Album Review: Porij - 'Teething'
Following from the great positive reaction to their previous work on the EPs Breakfast, Baby Face and their most recent release outlines, Manchester-made quartet Porij have taken the plunge from short releases to full-length with their debut record Teething. A group who have brought themselves attention working from worldwide acts such as Coldplay, to the smaller scale artists such as Lynks, Porij have reached the right point in their collective career to take the chance and give the world what it’s waited for: a full 11-track record with their trademark SoundCloud-inspired mix of high-energy dance tunes and smooth lo-fi grooves.
Being a fully-fledged DIY band who came together during their studies in Manchester, the group have spent five years working to get to this point. Revising and learning, writing and playing, and they made it through a tough time to become stronger on the other side. Emotionally alongside the world coming to a standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as this record comes across as showing the innermost secrets of the band, particularly frontperson Scout “Egg” Moore.
Moore, providing vocals and keyboard for Porij, is someone who has been on a journey through the good and indeed the bad over their life. Instead of writing it all in a book and have it become something tiresome and boring, they decided to release it all in the healthiest way they can. They got everything out with some bittersweet lyrics accompanied by a fitting if not entertaining composition, and with how it may appear out of the ordinary or even a disguise, there is nothing but truth. For example, take the track ‘Stranger’.
‘Stranger’ surrounds Moore’s identity as a non-binary individual, detailing how “there is a stranger” staring back at them in the mirror when describing their experience with gender dysphoria. With a soft keyboard accompaniment and a beat that speeds up during the track’s choruses, it turns pain into art. Art that can be appreciated, enjoyed, and on top of everything, relatable; Moore’s experience is not just one isolated case and the more it is talked about, the easier life can be on their fellow transgender siblings. Art is one of the easiest ways to learn about facts and feelings, about events or individuals living their day-to-day lives, when one may not be so knowledgeable on what they have been through or what they have seen, heard or felt. Tracks like ‘Stranger’ mean the world not just to Moore and the band, but to their fans, in a number of ways. This is what makes the world go round and what keeps the music playing through the airwaves.
One of the more fun and effectively produced tracks is ‘You Should Know Me’. With a feel-good beat, fun punchy vocals alongside melodic lyrics in-between, it carries the sexy-and-safe nightclub mood near perfectly. The production is high-level and if this does not become a new favourite tune in north-western club life then there has been a poor decision made among those venues and the patrons will be robbed of a real chance to bounce and dance like it’s the end of the world.
Winding down with the slower and sweeter ‘Slow Down’, Porij’s debut can only be described as every and all emotion thrown into the recording studio and forever pressed into a full-length release. Teething is as personal of a record as it is an all-out party published into vinyl. Covering a range of themes, all of which will be relatable to the band’s target demographic and their fellow peers, it shows they know that real lived idea of the balance between being happy and being sad. How positivity and negativity can work in tandem, and people don’t have to be more one way or the other. Everyone is allowed to feel everything in bursts, at once, back and forth, however they see fit. Teething is the reflection of everything in bursts, taking turns to tone it down or turn it up, and if that isn’t life then no one will ever know what life is.
Life will take a bite before anyone is ready. This is just the start of a good life, a good time, or just a good night. Take a breath and keep going, this is only Teething.
Words by Jo Cosgrove
