Starting out the pandemic as a quintet, Minneapolis’s 26 BATS! has slimmed down to a two-piece for their third album Portal Party. Now comprised of songwriter and singer Bailey Cogan and producer Karl Remus, the band originally was filled out by members of the Kremblems Collective. But with members moving on to other projects and infeasibility of meeting for practices early on in the COVID 19 crisis, the project naturally coalesced around Bailey and Karl’s friendship and collaboration.
Following in the spiritual succession of bands like Australia’s Hiatus Kaiyote, the newly reformed 26 BATS! looks to cultivate a sound that defies boundaries. While chimeric combinations of influences informed the garage jazz and R’nB of their previous albums, Portal Party is truly enigmatic. Some tracks like “Honeysuckle Rose” feel like an 808 heartbreak, while tracks like “GMUM EXTENDO” interact with the senses like a smooth blend of Tangerine Dream and ’90s neo-soul.
“Run” is a soft and pliant piano-led, orchestral number, while a track like “Green Sky” accents twinkling low-key pop with Latin ska horns for an experience that appears to nit together Sia and Girls Gone Ska. “midnight fire” combines downtempo jazz instrumentation and spooktacular production with a vocal performance that sounds like Amanda Palmer trying on some pouty R’nB hijinks, and “Helicopter” cuts and layers influences to approximate a pitch-perfect revival of early ’00s alternative pop, with its combination of sunny, strummy guitars, intersecting piano accompaniments, and liberal acquisitions from the dance-pop of yesteryear.
Portal Party is thematically about facing one’s fears and realizing that they are simply illusions. Once you punch through there is nothing to stop you on the other side from having the time of your life! Escape your anxiety and your angst for half an hour or more today and join Bailey and Karl in a realm where imagination is without limit and creativity saturates your being like life-giving oxygen fills your lungs. Forget your worries amongst the walls of wonder in the Portal Party.
You can buy and stream Portal Party below via Bandcamp:
Follow 26 BATS! on Facebook and Twitter.
