Two crucial Active Child details are he was a former choirboy and he plays a harp. There's other information, like the drum machine, loops, California, heavy keys. He's not Joanna Newsom, nor is he Duran Duran, but some other being between. A heartily, beautifully voiced singer, Pat Grossi, instead of calming himself into a more quieted folk direction, has embraced the major chords of pop music, powering up his natural angelical tendencies with electronic roto-toms and soft drones. Most of what he makes is not organic, the harp as much an accoutrement as a main plot point beside the huge electronic drum crashes and echoed vocal. Active Child is pop the same way Mary J Blige is gospel.
Stream: Active Child's Curtis Lane EP
