Friday, June 5, 2009
Music news Passion Pit's penchant for disenfranchised vocals and infectious beats
Posted by Zach Fraser on Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 3:21 PM
Passion Pit. $12-$14. 9 p.m. Sat., June 6. The Drunken Unicorn, 736 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-870-0575. www.thedrunkenunicorn.net.
There's something to be said about the emergence of indie and electronic music in the past couple of years. Each genre has respectively gathered an avid fan base hungry for the next fix of disenfranchised vocals or infectious beats.
So what happens when you combine the two?
Well, that’s where Passion Pit — the musical vehicle of lead singer Michael Angelakos’ love life — comes into play. Literally. Passion Pit started as a mixtape Angelakos recorded for his girlfriend for Valentine ’s Day.
The Boston quintet seems to have trumped the music industry by simply taking the two emerging genres and combining them into a simple, yet unique dance-rock formula.
Think Phoenix and Benny Benassi being overdubbed together, thrown into a blender and looped, and you might have an idea of what kind of noise Angelakos and crew produce (keyword: might).
Manners, the debut album from Passion Pit, produces a jolt to the sensory system equivalent to a Red Bull vodka binge at a night club in Prague. It’s that good.
The 11-song debut showcases Passion Pit's talent for crafting catchy choruses and contagious hooks on such songs as “Moth’s Wings” and “Little Secrets.” As the album progresses, Angelakos displays an array of emotions as he sings about ups, downs and in betweens.
Showcasing his inner anguish and loneliness on “The Reeling” Angelakos confesses, “Well how I loathe all this obscenity/is this the way my life has got to be/Have I a single opportunity?"
Manners brightest moment is on “Sleepyhead,” one of the tracks that originally gained the band notoriety. The song features electronics-galore, creating an elusive trance of sounds with Angelakos' synths acting as the backbone of the track.
As mediocre artists continue to flood the scene, Passion Pit sparks a hope for music enthusiasts by proving that creativity is not worth the compromise.
Currently on tour promoting “Manners,” Passion Pit rolls into Georgia this weekend.
$12-$14. 9 p.m. Sat., June 6. The Drunken Unicorn, 736 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-870-0575. www.thedrunkenunicorn.net.
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