"Two years ago," remembers Porter Robinson, "I only had the inkling of the idea that I wanted to do something different. I needed to do something that was honest and real," Porter explains. So he turned down countless DJ offers in 2013 to spend the entire year devoting himself to a process of introspection and reinvention. "I figured that one way to develop a unique identity as an artist would be to combine all my favorite things in music it would result in something that is really personal, a collective expression of my taste and experience. Something nobody else has." And thus begat Worlds (Astralwerks), a cinematic excursion that commingles Porter"s technological prowess with his love of evocative melody. His first studio album, it finds an unlikely common ground for Porter"s diverse inspirations: Kanye West"s Graduation, Daft Punk"s Discovery, The Postal Service, and an array of orchestral movie scores. "Sea of Voices," for instance, is just that: gauzy, feather-light vocals that float above an ethereal-shoegaze soundscape. That track trickles into the "Years of War," which transfers those levitating vocals onto radiant synth pop propelled by a fuzzy beat. He prolongs that pop euphoria with the anthemic "Lionhearted," which pushes-and-pulls between ambient sighs and power chords, further rewarding the listener with the glitched-out "Fellow Feeling," an avant centerpiece that swells from violin-driven sentiment to industrial static, before settling into palpitating chords.