Album of the week: Active Child – You Are All I See

You Are All I See, the debut album from Pat Grossi aka Active Child has a magnetising and alluring charm to it. A former Philadelphia Boys choirboy, Los Angeles-based Grossi’s modus operandi includes an angelic falsetto, effects-laden expansive harp tones and big reaching ’80s synthesizers and on his debut album he combines all of these disparate elements in ways that his previous Curtis Lane EP only hinted at.

There’s a beautiful fragility to You Are All I See which takes its primary sounds from R&B, folk and electronic music. Bon Iver and James Blake comparisons have cropped up when I played the songs to a few friends recently. Of the first three songs have already debuted, ‘Hanging On’ is one of my songs of the year and ‘Playing House’ featuring How To Dress Well and some syrupy autotune isn’t far off. There’s a darkness lurking in the album’s latter tracks as more malevolent tones are brought out by menacing dark-edged synths, (the outro to ‘Ancient Eye’ for example ) drum machines and a spaced-out production.

Tune in:

You Are All I See is out next week – August 23rd through Vagrant Records.