While ?Sparkle Plenty? certainly sits within a set of moods that are identifiable as Cathodian (a made-up and not exactly helpful word), this record is certainly not a water-treader by any stretch. There will be those who?ll be itching to mention vague similarities with the Boards of Canada sound: the emotional melancholia electronica tag. ?Sparkle Plenty? definitely carries a lot of human emotion at its electronic-housed core, it?s this human nucleus that?s the foundation of an Empire State sized mix of elements. Cathode succeeds in illustrating the more difficult to reveal sensation of emotional bruising and reaching-out wonderment, avoiding mere production aesthetic cover-ups. This album sees Cathode as a cleaner, realer proposition inhabiting a place of uneasily deserted neon-glimmer cityscapes. ?Piper Alpha? and ?Control & Restraint? balance the tall-structure chill with melodies that crisscross throughout. The gentle suppression of pressure shadows the latter, a space suit oxygen leaking during a slow systems check. The blending of unprocessed live instrumentation with warm digitals is surefooted, the Reichian shifts on the icily toned ?Structure Hunger? giving way to a propulsive kraut rhythm. Like much of Cathode?s previous music there?s a precision in the structure that doesn?t hinder the flow of melodies. The larger palette of ?Sparkle Plenty? gives the extended range of tempos more colour, but the work remains definitively Cathodian. Again, it might be an unreasonable descriptive word but it remains a very, very high recommendation. 9/10 -- Scott McKeating (6 August, 2008)