Chrome Sparks - Pluto

I zoned out at my desk halfway through Pluto and surfaced to find it nearly over, which is exactly what this project does to me every time. Chrome Sparks makes lush, analogue-warm electronic music that sits somewhere between a beat tape and a Boards of Canada daydream, and Pluto is him in full head-nodding, synth-drunk mode. It opens on a woozy pad that sounds left out in the sun to fade, then a fat, rubbery bass synth wanders in and sets the whole groove swaying. Around 2:20 the drums drop out entirely and leave a single arpeggio pinballing around the stereo field, and that little pocket of near silence is the best thing on the track. There’s no vocal and no obvious hook, just texture and feel carrying the whole thing with no chorus to lean on. The low end has that saturated, slightly distorted warmth that makes cheap earbuds sound briefly expensive. Malvin has been putting out this kind of thing for years and never seems to run dry on the specific melancholy-but-content mood he owns. It’s music for the exact moment the afternoon light goes orange and you give up on being productive. I’ve had it looping for the better part of an hour and could happily give it another.

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