Listen: Porter Robinson – Sea Of Voices

Porter Robinson. Photo: Alexander Frederick

If you were awake around 4 am yesterday, you’d know Twitter served up an unexpected bombshell. Porter Robinson,  one of electronic music’s most promising artists, let loose a series of tweets about music that seemed personal and revelatory, setting Twitter abuzz. “Years ago, I realized that I wanted to write an album that focused on beauty above all else,” said one tweet posted by the jetlagged Robinson, who is currently in Australia. “The feeling of hugeness and gorgeousness and vastness and beauty is what I fucking live for. It is my favourite thing in the world,” said another. Porter also posted, “I realized that the rift between the music that works for DJs and the music that I love had grown too huge to ignore.”

The tweets culminated in Porter releasing a sample from a track of the much-awaited album he’s been constructing. The last ROLLING STONE spoke to Porter, in October 2013, he had said, “I’m trying to write songs that are good, musical and effective, and induce goosebumps. The way I’ve been describing it has been M83 meets Sleigh Bells meets Language. It’s loud and it knocks, but in a lo-fi, vintage-inspired way. It’s a little bit older and more analog-sounding. And it’s a lot more emotional.”

We could only hear the track ”” “Sea of Voices” today, because SoundCloud crashed soon after it was released. Familiar territory perhaps, because Spitfire, Robinson’s debut EP, crashed Beatport’s servers when it was released. “Sea of Voices” is lush, melodic and a slow sunrise bottled into a track, and we’re completely surprised by it. Appropriate, because if the rest of the album is this gripping, then it’s a brand new day for Mr. Robinson.

Porter Robinson – Sea of Voices