Send "Active Child " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Though no sound suits every taste, the harp has to be one of the most inoffensive instruments in existence, which is why we aren't greeted in heaven by angels with marimbas. Active Child's Pat Grossi makes free with the harp's transfiguring power on his new album, and it's not the only thing stacking the deck in his favor. You Are All I See is full of stuff that almost everybody likes, or seems to, right now: epic electronic landscapes, monastically minimal R&B, and currents of rumbling post-dubstep sound design. Grossi's strong yet ethereal voice-- its corners neatly squared by a childhood spent in choirs-- masses and hovers, imparting an elevated piety to the music. The slick, timely aesthetic is appealing, but works at slight odds with the timelessness Grossi cultivates.If you enjoyed how harps and beats entwined in a glittery haze on Active Child's Curtis Lane EP, you'll enjoy You Are All I See, which is similar but runs on finer gears. The EP's fairly rigid boundary between dance numbers and atmospheric ones has become much more porous, creating a subtler flow that carries us smoothly from the frosty soul and coiled percussion of "Hanging On" to the expansive art-pop of "High Priestess" and "See Thru Eyes", where jagged but spare synthetic drums and holographic tone colors make Grossi's voice seem to tower even higher. It all sounds like the work of someone whose computer expertise is catching up with his instrumental chops. With this welcome refinement of style comes a minor downside, namely, that it feels overly familiar. This isn't to say that Grossi is ripping anyone off-- at a time when music is so instantly responsive to its own immediate context, his recombinant approach is routine. But on You Are All I See, craft edges out personality. The allusions to modern trends are so well-realized that it at least creates a slightly numbing impression of opportunistic pastiche, even if the similarities were unintentional. If you enjoyed the experimental soft-pop moods of Bon Iver's recent album and are looking for more spiritually glamorous music, step right up. Pacesetter How to Dress Well, who mines a vein similar to Grossi's but more ghostly, guests on the excellent "Playing House", while "Hanging On" sounds like a heartfelt synthesis of "Lady Luck", "The Boy Is Mine", and "Pony". To top it off, "Way Too Fast" and "Shield & Sword" both have the prayerful, hollowed out turbulence of James Blake. With a figurative dugout like that, it's hard to go wrong in 2011....full text |
| Avclub |
| You Are All I See is the debut album from Active Child, the band that Los Angeles singer-songwriter Pat Grossi has steadily built around his sweeping harp, pining falsetto, and shuddering beats. A series of small-budget, limited-edition EPs, singles and cassettes preceded this Vagrant Records debut, including last year’s “She Was a Vision” 7-inch and its six-song follow-up, Curtis Lane. Those releases were remarkably assured and stylistically developed, with Grossi’s pedigree—a former choirboy whose father was an executive at Priority Records—reflected in beautifully booming pop songs. With Grossi’s voice refracted by cathedral-ceiling reverb and his rhythms applying hip-hop intensity to a new-wave template, those very first Active Child releases felt like an aggregate introduction to a confident new vocalist, writer, and arranger. It’s a shame, then, that You Are All I See is so badly pocked by stylistic indecision and inarticulate eclecticism. Grossi handles different ideas with uncertain hands: “Way Too Fast” is the worst song James Blake forgot to put on his own sterling debut, while just about everything on Bon Iver puts “High Priestess” to shame. At least Grossi’s collaboration with fellow crooner Tom Krell of How to Dress Well on “Playing House” offers a winning sex-for-love shudder, and closer “Johnny Belinda” glows with the perfect mix of grandeur and immediacy that first gave Grossi an audience. It ends a disappointing album on a positive note, and hopefully points to a return to his early promise the next time around. ...full text |
| Prettymuchamazing |
| If R. Kelly, Bon Iver and Sigur Ros had an imaginary three-way and birthed a prodigy, his name would undoubtedly be Active Child (aka Pat Grossi). His knack for mixing sensual R&B lyrics, haunting falsetto and impeccably sequenced strings is downright devastating, all unneeded sexual imagery aside. Grossi moved back to L.A. from Denver in 2008 to carve out his musical niche: the impossibly difficult pseudo-dubstep, high pitched harmony domain that very few have been able to fully master. After Mirror Universe’s Sun Rooms cassette and a British import single were released in 2010, we began to hear the echoes of distorted electronic frustration brimming throughout every inch of this stunning debut. Though title track “You Are All I See” is an excellent starting point, bursting with layers upon layers of his beautiful harp strings, “Hanging On” is the sort of song Grossi could really hang his hat on. It begins with a solid underwater synthesizer punctuated by low frequency intonations that expertly meld into his heavenly shouts. The bass rolls in at the precise moment he drops his tenor to a sanguine baritone, welcoming us into his broken heart. The song sounds and feels exactly like its title. With each muffled drum machine and phased out melody we feel his carnal pain building inside until it has nowhere left to go but down. Sidebar: The White Sea remix takes that yearning into the stratosphere by incorporating a children’s choir and what sounds like one of the thousands of drums used in the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony. T-Pain himself couldn’t have Auto-Tuned the opening line in “Playing House”, “Just cuz it feels good baby”, any better than Grossi and indie darlings How to Dress Well did on this babymaking, let’s-get-it-on number. The Flight of the Conchords classic “Business Time” serves as an excellent comparison for the way the dueling vocals eventually find a happy medium, and both are about well…getting down to “business”. The album stumbles a bit when we get to “See Thru Eyes” and “High Priestess” which are both a little too vast and expansive for their own good. The trademark production value is there, along with the superb pipes, but they lack the same pops and hooks that are present in the beginning. And, yes, in case you were wondering there is a radiant instrumental residing at Track #6. “Ivy” is all about showcasing Grossi’s ridiculous harpist bard qualities and reminding us just how meaningless lyrics are in the presence of a lush, complex soundscape. For those of us who are suicidal and on the verge of frenzy, “Ancient Eye” may not be the best song to listen to after a bad day. “Shield and Sword” is just as bleak, replete with menacing laser-like tracks followed by a few clever bars of whimsical harp. The last song, “Johnny Belinda”, is some sort of tragic love song trapped in its own sea of confusion and Gregorian chants....full text |
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