Gang Fatale - Portal (2018)

Mandon/Lonchester’s Gang Fatale prove they’re not just club kids with Portal; a lusher, downtempo group showing mainly produced by Basile3, Sierre and TD_Nasty, but also featuring Neana, Riz Fresco and Kieran Loftus up in it.

Touching down in the wake of important releases from the Gang, including Clara La San’s début mixtape Good Mourning and Neana’s fully fledged solo flight for Night Slugs, Portal scopes their collective sound from wider, horizontally inclined and introspective angles.

It’s framed as their attempt to parse and reflect “The introspective processes that humans go through every day; from making simple routine decisions, absorbing the actions of people close to us, dealing with grief and the consequences of our own choices”, and does so thru a palette of soft boogie yacht rock licks, ambient pads and R&B licks shorn from the ‘floor and left to marinate in mid-air.

Some of it sounds like early ‘00s electronica a la CCO or Type, while other parts are compatible with your weightless grime collection and the charms of Mr. Mitch’s Gobstopper label.