Premiere: Brolin - Portland

Masked man Brolin makes electronic pop with sparklingly clean beats that clash with his bitter words, and we've been big fans at Dummy for a while now – his song Reykjavik is one of our favourites of the year so far. A few weeks ago I caught his live set at Electrowerkz, where his angular movements, terse sense of humour and insistence on wearing a mask gave an unsettling and intriguing air to a performance that was actually defined by its moments of piercing emotional honesty and one of the best live voices I've heard this year. One track in particular that I couldn't wait to get my hands on after the set finished was one that was introduced as Portland, with a shrug as to whether it was going to be an upcoming release or not – it had me dancing from the second its urgent beat kicked in, and singing along almost immediately with the stripped-back and typically haunting chorus. "Sunshine, you should waste your time better" the song encourages, sounding just like your dad, and I for one can't think of a better way to do so this afternoon than by listening to this. 

Brolin will play at the Dummy AGM in London next month alongside Darkstar, oOoOO and CFCF. Find out more about that here.