This Debut CD from Canadian Experimental Electronica artist Spark will have you saying to yourself…"where's has THIS guy been hiding?". The CD, entitled "The Robotic Girl Next Door" is a timeless excursion of mad beats and wickedly infectious melodies. Spark manages to walk the fine line of experimentation and standard "songs" with great effect. "The Robotic Girl Next Door" is an excellent debut from an excellent artist!

grooves

If ever an album could be said to have a title that perfectly fits it's contents. Spark's The Robotic Girl Next Door would be it. The first proper release from Vancouver's Matt Willox following a trio of mp3.com discs, this album presents a perfect balance of the precise electronics suggested by the "robotic" descriptor, and a sense of warmth and innocence that one expects from the perfect "girl next door".

Skimming through the baker's dozen tracks on the disc, one will find scattered machine rhythms from the post-Autechre school mixing quite comfortably with melodies both cheery and melancholy. The result is often reminiscent of fellow Canadians hellothisisalex and I am Robot And Proud, especially on bubbly tracks like "Marshmallow Roast" although the influence of European beat mongers like Funkstorung and Arovane comes through in moody moments of "rebound" and "choptravel". As suggested by all of this name dropping, this isn't a record that pushes any envelopes or redefines any genres. But despite the easily spotted reference points, it's a more than worthwhile listen and a nice addition to the consistently excellent n5MD imprint. threedworld

N5md, a mini-disc label based in California, breaks from its 'MD only' format to bring us the first CD release ever on their label. Irresistibly titled The Robotic Girl Next Door, this is the debut release from Canadian Matt Willox (aka Spark) and it is refreshing to find amongst the multitudes of CDs that are constantly on offer, such a top quality release from a relatively unknown artist. The CD begins with a frantic and climatic piece which sounds like something you would envisage Funkstörung and Plaid would create if they ever worked together. This anxiousness is offset constantly throughout the release by soothing mellow and infectious melodies, crackling percussive forays and fun ‘robotic’ atmospheres (but maybe I am being influenced by the title too much). The stand out track on this release is the third, ‘Devine Nursery Rhyme’, and it is truly ‘devine’, reminding me with its simplicity of earlier Bochum Welt masterpieces. From mayhem to lullabies with a stop off at your local video game arcade and back again is the best way to describe this release and its well worth a listen at your local store - its not hard to spy either as it has a bright pink flower on the cover (which I actually find myself liking!?). igloomag

While multitudes of electronic releases keep pouring into peoples ears these days, it's sometimes a surprise to hear top-quality material from relatively new artists trying to forge their way into this (rather) large field of players. Spark is well aware of this fact, however. Hailing from Vancouver, Canada and producing delicate digital music at the age of 23, Matt Willox strives at keeping his sound sincere and emotive without meandering into non-rhythmic electrical mayhem. In fact, most of The Robotic Girl Next Door relies on syncopated beats that mold equally around each melody. Snippets of early Autechre influenced grooves make a subtle appearance on Spark's debut release with Northern California's fledging n5MD label.

With a passion for video game systems like Intellivision, Spark displays these sound effects with well crafted rhythms that slowly drift into open spaces. Take, for example, "Choptravel".. it's addictive melody-line carves a direct path into the minds ear and creatively maneuvers its way into an atmospheric gel of electricity and classical movements. "Rebound" contains similar ingredients while it injects pulses of snappy beats into a blanket of ambient beauty. While some tracks veer into a more simplistic approach leaning more towards video-game styled effects, tracks like "We Almost Didn't Make It" and the title track really do make a difference on The Robotic Girl Next Door.

Those of you looking for an intelligently crafted electronic album to relax with might enjoy this debut release on n5MD. Even with its subtle bursts of crunchy electronics, The Robotic Girl Next Door makes for a pleasant listen all the way through. Recommended. e/i mag

Supple, gorgeous IDM extending a wink at autechre, a shrug to d'n'b, and a nod to footloose and fancy free laptopix. And what special something does Spark exude that differentiates him form the pack? Through nimble twists of phrase, the high caliber of the rhythm programming and an endearing whimsy that keeps his earnestness in check. "Divine Nursery Rhyme " sets the pace, brightly flecked electronics whirling around a sugary central mass of tight rhythms. "Marshmallow Roast" boasts undulating, feather-duster beats and a starshine twinkle, an apotheosis of ear candy. "Mad Scientist Vein" builds upon its foundation of plastiform squiggles and gelatin squirts the type of naïve melody sung by geriatric androids. On "We almost didn't make it" and impossibly rinky dink percussion line is rescued from it's twee moorings courtesy of synths charged with perpetual motion. Only a fool would sense fault on the "Rebound" topsy- turvy 'tronics rocking to the beat of an artificial drummer. And if the robotic girl in question comes 'round for a cup of diodes, best to have "Dream in 8-bit" be your background muzak should she plant on you the cold, metallic lips of a kiss. Kiss her back and watch the Spark(s) fly. recycle your ears

Fourth album for Spark, but the first one on a real label, the other three having been put out by the band directly via their mp3.com site. It was therefore high time that somebody noticed this robot-obsessed american IDM act, and it was Gridlock and their n5MD label who decided to offer to Spark a first opportunity out of the mp3 community, resulting in this nicely digipack-ed album.

However robotic she might be said to be, the girl next door here seems pretty organic to me. Full of pretty warm melodies and moving along the pace of some modest, yet prominant scratchy beats, her moves are fluid yet non linear. Definitely a child of the current soft IDM trend from America, Spark sprinkles his mid-paced tracks with little effects, bass bubbles and cristalline tones. When he doesn't rely on ethereal and reverberated melodies to go with the beats (think Arovane), Spark also likes to let a little Boards of Canada influence guide his music, dictating some naive and oscillating soundscapes ("Devine nursury rhyme"). Still, the robotic girl is a digital woman, and with the exception of some nice old fashionned drums ("Marshmallow roast"), Spark likes his sound precise, dry and well defined.

Very flowing and pretty from start to finish, Spark serves a moving, yet heavy handed IDM that combines well the poetry of the melodies with a important dose of effects and whirling beats. Maybe a bit thicker than a lot of similar acts (but also more accessible, for his music is less broken and hectic), he stills walks without a difficulty on the path of such an act as Proem, or of a less urban Lusine ICL, and signs here a wonderful little albums, which fits extremely well my tastes (I particularely recommend the "We almost didn't make it" track). Very seducive and recommended. electronic music world

Spark - The Robotic Girl Next Door This is actually the first release I own of the already quite famous n5MD label. The label got quite a name already in the "IDM" world, among other things for the fact that they used to only release on MiniDisk. In the meantime, they've added vinyl and cd to the arsenal, and that worked well.

Spark was for me the reason to finally get something by this label, even though previous releases have always sounded very tempting and interesting. Why Spark then? Well, I guess I'm an addict. Quite some time ago I bought a spark cd-r on MP3.com, and since then I also bought the other two that were available there. Awesome albums, all three of em. Hence I was quite excited when I learned Spark would be releasing a new album. I also had very high expectations. It seems Spark is able to live up to those expectations.

This album is once again full of melodic tracks with weird, lofi, and/or twisted rhythms. In style, the music is very much the same as the previous albums though. Spark is very much holding to the one style he knows works for him.

Even though this album is not really innovative, the style that Spark uses works well, and it makes this album a very nice album to listen to. Very dreamy. Very laidback. The perfect album for a nice sunday morning. My personal favorite is atrac 2u.