Step Through the Portal: A Journey Through Balu Brigada’s Debut Album

By Kayla Harper 

Balu Brigada named after the Jungle Book character Baloo is an indie-rock/alternative-pop band who recently came into the spotlight after touring with alternative rock band Twenty Øne Piløts on their Clancy World Tour.  Made up of two brothers –Henry and Pierre Beasley– from New Zealand, the duo is currently signed to ARRO records –a label co-founded by Twenty Øne Piløts lead singer, Tyler Joseph, and his manager Chris Woltman– and have just released their debut album Portal after several EPs.

Portal was announced on May 29th alongside the release of the riveting third single “Backseat”.  Prior to the announcement, Balu Brigada released the singles “So Cold” and “The Question” which ended up finding a forever home on the record.

Over the summer, Balu Brigada released several singles, maintaining the momentum they gained on the Clancy Tour, “What Do We Ever Really Know?” and “Politix”.

Written and produced entirely by Henry and Pierre, Portal offers a refreshing palette to modern pop music by bringing an alternative rock tone to each track, led by guitar, bass, synth, keys and drums.  Each track uses these building blocks to craft a sonically addictive beat and catchy melody that is unique, yet when compiled with the rest of the album, completely cohesive and creates one whole piece.

Their lyrics utilize accessible, but surprising metaphors to reveal deeper emotional responses to everyday experiences.  With vocals that create the melody, the instrumental track is cleverly built around the lyrics to enhance the emotions they express with drum fills, guitar licks and synth solos filling in the gaps.

Balu Brigada is not afraid of a longer instrumental break, a refreshing change in modern day pop which attempts to contain every song in a 2-3 minute box in which each verse and chorus is like a cookie cut out of the same dough made to fit the mold perfectly.  On Portal, Henry and Pierre break this mold and stir up the pot as much as they can.

“The Portal” instantly immerses listeners into the colourful soundscape of Balu Brigada, it quite literally sounds as if a portal is opening and you’re traveling to a new place –one where the ground in which you walk is a rhythmic drumbeat and the air around you is composed of bouncy synths and the wind rushes past you in catchy guitar riffs.  Despite the next song being called “So Cold”, this album is summer, driving with the windows rolled down through and through.

It’s clear that Portal was made to be listened to in order as an album, with instrumental transitions blending each track into one another. By  “Birthday Interlude” it feels as if we are leaving behind the first world we entered, and travelling to a new one.  This world isn’t too different from the previous one, except that it’s slowly getting more vulnerable.  The kind of vulnerability and confessions that have us staying up until “4:25” in the morning -the only thing disappointing about this track is that it isn’t four minutes and 25 seconds long.

Portal is an impressive debut album from the Auckland duo.  Among the sonic explosion of colour and light, are lyrics that approach relationship conflict; ask universal questions, “What Do We Ever Really Know?” and come out with no real answer, “all we ever really know is that we never really know” (“What Do We Ever Really Know?”, Portal, 2025). ; and dig up what we’ve buried in the trenches of ourselves, “maybe every time I let it cut so deep it’s waking up a part of me that I wanted to feel” (“Butterfly Boy”, Portal, 2025).