Its not often an artist can take a genre and bring it back to its roots whilst still enabling room for experimentation and layering. Ark Patrol has definitely hit the nail on the head with his new debut album, Voyager.
If you haven’t already fallen for the 19 year old Ark Patrol, now is the time to get on board. His lush, soulful electronica is simply astounding.
Born in Oahu, Hawaii, the nineteen-year-old producer has a real passion and drive for music. Just completing his first year in the Berkley College of Music with a major in Film Scoring, Ark Patrol is something he has been working on for quite some time. For him this venture, whilst started before college life, is one that has no longer become something for creativity but also as a creative release. It has enabled him to completely let go and dive into his creativity to drown out the stresses of college schedules and student life. Ark Patrol commented on this when talking with Heroic about his Ambition EP, “Sometimes it can be tough trying to squeeze out creativity through Ark Patrol given the busy-ness of a college schedule for any student, but nothing will ever beat the quietness and privacy of a dorm room when there’s time to be spared.”
Unlike Ambition, which is quite spacey in its sounding, Voyager, which was released on December 15th delves more into the synth, electro and soultronica vibes. This album is definitely one you could envision yourself driving on a coastal road with the windows down or relaxing by the pool with the warmth of the sun seeping into your skin. Voyager is just a compilation of songs that really ooze this relaxing atmosphere that you can’t help but enjoy.
Fitting perfectly into the introductory song category is Infinity. The track really eases the listener into Ark Patrol’s sound and then, as they settle, starts to pick up the use of electro. The repetition of “Yeah” and a few snippets of sporadic lyrics provide the song with a great depth. Infinity is a well-rounded and gracefully executed track!
The song that gives the debut album its name, Voyager, is a track that provides a chilled and unperturbed atmosphere for the listener. There is a real mix and correlation of tempo, beats and vocals with the added sprinkling of electro features that creates a track that essentially epitomises what this album is about. When you listen toVoyager you realise that the atmosphere the debut album creates and the emotions it evokes- are established in Voyager alone. Thus making the track a perfect representation for the album and a skillfully constructed piece of music that really showcases Ark Patrol!
The crescendo of this album would definitely have to be Never. Released in anticipation for the album, Never is now sitting at #31 on the USA iTunes music charts. This track provided listeners with a snippet to the different yet familiar sound Ark Patrol was going for (and successfully executed) with his debut album. Really taking on board the use of electro, this track is one of the more up- beat and has a faster tempo then others. There is a really lovely addition of high pitched keys introduced in segments throughout which add a light-hearted and airy addition to Never which catapult the song to not simply another electro track but a layered and textured piece of music.
Superdream is by far the grooviest song on Voyager and it is with this track that you see the strongest use of soultronica. Quite fitting that this should be the case though as it is the song that closes the album. The slower tempo and soulfully soothing vibes guide the listener out of the album. Within Superdream you can see the precision and attention to detail that Ark Patrol has taken. An extremely fitting way to finalise his debut album!
Ark Patrol announced some new remixes to be released soon as well as some more experimental tracks to come. Ark Patrol is definitely an artist to keep your eye out for in 2015 as I expect there will be a lot of great music still to come from him!
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