Chrome Sparks - Be On Fire EP

Chrome Sparks
Be on Fire EP
2018
Spotify

Chrome Sparks is one of those electronic producers who is always right on the edge. He has a few songs that truly work and work well, but then He has a a lot that just feels a bit like filler. "Juno Lion" for example is this hazy somewhat crowded track that is filled with intriguing sound design. It is a major departure from the album's opener "In2 Your Love" which is basically a quick little intro that does not do much. There is a lo-fi vibe to a lot of the music going on here, cutting through a syrupy haze, but not much feels all that exciting or new. Each new song sort of picks up where the last left off, but then doesn't do much else. The tracks come and go so quickly that they manage to leave very little impact. You find yourself desperate for something to shift in the music to give you a more robust sound, but it feels like music from an 80s movie about space. "I Could Be The Voice Inside" has these robotic lyrics that at least give you a change of pace, but it doesn't do enough to make this EP compelling for it's entire run time. So very little sticks from this album, it just sort of feels like what would be playing at a trendy restaurant or Art opening. It never feels like it is the focus which allows it to fade quickly into the background.

The thing about this record though is that it has all the hallmarks of something "hip". There is this slick shine to this album and a lot of what Chrome Sparks does but here it feels totally hollow and one note. You can't see the point or the direction of this album, it just sort of exists on it's own in it's own time. You find yourself left wanting more, but not more of this record more of something else. The last three tracks of this EP make almost no impression at all and before you know it the album has faded away. I don't think Chrome Sparks is a bad producer in any way It's just sometimes the decisions he makes are somewhat questionable. He is often on the verge of something good, but it never really clicks into a real gear. This seems to be forever the problem with Chrome Sparks' music, it's fine. Fine however does not get people fired up, or ask them any questions, it just sort of is. That is not where you want to land with an EP like this.

5.0 out of 10