Porter Robinson – Worlds

Label: AstralwerksScore: 7/10 

Worlds. When we talk about worlds it could be any one of many. We live in a Universe containing nine planets and four dwarf planets, which could be in one of several Universes. However, when we are referring to Porter Robinson, we discuss all worlds in his latest album, Worlds.

At the age of just 18, Porter Robinson’s world changed dramatically for the good when his hit record Say My Name could be heard in every nightclub across the globe as it sprinted straight to number one on Beatport. Earning the support from such recognisable names as Tiesto, David Guetta and Paul Van Dyk, this incredible young talent now has the entire planet at his feet and all ears listening to every beat he drops.

Robinson is back with his debut album release, Worlds, and hopes to set many worlds alight with his latest piece of work. We decided to take a listen for ourselves… 

Porter ushers us into his debut album with Divinity, the first record on the album. It serves as a perfect introduction to his debut release and is only aided by the heavenly vocals of Amy Millan. The composition is delightful along with the synths included with them. Following this comes the ever familiar track, Sad Machine. A track more famed for it’s vocals rather than the underlying sound technics of Robinson, Porter embraces his own vocals gelling them with female Vocaloid vocals. Telling a story about a lonely robot girl and a human boy, this track definitely one of the me unique of the twelve on the album. One quarter of the way through the Porter’s debuts release comes Years Of War. A very telling track featuring vocals from both Breanne Duren and Sean Caskey, it captures the audiences attention with it’s thunderous bass at the beginning and it provides them closure with it’s faultless smooth electric piano chords.

The most dynamic injection from the album is Flicker. Entering an experimental dimension like no other, Robinson threw out all the stops with this one. It features choppy Japanese female vocals fluently blending into sounds similar to a vintage video game from the ninety’s. The track then grinds to a close after some heavy hitting bass beats. This beast of a track is followed up by Fresh Static Snow. Providing Porter loyalists with hard hitting electro music from the beginning, it grinds out to be a lot more darker than the title of snow suggests with some deep, grungy beats along the way.

Polygon Dust is the sixth instalment in this experimental roller coaster as Porter Robinson teams up with Norwegian duo Lemaitre. Featuring one of the more recognisable and tasteful melodies, this along with Lemaitre’s vocals produces one of my favourite tracks on the album. Further superb additions in contributions to the album vocally speaking is acquired by Imaginary Cities on Hear The Bells. Such atmospheric vocals are a pleasure to listen to as the album progresses. More experimental genius is produced with Natural Light, at 2 minutes and 21 seconds in length, Robinson went all out on this record with his skills behind the decks requiring no vocals to add light (no pun intended) to the record itself.

Providing another notable melody in Worlds, Robinson allows listeners to get lost in the moment to his latest single release, Lionhearted. Although the background sound may sound similar, Urban Cove’s vocals separates this track from the rest and was definitely one of the stand out records for me after listening to the entirety of the album. Allowing his fans to adapt and learn his new style behind the decks back in March with his little teaser of his new album release, Sea Of Voices definitely gathered mixed reactions to begin with but now people are used to his current new style and therefore have learnt to love the beauty that is Sea Of Voices. Definitely the best representative of Porter’s new outlook and style of music.

Fellow Feeling is another highlight of this awesome album. Porter manages to combine an orchestral masterpiece with an experimental and instrumental electro beat which meshes wonderfully right from the bat. Such fantastic diversity just illustrates how versatile Robinson is behind the decks. To close Worlds in style, Goodbye To A World is the final track on the album. This song features all of the sounds utilised by Porter throughout his album including a relaxing feel, Vocaloid verses and of course, progressive electro music. An epic conclusion to say the least. 

Using his imagination to the absolute maximum in terms of becoming a daredevil behind the decks and experimenting with new sounds, Porter Robinson has definitely earned my respect. His debut album, Worlds, entertained my ear drums in countless ways and for that, I applaud this teenage sensation.

This album has equal potential as it’s creator, so in other words a lot. His rise to fame in EDM has been fast at such an early age and with releases like this in the works, Porter will only continue to rise further and further. Flicker was my personal favourite only just surpassing that of Fellow Feeling. The latter is the perfect way to describe Robinson’s journey up the ladder so far without using words and if he continues in the same manner, the entire world will be talking about the name Porter Robinson.