Five Tracks: Rob Sparx

Rob Sparx is a name that's been around for almost a decade, achieving everything from having DJs like Grooverider, Armin van Buuren, and Skream droppi

five tracks rob sparx

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five tracks rob sparx

Rob Sparx is a name that's been around for almost a decade, achieving everything from having DJs like Grooverider, Armin van Buuren, and Skream dropping his diverse productions to remixing tracks for Nero and BAR9. He's well-versed in drum & bass and other forms of bass music, and he currently runs Migration Recordings. For his addition to our Five Tracks series, Rob digs into his influences, which run the gamut from beautiful dub to lavish soul. There's a lot of electronic music in his DNA, and you can see how the outside influences blend with the inward. Here are Rob Sparx's Five Tracks.

Mad Professor vs. Massive Attack - "Radiation Ruling the Nation"

massive attack mad professor no protection cover

This is probably my favourite Mad Professor track, his remix of Massive Attack's "Protection." It's a slow, progressive, super-trippy heavy dub affair with a big deep kick drum and a simple yet amazingly effective acid line and expert use of heavily-delayed, dreamy vocal chops from the original. Like all the other tracks from No Protection, this one has a superbly warm quality of sound and makes brilliant use of analogue delay and automation - anything that can be tweaked has been tweaked to absolute perfection!

Carl Craig - "A Wonderful Life"

Carl Craig Landcruising cover

This is a very futuristic and abstract ambient Detroit techno track from 1995 - its feel-good sci-fi in sound with an optimistic, meditative feel to it and some great tribal 808 drums. Great track to listen to after a spliff or two right before you go to sleep!

The Future Sound of London - "Flak"

fsol lifeforms

This song is one of the earliest to make use of the kind of melodies, arpeggios and samples that (slightly) later went on to characterise the deeper side of jungle/drum & bass (Good Looking/Promised Land sound), but it actually also sounds very similar to a lot of the minimal ambient revival stuff that's happening at the moment. It's another track that makes great use of dreamy synths, the melodies here remind me of music from '80s classic films like The Goonies, Neverending Story, or Lost Boys, and FSOL use very detailed textures with their sounds which was rare back in the early '90s when it was produced.

Trentemoller - "Take Me Into Your Skin"

thelastresort cover

The first tune on his album The Last Resort, this song (for me) shows the best side of Trentemoller - his amazingly detailed use of textures, high level production, super complicated automation, huge array of sounds, and epic ever-progressing layers of harmony make this an amazing tune to listen to. It's melancholy euphoria at its best, and sounds great in the evening by the sea on a Mediterranean holiday!

Curtis Mayfield - "You're So Good to Me"

curtis mayfield heartbeat

A real feel good disco track from one of my favorite artists of all time, Curtis Mayfield. The combination the vocals, drums, verbed bongos (which sound very '90s dnb looking back now!), disco strings, rhodes, and brass make this a very special and timeless track, full of warmth and soul. Wedding disco music at its very best!

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