Porter R

Last night,Soundcloudcrashed briefly after Porter Robinson unexpectedly released “Sea of Voices,” a track from his highly anticipated debut albumWorlds. On top of that, his new track even found itselftrending on Twitterduring the Oscars.

Porter Robinson has been relatively inactive for almost a year, since releasingEasy, a collaboration with Mat Zo, last April. Before that, fans might remember Beatport #1 anthem “Language” (2012), the track that catapulted Porter Robinson to the top of the EDM world.

“Sea of Voices” signals a departure from Porter Robinson’s earlier work, as Porter Robinson himself has already made clear, saying this record is “not a party record at all.” Nowhere to be found are the heavy bass drops or electro-driven melodies that characterized his work up until this point. Instead, we are left with, well, something else—something much more reminiscent of M83, than say, Skrillex.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSooYPG-5Rg]

An emotional soundscape projected onto a dreamy, nostalgic atmosphere is the best way I can describe this track. The track opens with layers of synths, pads, and voices, along with some faint bells. It progresses, adding some new layers and loops, building for about 3 minutes, until finally, everything falls away to an angelic voice: “I’ll see creation come undone.” Everything then resumes, this time with enormous drums, opening up the space to a higher level of feeling. Then, once again, the waterfall of sound falls over us, leaving a lone verse before it all fades out. When the song fades out completely, we’re left with a sense of having taken just a journey somewhere, to someplace new in Porter Robinson’s musical world.

While there is no release date set forWorldsyet, we can already get a taste of the direction Porter Robinson is heading. At age 21, Porter Robinson has already achieved genre-transcending maturity, as he now seems poised to enter a bold new era of electronic music, one with less focus on dance, but more focus on beauty.

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