Enzo Sprigg: “Cosmic Bipolar Nebula” – luscious textures

Enzo Sprigg is a creative electronic singer-songwriter, as well as a visual artist who illustrates his own album covers, creates the costumes in his videos and has even hand drawn and animated videos for his songs. Sprigg has just recently thrown down his therapeutic and cathartic 12-track “Cosmic Bipolar Nebula”, his third album. It’s with his continued freedom and internal exploration that Enzo Sprigg returns with a new recording, while showing a mature growth from his earlier releases. The album opens with “Raygun Love Transmission”, a beautifully sewn together song with distorted instrumentals and yearning vocals that create luscious textures to stimulate your ears. A strong start to the album.

Sprigg’s soaring, atmospheric vocals beckon you into the nocturnal, dark theater of a midnight show on tracks like “Gradual Decent.” “Prime”, a great song that begs to be remixed and club-worthy, continues the ear candy, while “Dark Matter” opens with urgent drums and throbbing keyboarding that could lull you into a foot-stomping and head-nodding state. “Oh Mother” continues the strong atmospherics on this album as we hear a banging snare open the song to Sprigg’s powerfully tortured and chilling vocals, which continue to impress. This track is one of the album’s absolute highlights.

Listeners are then swept along to the slow-burning, ebullient “Swimming Through the White Noise” and the turbulent “Sangre’ (In Blood)”, as Sprigg’s relentless vocals rise to a register of envy. His vocals continue to bleed over these tracks with the haunting “Hyper Magnetic Touch” and then, amid the swirling synths, we come full circle to the closing moments of the album with “Cosmic Nebula”.

The track unreels itself with a thumping bass and then breaks down into ominous lower register growling synths, as this superb track fades into the darkness. Thus leading to the melodic choruses of “Nova Expression”. Uncannily, the surprise comes at the end, with a club-worthy version of “Prime (Way Past My Prime Mix)”.

The diverse, sumptuously light and dark soundscapes found across this album showcase Enzo Sprigg’s strongest talents in balancing the contrasting instrumental impact of each track. It’s difficult to find a bad composition in this pastiche of electronic stylings with deeply introspective lyrical themes.

“Cosmic Bipolar Nebula’s” arrangements wistfully exude an unquestionably unfolding aural landscape of sonic metaphors for the human condition and state of being. Sprigg’s ever-changing rich, fertile, electronic performances must be admired as a way above average, highly effective effort.

It should also be noted that unlike most albums today focused around one or two singles and then wrapped with filler material to boot, this is a flowing journey, just pop it in, lay back, and let it take you where it needs. With that said, the journey is entrenched in an electronic groove that is sure to captivate any listener.

Overwhelming electronic sounds and theatrical melodies counter gritty, lyrics to provide the ultimate contrast. Enzo Sprigg’s undeniably impressive vocals is one of the biggest selling points of this album as a whole. Paired with the emotionally raw lyrics and complex beats, it is an all-round powerhouse album.