Album Notes

Composed of singer/songwriter Arsh Khaira and producer Eric Cheng (Hills Like White Elephants, Spreepark), Portraits is at once a blend of indie and experimental, injected with nostalgic pop backgrounds – tastefully distorted at times, played down at others – and artfully combined with Khaira’s intense yet stoic vocals, implying the urgency of their message. Their self-titled album is a palette of emotions, all recorded in seclusion by the duo in the spring and summer of 2005. Their sound is heart-wrenching and warming at the same time; playful and mournful. The songs, tranquil and melancholy at times, soaring and driving at others, compliment deliberate and oft times politically charged lyrics in a clever and intense way, immersing the listener in a world in confusion, but from the safety of a dreamlike vantage. Portraits is awareness found in introspection and the hope found in tragedy. They are a conscience born of the awareness of the negative; like watching natural disasters in slow motion.

“You can almost feel buildings collapsing, mountains caving in, and oceans running dry as a surge of screeching guitars and swelling keyboards pummel your senses into oblivion. Portraits, the band's self-titled debut, is pure melancholy rock, a sound dug up from the planet's unconscious, a scream dedicated to those who wish to listen.”
- The Edmonton Journal, June 02, 2007