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The Astroboy - The Chromium Fence [Album]

Self Released

by Scarlytt, March 26th, 2011 and has been Read 1719 times.
Last Edited by: Chris MUG5 Maguire March 26th, 2011.

The Astroboy is the affectionate stage name of Portuguese musician Luís Fernandes, The Chromium Fence is the new album by The Astroboy and the first release is a track called "Co-ordination Sphere." I tried really hard to get into these tracks, and after many listens I ended up in a tough love / hate relationship with them. There is loads of potential and many moments are really cool. This album could have been awesome but, it's like there is something being held back, almost as if The Astroboy are keeping the ultimate best bits from us.

My first impressions of The Astroboy's style were really good ones. I found myself excited by the possibility of some really great club tracks, the tracks build really fast into something that feels really good. You begin to expect a big drop and some fast paced moments but sadly they never come. I sat through the tracks waiting for a drop every single time, it just never came. I found myself irritated after expecting this epic drop - it’s like the music builds to the crescendo point then just stays there - there’s no up and down to the music it stays at that high, crescendo point and doesn’t change any more.

The tracks themselves are great, aside from the lack of pace; they are really detailed, consist of awesome multi faceted layers of synth sounds, and have plenty of depth to the music. It’s just a shame there’s not more levels in the way of pace. The best way I can describe The Chromium Fence is I guess is like background music in a game. You could expect to hear it as you’re running around in some sort of Final Fantasy style game - it would fit in quite well in a game like that because of its intricacies but lack of manic dance pace. I can picture The Chromium Fence to be an epic remix album, I think it would be really easy to take all the many good bits of these tracks, pick up the tempo, throw in a massive drop and make a club go nuts.

However, my flatmate loved it as it was, he couldn’t understand why I wanted a drop, why I needed more tempo, he liked the tracks as they were and found them relaxing and almost like ambient music. He has a thing for movie soundtracks and so likes more background sounding music, which I found even more telling of where this music falls in the world. It’s not that The Chromium Fence is bad music at all, thats not the point. It is good, it really is but I feel it’s kind of lifeless. It’s really well thought out and designed to sound really good, but its like there’s no passion in it. For this to really stick with me I'd need more energy from The Astroboy, I feel it lacked that something awesome that makes for a great album.