21-year-old US artist Porter Robinson is one of the most exciting new talents in electronic music.
Beginning his producing career at the age of just 12, he soon racked up a set of well-received singles, before breaking through to the mainstream in the UK with the release of the epic track Language in 2012.
His hugely-anticipated debut album Worlds is scheduled for release in August and has already been preceded by the stunning M83-esque Sea of Voices, Sad Machine and his latest effort, Lionheart (out August 4th).
We spoke to Porter to discover his Ultimate Playlist; read on for his choices and the stories behind them.
Listen to the whole playlist on Spotify
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Favourite Movie Soundtrack
"I would say the song Lovers from House of Flying Daggers by Shigeru Umebayashi. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous theme. It's quite beautiful. It's like a martial arts slash romance movie and the theme is just so emotional, so beautiful, it's one of my favourites ever."
Favourite Sad Song
"Bronte by Gotye. It's a song about the family dog of a friend passing away, and the video is absolutely gorgeous and very, very sad. Gotye is super talented, it's a beautiful, beautiful song...even though it's heart-wrenching."
Favourite Club Anthem
"It's funny because as much as I should be pretty sick of club anthems at the moment, I would say one recent, EDM song - it's probably been a year since I really heard a song that I would call strictly EDM that I really love a lot - but the song You by Galantis is really, really good. I don't really go out to the club and I don't really enjoy that sort of thing very much, but I think the song You is actually quite musical and overall a very beautiful song. I like the video a lot too. It's the one song I can think of that fits within that 'club anthem' constraint while still being something that I would listen to in the car and really enjoy. I think that band are gonna be so massive; everything that they've put out so far has been compelling and unique and the songwriting is on point, the production's good. I think they'll do well."
Favourite Song That No One Else Knows
"I would say the song Landloper by the band Win Win. It's actually a song written by the guy who does my visuals...they're very underground but this song was stuck in my head seriously for a month straight, it's so good! The video and the visuals are really really interesting and weird and dreamlike, but I think the song stands up on its own."
Favourite Wedding Song
"I've only ever attended one wedding so I don't really know too much about what is typical wedding music! I don't really have a good suggestion here...I'm thinking of some Motown, 70s, soulful stuff - how about that song Want Ads by The Honey Cone, even though it's a silly song. She's putting out an advertisement in the want ads of the paper for a 'young man, single and free' and it's just catchy as hell!"
Favourite Current Song
"A song that came out really recently is the song Yumeno Hajima Ring Ring by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. She's a Japanese pop artist and that song is really beautiful. It's like this kind of this retrospective on her, she just turned 21. I just love the chords to this song and I find the chorus really beautiful. In the video, she goes back and sees herself in all of the costumes that she ever wore in each of her videos and says goodbye, it's just nicely sentimental, kind of nostalgic song."
Favourite Song From Your Childhood
"The one that comes to mind for me is one that my dad used to play a lot. He made me listen to a bunch of 70s and 80s music, so I'm nostalgic for a lot of that - but the one that still catches my attention every time I hear it is Mr Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra. I used to love that song."
Favourite Lyric From A Song
"I'm not super crazy about lyrics, I've always been mostly interested in melodies...but the song Ageless Beauty by the band Stars has the lyrics: "ageless beauty, cruelty makes its holes but on the shorelines, time will hold its promise" and its chorus is "we will always be a light". Pretty abstract and kind of dreamy, but when you hear it in context, it's quite beautiful. I don't know if there's anything much more cringy than just speaking song lyrics out without the melody!"
Favourite One Hit Wonder
"I'm gonna reference Kyary Pamyu Pamyu again and - to me, it's not much of a novelty or one hit wonder, because I like her whole discography - but this was kind of her big hit and it really captivated people around the world. She has a song called Ponponpon and it was kind of a big international hit, this J-Pop song. Anyone would be hard-pressed to hear the song and watch the video and not be fascinated by it. It's just this awesome journey - it looks really frenetic...it's very cutesy but also kind of grotesque at the same time."
Favourite Song From Your Own Music
"It's actually not too hard for me [to pick] as I just wrote it. It's a song called Sad Machine and it's the only song on my album that I sing on and it's me singing a duet with this Japanese program called Vocaloid. It's basically a Japanese program that you input syllables and melodies and it makes this robot sing to you. I sing a duet with a sad robot girl and it's an interesting song - it's my favourite thing that I've done recently."
(Images: Getty)
