[click image for full version]

The head of BBC Radio 1 thinks that Cambridge, MA’s Passion Pit are the next big thing. Radio 1 is unusual in that it is simultaneously non-commercial and mainstream and, at least in the UK, getting added to its playlist means you’ve made it to the big leagues. The Guardian recently posted an interview with Radio 1’s head of music, George Ergatoudis, about the process by which artists get chosen for airplay. It’s kind of nice to read about their involved process of meetings and how their challenge is to balance music that is accessible and that which is more difficult (rather than, say, about how they are beating off promoters with a stick or quietly doing pay-for-play). To be perfectly precise, Ergatoudis says that Passion Pit are the next MGMT, which makes sense given that they occupy a similar point in the happy, catchy, danceable pop-electronica space.

Incidentally, the image above is a charming review of both a Passion Pit concert and their album, Chunk of Change, by artist Andrew Kuo; click on it to see the full version.

MP3: Passion Pit – Sleepyhead [amazon]