Rob Sparx this week drops his debut long-player this week on Z-Audio.  It's called 'Trooper', and it follows a string of remixes and singles over the last couple of years.  Anyone familiar with his recent stuff will have heard some heavily dancefloor sounds - and those are represented on CD2, with its roundup of previous tracks, and remixes by the likes of Reso, TRG, etc, but the meat of this collection takes things in a different direction, with Rob electing to push on down a deeper path.  

It's a common enough idea, that of the dancefloor producer using the LP format to explore sounds they don't feel they can really do on a 12" release, and this release really doesn't hold back on that front, being suffused with slow-moving pads and shimmering ambient textures.  Opening track 'Fixed Up' starts as an almost fully 'ambient' track before setting out a quicker beat, but the reverbed cymbals and static pads keep it pretty mellow.  This is followed up with the slower, housier 'Black Sheep', which rolls out a swanging breakbeat, while filtered pads and delayed vocal loops give it a slighly 'Burial'-esque feel (sorry for the lazy comparison.  But you know what I mean).  Still though, the groove is strong and the track works well.  As we work through the album though, I feel the first half tends a bit towards the rhodes/piano 'liquid DnB' kind of vibe.  And we know from DnB how this sound can tend a touch towards the 'coffee table'.  Some of these tracks, although successful in their own right, could perhaps use a touch more character I think.  

The album really comes into its own (in my humble opinion) in the second half, as Sparx puts away the pleasant synths, chops up some breaks and gets a bit dirtier on us.  From the amen-led 'Stroller' to the rolling 'Bloodbath', my favourite is the title track, where tricky stepping breaks team up with some neat sound-design to build a track that really keeps the attention all the way through.  To finish up, Rob goes back to his junglist roots with a couple of liquid DNB tracks.  In these cases, although the liquid vibes may be pretty jazzy, they're saved by some rugged drums and make a welcome switch up from the mid-tempo sounds of the rest of the album.

Overall, this is a strong debut.  I think it could have been a touch lighter on the jazzy chords and liquid vibes, but it's pretty varied and anyone who's into good drum work will find plenty of interest here.  Rob Sparx might not (yet) be a premier league dubstepper, but this is a pleasant surprise and has somewhat more depth than you get from other, bigger names.  Definitely worth a look.

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i.d.