The wonder voices of Pentatonix

A cappella singing is nothing new but Pentatonix does it on a massive scale. The songs of the sensational group come off as fully orchestrated recordings without a single musical instrument. No wonder fans are crazy about them. At a time when pop music has become largely electronic, using synthesizers, auto-tune and other thingamajigs, it is totally amazing to come across a young group with a most innovative and I must say, natural approach to singing. I say, hurray! Kids now know what real singing can sound like.

Pentatonix is made up of Avi Kaplan, a most distinctive bass; Kevin Olusola, the vocal percussionist or the beatboxer; Kirstie Maldonado, the mezzo soprano and only girl in the line-up; Mitch Grassi who does both tenor and counter-tenor voices; and Scott Hoying, the baritone who sings lead most of the time. All only in their early 20s, they named themselves Pentatonix after music’s pentatonic scale which has five notes per octave. Of course, they sing a lot more than five notes. They sound like an orchestra so they really sing a lot of notes.

Pentatonix was discovered when the members joined the third season of the reality television search for singing groups called The Sing Out in 2011 and won the grand prize. They began recording early in 2012 and interestingly made their first music releases on YouTube. Their clever mash-ups of current hits and simple but effective videos of songs like Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know and fun.’s We Are Young gained them a huge following even before they released their debut album.

The Pentatonix bio says that as of the last count, Pentatonix has over six million subscribers and 520 million cumulative views. PTXOfficial is now the 13th most subscribed to music channel on YouTube. That is a lot more than what Beyoncé and Avicii have generated. I do say that Pentatonix might eschew modern technological tools in the recordings but the group certainly knows how to use social media to get the music across to the fans. That makes for a powerful combination.

Pentatonix fans out here will be happy to know that the group’s albums are now available locally. Now you might already have them on your laptops and YouTube is always at your disposal but for a fan, nothing beats the thrill of holding the physical CD, putting it in the machine and then listening to it play. And here they are:

PTX by Pentatonix incorporates the first two recorded EPs, Volumes 1 and 2 in one album. This is an incredible bargain, two CDs mixing hit songs covers and originals for the price of one. Starships, The Baddest Girl, Somebody That I Used To Know, Aha!, Show You How To Love, Love You Long Time, We Are Young, Can’t Hold Us, Natural Disaster, Love Again, Valentine, Hey Momma with Hit The Road Jack, I Need Your Love, Run To You, Daft Punk, Save The World with Don’t Worry Child, Radioactive, Say Something and Royals.

Then there is PTX Volume III, which is Pentatonix’s latest pop release. It sticks to the old formula with cuts like Problem, On My Way Home, La La Latch, Rather Be, See Through and Standing By, plus a nice experiment in Papaqutai featuring the pop violinist who dances, Lindsey Stirling.

The brightest treasure of the batch though is the Pentatonix Christmas album. Christmas carols are made for beautiful singing and that is just what the group does in the delightful That’s Christmas To Me. With the kind of singing that Pentatonix does, it is no surprise that the album has included a wide variety of selections. These range from the traditional carols like Hark The Herald Angel Sing done gospel-style to originals like White Winter Hymnal to Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker Suite to the moving Mary Did You Know and even Let It Go from Frozen as a bonus track.

For more beautiful music by great voices, I recommend Stars by Collabro, which is one of my most played albums this season. That name comes from a combination of collaboration and brothers. The group is the winner of Britain’s Got Talent 2014 and I must say that music tycoon Simon Cowell has found a new Il Divo but lighter in tone and definitely younger. The British Collabro is the opposite of One Direction, a swoonable boy band who sings easy-listening music.

The title track comes from Stars, another big favorite of mine from the musical Les Miserables. It was the song with which the group won the British Got Talent title. The group specializes in theater songs but also does pop favorites. The album is a mix of both and is just the soothing, relaxing sort that makes these hectic times easier to cope with.

Aside from Stars, also included are Bring Him Home, also from Les Miz; Come What May from Moulin Rouge; With You from Ghost; Let It Go from Frozen; Anthem from Chess; Somewhere from West Side Story; Over The Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz and pop hits Secrets by OneRepublic and All Of Me by John Legend.