Listen: Active Child – Hanging On

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Button-pressing, harp-tickling Active Child has added the beautifully atmospheric track ‘Hangin On’ to the Adult Swim 2011 Singles Program and it is available to stream/download now.

In ‘Hanging On’, the emotive harp part, the vocals – which often float into a painfully beautiful falsetto, and the slow and sad R&B beat combine to create a track which is complex, genre-hopping and throbbing with emotion. Best listened to on big headphones while looking at rain, or else on a stereo, while lying on a bare mattress weeping and clutching the sock your ex girlfriend left in the bottom of your drawer.

It’s quite a minimalistic mix – often just vocals, drum track and arpeggiated harp – this stripped-backness gives the impression, not of over-simplicity or barrenness, but of a nakedness and honesty, and the not oft-heard harp is allowed to shine. When the chorus part begins, the sound swells, and the intermittent backing vocals join with a higher more prominent harp part, and it is a much fuller, brighter sound providing a lush contrast to the darker moments.

The first single, from Active Child’s debut album You Are All I See, which is what ‘Hanging On’ comes from too, is ‘Playing House’ and this track also went live today, and is available to download from iTunes.

You Are All I See will be released on August 23