GENRE | Electropop Eccentricity

LABEL | The Wishart Group

RELEASE DATE | February 14, 2017

VERDICT | More Mom Voicemails

Boston-bred electropop outfit Passion Pit are back to the old grind with their latest project Tremendous Sea of Love. The band has been dropping a track a day on YouTube through the Wishart Group, frontman Michael Angelakos’ artist support startup. Amongst the releases is “Somewhere Up There,” a six-minute experimental journey that is eccentric and eclectic from start to finish–even by Passion Pit’s standards.

“Somewhere Up There” bursts open with Passion Pit’s characteristic pitchy electric sound. Angelakos’ sickly sweet falsetto winds into the track, no louder or softer than the surrounding instrumentals. Going into the bridge (or, where a traditional bridge would be), the song becomes melodic chaos, with layers of distorted vocals and synth crescendoing until the track erupts into… nothing.

After a full second of silence, the track slides into a strangely intoxicating electronic interlude for an entire minute before being cut off by a spoken segment on the development of maternal instincts: “You know, when children are very little, the child-mother bond is developed from day one.” The brief social science lesson precedes another, more stripped musical interlude before the track closes with a 30-second voicemail from Angelakos’ own mom.

At first listen, “Somewhere Up There” seems like a strangely composed series of events, but after the second or third spin, it becomes clear that the track is simply an audio art piece meant primarily for expression, rather than consumption. Nothing more, nothing less.