The Casey Porter Project - Leavin' The Harbor

The Casey Porter Project

Leavin' The Harbor
self-released; 2015

3.5 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

Casey Porter aka The Casey Porter Project may be only twenty-three years old but he has a good amount of musical talent. His second release Leavin' The Harbor is an eclectic pop album that fuses electronic and organic elements. Leavin' The Harbor is a full sounding record and I mean that in a good way. The sound feels huge even though he doesn’t pack in too many elements. I think a lot of this can be credited to the fact that Porter went to audio engineering school. Leavin' The Harbor is a complete DIY effort and one of the best sounding I have heard in recent memory.

The EP starts with a quick introduction appropriately called “introduction.” It’s a field recording of waves and birds and melds with warm pads. I was actually quite relaxed by the piece although it’s not indicative of anything else moving forward.

“Seize The Day” is the first fleshed out song. It starts with electronic percussion and synths. Once the verse hits Porter manipulated his voice with auto-tune. It’s not subtle. As the song progresses instrumentation drops off and comes back in. The song never really feels like it explodes.

“Leavin' The Harbor” sounds a bit like “American Woman.” The song was decent but there wasn’t much variation and there isn’t much of a hook either. He recovers a bit with “Come With Me (To The Top).” There is a bit of a Pink Floyd vibe here that comes together with the lead guitar and organ. As with some of the other songs his vocals are very sparse and not an integral part of the song.

The highlight of the EP is “I've Got Her On My Mind.” Porter sings a bit more than normal but still not quite as much as I had hoped for. Nevertheless the song is good. He closes with “Courage” which is the most melancholy yet hopeful song of the batch.

Porter has great ideas and some of them pan out well. I can’t help but think that Porter’s best work lies ahead. That being said, there are some inspired moments to enjoy here.

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