Album: Dignan Porch – Electric Threads

From the start, the early psych-pop home recordings of South London’s Joe Walsh, aka Dignan Porch, quickly began circulating the indie blogosphere, appearing on playlists and compilations. Word spread of their raw, energetic shows at their local independent (now even more iconic) venue The Windmill in Brixton, where they played regularly and hosted their own all-day events.

Racing through alternating blasts of jangly, crunchy noise-pop and hushed melancholic melodies, Dignan Porch absorbed audiences into their homegrown psychedelic world with an honest and awkward charm.
Dignan’s simple yet striking sound caught the keen ear of revered New York label Captured Tracks pretty much as soon as they shared a handful of songs online. Contracts were signed and they went on to release two albums and an EP, becoming the first band to release a second album through the now influential label.

Dignan Porch have continued to release music with excellent UK indie labels (Faux Discx, Art is Hard), self released, gigged and toured sporadically. With a palpable DIY spirit running through all their activity, the band continue to build a loyal fanbase.

Joe Walsh moved to Manchester with his partner in 2019. Having lived in South London his whole life, his knowledge of the city was largely limited to the venues he’d already played with Dignan Porch. From a very early gig at Band on the Wall to The Deaf Institute where they once supported the great Times New Viking, and repeat visits to favourites the Soup Kitchen, Castle Hotel and Gullivers.

Although it felt strange trying to make friends in new surroundings in his 30s, Joe managed to link up with some other musicians before the pandemic, and got himself a slot in a shared practice space above The Peer Hat in the Northern Quarter, which is where he ended up writing and recording the 10 songs on Electric Threads

Joe has spent the majority of his life making music alongside various day jobs, and doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon. The songs on this record reflect his love of simple, tight pop melody and structure, often leaning towards melancholia and psychedelia, others are cathartic bursts of noise. The lyrics are often written first, a patchwork of real world experiences and themes, which Joe then matches to the right melody when it comes along.

Keeping in line with several of Dignan Porch’s past recordings Joe performed and recorded the songs on his own, aside from a few parts his brother and longtime bandmate Sam emailed him while they were separated. Most of it was made on a Tascam Portastudio, but some of the more ‘complicated’ songs were mixed in GarageBand.

Sharing the whole story from the press release, so you can read it all in one place. This album is a special co-released available on vinyl from Safe Suburban Home (UK), Hidden Bay Records (EU) & Repeating Cloud (US). A great group of indie labels, which everyone is worth following. This album is good proof of that and it is very admiring that they worked together on a three-way release. You do not need more proof to start listening to this album, so do it now.

You can find more music on Bandcamp.