Ultimately, Old Growth is a powerful and focused collection that doesn’t break new ground and instead reinforces that you don’t really have to.
Meandering electronics that literally spark
“With the release of music equipment like the Dirtywave M8, I finally have a piece of hardware that encapsulates my entire sound and the effect on my output has been amazing. With COVID and the financial aftermath, personal life struggles have been a good reminder that we all need to be re-awakened. Getting in touch with ourselves, what we like, and who we are, and not worrying so much about what the algorithm decides is important. I made this album the way I used to, by tuning out everything but my own taste and bringing every idea to a satisfactory level of completeness, and Old Growth is the result.” ~Matthew Ryan Willox (aka Spark)
Edmonton, Alberta-based IDM-veteran Spark (aka Matthew Ryan Willox) pulls together ten sonic snapshots capturing meandering electronics that literally spark. His earlier releases with MP3.com, n5MD—and their digital imprint En:peg Digital—offered refreshing dosages of brittle soundtracks and crunchy bleep mood shifts (with “Little Planet” as a prime example.) Old Growth offers familiar terrain previously traversed and remains very much Spark’s own sound. Fractured video-game rhythms (“Wake”) and tangled melodies melt around electro fractures (“Equinox.”) With all tracks below four minutes, Spark plugs (pun intended) directly into his machinery without hesitation or delay. Take the darker edges of “My Ghost” and its technoid swirl melded with crumpled acid bass, as closure “Crossover” delves into slow-motion breaks and raw bleepery with nostalgic flares and saccharin soundtracks from a time gone by.
Ultimately, Old Growth is a powerful and focused collection that doesn’t break new ground and instead reinforces that you don’t really have to.
Old Growth is available on Bandcamp.
