AMG Review of Lisha Kill

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

Patrick Porter's Lisha Kill falls very much under the spell of Pink Floyd in both their Syd Barrett and post-Barrett days. It's not so much a case of explicit imitation (though there certainly are moments that bring vintage Floyd to mind) as it is a similarity of mood, both in the placid, pastoral folky songs and the spacier, more cosmic dalliances. Porter does favor the gentler and folkier side of this approach, but isn't averse to putting in relatively heavy -- even discordant -- blasts of psychedelia from time to time. In keeping with the Floyd references, there are also some insertions of spoken voice and effects, and "Hospital" certainly has a lot of those, along with Floydian astral organ and electronic pulses, while "Beak"'s dirge-like pace, with its ghostly and icy tinkles, can't fail to recall early-'70s Floyd. It's a cliche, perhaps, when reviewing releases of this sort, to carp that Porter doesn't have the personality, or strength of material, of the apparent original model. That cliche nevertheless happens to be fairly true in this case, though that doesn't mean that Lisha Kill doesn't have a pleasant surface attractiveness. It's soothing space rock-cum-acid folk, though its hazy tone is a little lethargic and vague.