3 out of 5

Label: Un Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi

Produced by: Thomas Poli

Seemingly chronicling a journey to Mars, Thomas Poli’s Candor Chasma nails a general mood, and finds a good aural palette for exploring that mood, but the storytelling suggested by its song titles somewhat stalls. It’s still a fairly engrossing listen, only limited by falling back on a basic theme which returns quite frequently and, again, without advancing the narrative.

Opener A Call From Earth, No Facetime logically introduces the theme: a blurry digital slow march, opened up with a synthy burble of hopefulness – whomever is our lead facing the isolation of space, then relief in the form of some human (if remote) contact. On Ship goes even darker, as we continue the journey, morphing back into the sunnier elements of the theme: things are proceeding well. Mars Boogie continues that positivity, gaining an almost synthwave beat, but Warped Transmission gets crunchy; it is more noise than music. Single celled organism is where innovations in the music begin to level out, as we revisit the theme, if a bit slower and more minimal – which works, but it doesn’t lead anywhere: the next two tracks are extended, otherworldly ambience / experimentation, and though one can pull something out of this, where the tale could deepen the experience, it instead distances. The closer is then a sad farewell tune, as its title, So Long, Earth, suggests.

My take on / expectations of the narrative are, of course, opinion, but after several spins, the story seems deserving of something more pointed – it kind of reminds me of a Britt Marling movie in that sense, where incredibly intriguing ideas trail off into vagueness.

I still very much enjoy watching Britt Marling movies / shows, however.