In September, Copenhagen instrumental Rock trio Town Portal announced their new album “Grindwork” set for a release on November 07, 2025 via the band’s own newly formed label Dream Bureau. With the announcement, the band released the single titled “Crushed Under Something Gentle” as the first offering and today, the band shares the album’s second single “Touching Grass” alongside a music video created by Joakim Johnsen and Town Portal.
TOWN PORTAL says on “Touching Grass“:
“Touching Grass” was the first song we wrote for this album — and the only piece of music to emerge from pandemic-era Town Portal. When covid hit, we had a month-long US tour lined up that had taken countless hours of planning, and its cancellation left us completely deflated. The song slipped into oblivion, surviving only as a rough phone recording buried in an old chat thread. When we finally reemerged to start writing again, we had to dig through two years of chat history and use some questionable software just to recover it. To us, it sounds like a throwback to something we might have written ten years ago but reinterpreted in a way that feels more current.”
Furthermore, the band states on the music video:
“Set in a warped 90s TV shop that feels like an eerie commercial directed by David Lynch, the video features a host showcasing a series of seemingly pointless but oddly enchanted objects — all handmade by us, the supposed “experts.””
Watch the video for “Touching Grass” via the YouTube player below:
Stream “Touching Grass” here: https://orcd.co/touchinggrass
Also, hear the first single “Crushed Under Something Gentle“
Town Portal has announced a handful of Danish “Grindwork” release shows while shows and festivals abroad are in the works and will be announced in the months to come.
TOWN PORTAL LIVE 2025
14.11.25 – Huset, Copenhagen (DK)
15.11.25 – 1000fryd, Aalborg (DK)
12.12.25 – HeadQuarters, Aarhus (DK)
13.12.25 – Smadderslev, Slotsgade 25, Haderslev (DK)
Town Portal have spent more than a decade carving out a niche within the realm of instrumental Rock music. Fusing angular polymeters with Jazzy playfulness and melodic sensibilities of 90’s Noise Rock and Post-Hardcore, their songs unfold as continuous struggles between dissonance and harmony, chaos and groove. In February 2024, Town Portal ended a five year hiatus with a European tour in support of Melodic Hardcore legends Thrice. On this tour Town Portal showcased material from what would become their fourth album “Grindwork.”
On “Grindwork,” Town Portal team up with engineer Mark Roberts (Delta Sleep, Black Peaks, etc.) to craft an album that departs from the bleak, stringent sound of its predecessor “Of Violence” (2019), while retaining the grit and heft introduced to the band’s sound on this album. Instead, “Grindwork” dives into a playful exploration of the raw materials of composition without self-imposed restraints, reflecting a renewed sense of creative joy within the trio.
This sense of joy that permeates “Grindwork” sharply contrasts with a world increasingly starved of it. A world in which any creative endeavour could be perceived as trivial or even selfish in the face of the planetary and political crises of our time. At the same time, it’s a reaction to exactly that deprivation — a refusal to surrender to the pull of creative cynicism or apathy. On “Grindwork,” Town Portal circles back to the fragile idea that creating something still matters.
Over the years, Town Portal have released music through labels such as Subsuburban (DK), Small Pond (UK), and Art As Catharsis (AUS). When Small Pond ceased label operations in 2023, the band founded their own imprint, Dream Bureau, to reissue their back catalog and self-release “Grindwork.” The creation of Dream Bureau fulfills a long-time fantasy of having the band’s DIY ethos reflect in the entire lifecycle of creating and releasing music.
As a live band, Town Portal have toured extensively across Europe, with standout performances at festivals such as ArcTanGent (2016, 2017), A Colossal Weekend (2016, 2019), Duna Jam (2018), and Portals (2024). In 2024, they supported Thrice (US) on their European tour, adding to a list of notable support slots that also includes legends like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Polvo, and Kowloon Walled City.
Town Portal’s discography spans their debut EP “Vacuum Horror” (2011) and albums “Chronopoly” (2012), “The Occident” (2015), “Of Violence” (2019) and “Grindwork” (2025). Initially formed as a quartet in 2009, Town Portal was reduced to a trio after the release of their debut EP and has consistently performed and recorded as a three piece since then.
Pre-Order “Grindwork” on Bandcamp: https://townportal.bandcamp.com/album/grindwork