Active Child’s Pat Grossi proclaims “it’s a dream come true” to be playing in the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, stage packed with his eight-singer-strong choir, string quartet, drummer, guitarist, keyboard player, and of course in the middle of it all, Grossi himself on the harp. The same could be said for anyone listening to his dreamlike blend of electronica with symphonic flourishes.
The New Jersey native brought his original blend of music to the Melbourne Festival, and gave Melbourne the world premiere of songs from his new EP Rapor.
Preceding Active Child is support act, Sydneysider Oliver Tank. Tank’s expansive electronic soundscapes pour into the hall, repetitive and mesmerising. Tank is a remarkably talented vocalist with a crystal-clear voice.
He performs alone on stage, alternating between playing his Ferrari-red guitar and his trusty drum machine, backed by tracks of layered synths, drums, strings, and vocals. The stage is bathed in blue, and a puff of blue-green smoke hangs above Tank, seemingly caught by Tank’s down-tempo music (including opening track “Last Night I Heard Everything In Slow Motion”).
Behind Tank is an enormous video projection, that plays everything in slow-motion. The video wanders through images of clouds seen from above, a washed-out spaceship launch, a butterfly drinking nectar, skateboard tricks in a carpark, and skylines reflected in a lake creating symmetrical clouds like Rorschach ink blots. It has no clear message, and doesn’t need one, simply meditating on beautiful images.
Tank’s languid, reflective set is mostly drawn from his 2011 EP Dreams. When his attempt to debut songs from forthcoming EP Slow Motion Music is sadly hampered by technical difficulties, he seamlessly transitions into an epically chilled out cover of “Beautiful” by (the artist formerly known as) Snoop Dogg.
Having seriously improved his live shows from his 2012 turn as support act for Lana Del Rey, Tank is shaping up to be one of Australia’s most interesting and distinctive electronic acts. His new EP of ambient electronica will likely be the soundtrack to many a Sydney summer evening.
Active Child continues the epic theme of the evening, opening with the heart-stopping harp flourishes of the titular first track off his 2011 debut album You Are All I See. Buoyed by a synth base, the troupe of musicians move through the symphonic, layered, shimmering masterpieces of the debut album, notably “Johnny Belinda” and “Hanging On”. Grossi’s other-worldly voice glides and soars above it all.
Grossi has serious chops. Vocally, he has much in common with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon – it’s hard to believe such gentle pitch-perfect voices come from grown men. By way of explanation, his ethereal voice has been perfected through years as a choirboy.
Grossi is also a talented harp player, but in contrast to Joanna Newsom’s mastery of the harp within a conventional folk genre, he explores the harp’s ability to cross genres into the electronic realm. Grossi’s classical music background allows him to compose really beautiful, melodic soundscapes. He would doubtless compose a brilliant movie soundtrack.
Active Child performs illuminated under fanned rays of light, reinforcing the angelic impression. Fortunately, Grossi’s good humour and unpretentiousness prevent him from coming across in a sanctimonious light, which is a distinct possibility when he performs a track titled “High Priestess” featuring non sequitur lyrics such as “what you gonna do when you get out of jail?”
The second half of Active Child’s set is focussed on songs from freshly launched Rapor EP. Grossi shifts from harp to synths, and strings and choir leave the stage. There is a definite shift towards a brooding, heavier synth-dominated sound. Active Child has always made synth-driven music, but in new material the synth is unadulterated.
Unfortunately songs from Rapor don’t sound particularly original. The 80s explored the synth in nearly every form, and contemporary synth-dominated music only manages to sounds fresh at the hands of masters like M83 (and even then, “Midnight City” would never have been as fresh without that sax solo).
Given the recent avalanche of synth music (such as Poliça, Kavinsky, Chromatics and current internet favourites Chvrches), artists and labels may gravitate towards the genre, but it would be a real pity for the instantly recognisable and original Active Child sound to disappear into an of-the-moment haze of synth and heartbreak lyrics.
Whereas the songs of You Are All I See sound better live than in recording, the tracks off the Rapor EP sound better in recording than live. They will probably benefit from further rehearsal, nonetheless it’s an almost inevitable downfall of the synth-heavy genre that it sounds slightly cold live. Rapor’s “Evening Ceremony” and “Silhouette” most successfully balance the warmth and depth of earlier work with the new electronic direction.
Active Child receives a well-deserved standing ovation, fitting for Grossi’s musical prowess and the remarkable, epic soundscapes he creates.
Active Child Setlist
You Are All I See
Johnny Belinda
Evening Ceremony
High Priestess
Hanging On
Calling In The Name Of Love
Feeling Is Gone
Playing House
Subtle
Encore
She Cut Me
Silhouette
