanking ‘n’ occasional sparking mesh. The whole ‘wall’ has a nicely murky/ hazed feel, so the junk elements never become too nasty- though towards the end the drone and the junk elements nicely grind and rip into each other in a most rewarding manner.

As far as I can gather The Night Porter project has been active since mid-2020- releasing a few split cassettes, but it mainly has just digital releases in its discography- which is a real pity, as going from the evidence on display here more folks need to hear the projects work. 

In finishing I was extremely impressed by Somewhere, There Is A Light- each of the three tracks present a good selection of textures, which were well balanced and atmospherically presented. The flow of the three tracks together work really well, and it’s clear there has been thought and time put into both their creation and layout. It’s certainly great to see another active project in the decidedly sparse UK wall scene and let's hope there is more stuff in the Pipeline from this project.