Artist Conrad Plymouth

Christopher Porterfield’s songs seem explicitly designed not to elicit immediate pleasure. The Milwaukee singer-songwriter, who records under the moniker Conrad Plymouth, favors slow builds over easy climaxes, evocative texture over gut-level hooks, and spooky atmosphere over a quick visceral charge. The four songs on 2010’s Conrad Plymouth EP tend to blur together into a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-sounding groan on first listen, but upon further inspection, they reward patient listeners with finely written and sonically constructed coming-of-age meditations. The new Comrade Plymouth fares even better, and serves as a warmup for an upcoming full-band full-length.

Updated 09/06/2011