I'm in Your Church at Night

I bought tickets for Active Child’s gig at London’s St Pancras Old Church with the intention of enjoying it, not reviewing it, but sometimes music is too moving to keep quiet about.

L.A.-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Pat Grossi is Active Child. Although he is as comfortable with a keyboard or a guitar, it is his performances as a harpist that are most spellbinding – coupled with his choir-boy falsetto voice I wonder whether he might have had a hard time at school. Perhaps it was this adversity that helped channel the talent and industry to create the truly innovative sound that Active Child stands for. Critics have compared his music to James Blake, lazily I expect because he supported Blake earlier this year. Both are complex in their sound, Blake in a curious way, but Grossi’s is more deliberate, more affecting. If I had to offer a comparison I would cite Ryan Olsen’s Gayngs, with its own falsetto front man, Justin Vernon [Bon Iver], its 80s-inspired synth and hip-hop leanings.

London’s Anglican St Pancras Old Church seemed no better place to host Active Child. The original church building has roots as far back as the 4^th century and is mentioned in the Domesday Book, and it has had its creative links for decades – graves of musical composers are dotted across the churchyard, lovers Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley sneaked away from prying eyes to meet by the grave of Mary’s mother, and more recently The Beatles were famously photographed within the churchyard to promote Hey Jude in 1968. Now, the church leads a double life- Sunday worshippers are just as likely to find a Holy Bible in the church pews as they are the stale smell of beer. Once the gates are locked up for the day, by night it becomes one of London’s more unorthodox and marvellous music venues.

Halfway through the set, the significance and the marriage between his music and the venue were verbally recognised by Grossi. The influence of his time in a choir, and the orchestral elements to his music are plain to see. He and his backing band played their way through the set with little interruption; creating an atmosphere not unlike a gentle and absorbed church service. One of the few interruptions was brought about by the church bells chiming on the hour coincidentally between two songs. Grossi played tracks from his debut album You Are All I See, to be released in the UK on 24^th October 2011, because they best suited the venue – his own words, I rather think it had at least a little to do with the fact that the tour was to promote the new album. Alongside these tracks, he and his band played tracks from last year’s EP Curtis Lane, most notably the beautiful I’m In Your Church At Night, which couldn’t have been more befitting.

In You Are All I See, Active Child has produced something of exceptional quality for a debut album. After being well-received but not charting in the U.S. I expect it will make a similar impact in the UK. But from some of the signs of his musical quality and maturity in this album, I sincerely believe he is an act that is well worth investing in.