Portwave

PORTWAVE (real name Dmitry Protsenko) is a Russian electronic musician, DJ, remixer, and producer based in Rostov-on-Don. He has also performed under the aliases krovskiy, D1$KO†ΣK▲, d1mmmv and N E P O Z N A T. PORTWAVE began his music career in the early 2010s, initially producing 8-bit and chiptune-inspired electronic music. His debut extended play, Press Start EP (2010), introduced a retro influenced sound characterized by lo-fi production and synthesized melodies. The cover artwork depicts a stylized female stormtrooper figure. This was followed by The World Is Watching (2013), which continued his exploration of chiptune and electronic styles, which included remixes of popular songs such as Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time". In 2015, he dived deeper into the witch house genre by producing THERE SORE EYES (2015), which was met with critical acclaim in underground for its dynamic and unique sound with the use of detuned synths. The cover highlights a surreal image of two faceless figure draped in deep red fabric, set against a colorful static background, a man and a woman, which influenced the style of a TV Girl album cover. In 2018, he released FERALCORE (2018) and PEARLNOISE (2018). A track from FERALCORE, “ИСКУШЕЊЕ” (“Temptation”), was later sold to Belarusian rapper Max Korzh and appeared on his album Психи попадают в топ (“Psychos Hit the Top”). In 2019, PORTWAVE issued the albums ROUTINE (2019) and Introspection (2019). He gained wider recognition through TikTok during the pandemic, where users popularized Nightcore versions of his track “Shadow Lady.” PORTWAVE was supposed to end in 2023 with the trilogy of ESCAPISM (2021), New Era (2022) and [X] (2023), but this never happened. Dmitry Protsenko is credited with creating the genre crushwave, a subgenre of wave and witch house. Crushwave is characterized by the prominent use of saw-wave basslines, a four-on-the-floor rhythmic pattern, detuned synthesizers, melodic vocal chops, a dreamy atmosphere, and dense, percussion-driven production. In addition to full-length releases, PORTWAVE is known for producing numerous sketches and collaborative works. He has collaborated with artists including akiaura, Nu:Gravity, and ΔXIUS LIИK. Several PORTWAVE projects remain unreleased or are not available on major streaming platforms, though some material has circulated through DJ sets and on SoundCloud. .