LP Spotlight: Porter Robinson – Worlds

Back in February, Porter Robinson revealed the title of his new full-length album, Worlds, with a 10-hour long promo video. Resembling some alien transmission sequence, the footage got everyone very interested, fans and critics alike. Yesterday the album was officially released, and in his own words: “It’s the hardest I’ve ever worked on anything, and without question it’s my favorite music I’ve ever made.”

Like so many other extremely young producers (Garrix, Dyro) that were flung into stardom as edm dropped into the market (pun intended), Porter gained attention and quickly gathered plays with a loud, dubby, mainstage sound. By the time he turned 19, Skrillex had already signed him to his new label, OWSLA, to release Porter’s first EP, Spitfire. Only a year later, and he had become Tiesto’s mentee, toured with Deadmau5, and helped co-write Zedd’s hit single, Clarity. The first edm show Porter ever attended was his own. So, needless to say, he had fame thrust upon him practically the moment he came into the industry, young and inexperienced. His music was loud, predictable, and crafted specifically to make people dance. Practically overnight Porter had found himself with a reputation as one of the most popular mainstage artists out there, but as quickly as he came into this new environment, he became disgusted with it.

The crowd-pleasing bangers he had been known for became unsatisfying, and soon Porter began to have anxiety attacks on stage. In a recent interview with The Fader, he recounted when it was at its worst: “I was yelling at fans, ‘Dance music is terrible!’ I fully fucking freaked out. I was playing these songs, and people were dancing, and they were watching me, and I remember feeling, ‘These people, their fucking week is this. They spent money on these tickets. They’re excited to see me, and they think I stand for all these things.’” To the AU Review, he explained, “I started to realize that, by trying to incorporate DJ-friendly and dance-friendly elements in my music, I was often compromising and making songs worse. And I decided … that I would just write the songs that I wanted to hear, and write the songs that I felt needed to exist, rather than try to make club-friendly, festival mainstage bangers.”

Enter Language, his point of departure. While still retaining a four-to-the-floor dance beat and a few glitch-hop fills, something was different about this single. It had atmosphere, it had color… for Christ’s sake, it had piano! And it was a far cry from Robinson’s Spitfire-era dubstep cuts. After spending two weeks at #1 on the Beatport charts, it was clear to Porter that it was viable for him to start experimenting without fear of losing all of his bubblegum-edm fans. He continued to sell out show after show, dropping the songs that made him famous, the songs he now considered “entertainment, not art.” “Even though I was still touring and DJing,” he said, “in my mind I was in another place, ’cause I’d been writing this music that had almost nothing to do with” what was playing. And that music he’d been writing would eventually become his self-declared magnum opus, Worlds.

He gave us a first taste of his new sound in March, with Sea of Voices. The wind-touched chimes, dreamy vocals, and droning chords took listeners by surprise. Instead of the fist-bumping beat we had expected, Porter literally cut his tempo in half, dropping from 128 to 64 BPM. The song slowly builds its lush atmosphere, incrementally growing louder and louder and larger and larger until, finally, a voice blooms out in sudden silence, “We’ll see creation come undone.” This was his announcement, and the vocals continue to roll over the soundscape:

We’ll see creation come undone. These bones that bound us will be gone. We’ll stir our spirits ’till we’re one. Then soft as shadows we’ll become.

This track, like every other on Worlds, reflects Porter’s thoughts directly, and translates his own words verbatim. It was a beautiful single (and still possibly my favorite Porter track of all).

For three years he worked with this vision, and just yesterday was the result officially released for the world to judge. In a letter to fans, Porter wrote, “So, this is probably the happiest day of my life: Worlds is out … it’s been like three years in the making. Thank you so much for sticking with me through all of this. I owe you guys a debt of gratitude.” Talking with the Wall Street Journal, he explained, “The album is to me fundamentally about escapism and fantasy.” It’s easy to hear the influence of Porter’s obsession with Japanese culture and childhood videogame soundtracks throughout the album. “I love universes that really, really insist upon themselves,” he told The Fader. “Star Wars Galaxies didn’t ever explain itself to you. It was horribly broken; it was glitchy in several significant ways. It was just this vast, expansive, beautiful universe with all these crazy idiosyncrasies.” And that’s just the kind of universe we are given to explore with Worlds. As the album opens, we’re greeted with a few distorted vocal jabs and simple muted chords that quickly expand into huge, brash cannons of sound. Colossal snare hits reverberate out, and just as a few electric arps begin to play around our ears in the background, Porter brings us down with a smooth filter transition. As the white noise dies, we find ourselves in a place of calm. We’ve arrived. And soon enough, Amy Millan’s celestial voice rings out, “We will wait for this”. Good to know she felt the same way I did about this album.

