Portable: "Surrender"
It has been a slow year for rich, melodic deep house. I know that might sound counterintuitive, what with the ongoing chart success of artists like Duke Dumont, and the proliferation of so-called “deep house” across the commercial dance music spectrum. But when it comes to anthems that arrive from out of nowhere and steadily, organically win over clubland’s hearts and minds—I’m talking about tracks like Andrés’ “New For U”, or Steffi’s “Yours”, or Larry Heard’s “The Sun Can’t Compare”—2014 has proved to be really slim pickings. Now, however, Portable sweeps in and saves the day with a sentimental slow-burner that feels like a potential future classic.
With its softly descending piano chords and pensive air, the song sounds a lot like Steffi in tearjerker mode—perhaps not a coincidence, since Portable (Alan Abrahams, aka Bodycode) is a frequent guest at Panorama Bar, where she’s a resident DJ. The tuned-tom melody sounds a little like DJ Koze‘s similarly starry-eyed “Cicely”; there’s an echo of Martin Gore in his deep, rounded baritone. And the rhythm is imbued with a wonderfully lilting sense of swing—an echo of the kwaito of his native South Africa, perhaps—that gives the track the fluttering feel of a quickening heart.
Lyrically, it’s upbeat, a song about the promise of new beginnings: “Let’s go to the movies/ Get a coffee/ You need to know me,” he sings to a potential lover, in what must be the year’s most charmingly heartfelt musical pick-up line; “Take a walk/ On the river/ And melt in your company.” But the chorus has a pathos that goes way beyond puppy love. Its literal relinquishing of control—”Hands up/ I surrender”—paints romantic ecstasy as a kind of free fall, an obliteration of the self far sweeter than any drug, and damn near spiritual.
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