Single Review: Porter Robinson – ‘Sea of Voices’
2 min read
21 year old DJ Porter Robinson is no stranger to the electronic/dance music field; he has been producing music since the tender age of 12 and had his first taste of success at 18 with debut single Say My Name, which took out the number one spot on Beatport’s Electro House Chart in 2010. Due to release his first full length album Worlds, Porter has released its leading single Sea of Voices, here’s what we thought.
Sea of Voices is almost anything but, the track is dominated by a soundscape for the first three minutes; we are definitely not dealing with the typical electronic smash hit here, Porter hasn’t recruited a pop music megastar to borrow vocals from to drive sales. As relaxing as the piece is to begin with, we are waiting for some substance to occur so we can really get into this track. Just over three minutes later we are introduced to some lush vocals, and finally the song explodes by doubling in dynamics whilst being driven by drums and synths. The boom was short lived however.
Sea of Voices seems like a strange choice as a lead single, especially for a debut LP. The song could have done without the vocal part as it was almost non existent, it seemed to alienate the track as the soundscape was already established. It did take a little too long for the song to escalate from a gentle meditation piece to an ocean of synths and beats and we found ourselves yearning for the climax earlier on than three minutes into it. Although substantially different from what we hear spouting from the electronic music fountain, the Sea of Voices was pleasant but we need a little more from Porter Robinson to hype us up for the album release.