 Track-by-track:

Divinity: – A huge introduction, there no mistake porter has made a change, and he has no qualms about letting the listener know from the get-go. The adventure begins here. Listen for the magic-meter throwback sound effects, the tasteful distortion on the voxy samples, and the toy-box melody at the end.

Sad Machine: – One of the catchiest synth hooks on the album. This is the first time our ears meet a vocaloid female voice that carries us throughout Worlds, and coupled with the chorus of human vocals in the song’s refrain, it sounds tasteful. Listen for the cool chord substitutions halfway in, the Legend-of-Zelda-esq ocarina solo at 3:10, and the harps throughout.

Years of War (feat. Breanne Duren & Sean Caskey): – Marching along at 110 BPM, a solid track. Not the most captivating of all, but the melody is definite ear candy. Listen for three different synth layers in the verses, and the contrast between Breanne and Sean’s voice.

Flicker: – One of the funkier songs, the bass and guitar lines are a nice new texture to hear. Although, I’ll be perfectly honest: the vocals are incredibly annoying. They would completely ruin the song for me if not for the pulsing synth sections that balance the track out. Listen for the electro textures that seem to have Language written all over them.

Fresh Static Snow: – Leading off with a complextro-like distored slap-bass that betrays a reference back to Porter’s original work, this one is coated in bitcrushed fuzziness. Listen for the 80s-era tom fills, and the vox harmonies towards the end.

Polygon Dust (feat. Lemaitre): – Straightforward tune with very few syncopated rhythms. The lead synth reminds me of Unison. Listen for those arp rolls during the hook, and the electric piano gliss.

Hear The Bells (feat. Imaginary Cities): – This track is huge. One of my favorites, and the refrain is super catchy. I’ve found myself humming it a lot recently: “You won’t hear it on the radio.” Listen for the vocal interplay–honestly very impressed with Porter on this one.

Natural Light: – Downtempo Porter! That compressor ducking will keep your head bobbing through the entire song. Listen for the chimes and all the little fill details.

Lionhearted (feat. Urban Cone): – This one has been really popular since he pre-released it. It feels familiar, and to me stands as a good listen, but not a stand-out. Listen for those 16th-note rolls underneath the main chords.

Sea Of Voices: – My favorite, ever since it came out. Listen for every single thing, dammit.

Fellow Feeling: – By far the most unique track on the album. I couldn’t help but smile the first time I heard the opening string solo reach out. Couldn’t believe my ears. The orchestral arrangement is gorgeous, and as the deadmau5-synths faded in (admit it, you know that they’re deadmau5 synths), my head was bobbing. I was so ready for Porter house, so ready for a smooth late-night drive, but as the spoken word rose, “Now please, hear what I hear,” absolute chaos is let loose. An ugly, glitchy mess of machinery rips across my speakers, and after half a minute of beat, bass, and noise, her voice comes back: “Let me explain. This ugliness, this cruelty, this repulsiveness–It will all die out. And now, I cry for all that is beautiful.” I don’t need to explain the message Porter is sending. Listen for the slapback delay accompanying the speech, and the overbearing contrast between sections.

Goodbye To A World: – An emotional conclusion that seems to be saturated with nostalgia. I absolutely love this song. So many beautifully-crafted details, it’s definitely a fitting conclusion for the album. Listen for all the motifs and textures that he brings together here from the rest of the album.

Don’t get me wrong, I still throw on Spitfire when I need to get my gig on, and 100% In The Bitch will always be a staple on my car stereo, but I’m overwhelmingly pleased to see Porter grow into his own. A teenager that had suddenly made a career out of the mainstage genre, perhaps his identity crisis was as much a result of his inexperience as his own growing artistic vision, but either way I have to give him serious props. This release is his debut as an original, unique artist, and Porter’s only beginning to explore the “worlds” he has in store.