Feed Me Weird Things

With 12 tracks of lunacy, mayhem, and sheer beauty, Tom Jenkinson's 1996 debut as Squarepusher remains one of the few must-have records of the electronica revolution. Though Jenkinson builds his tracks around his remarkable fusion-inspired fretless bass playing, the album initially sounds like a study in maniacally intricate drum solos and patterns, themselves built from a few Roland drum machines. But closer listening reveals a keen intellect at work. Jenkinson has no interest in either the repetitive drum patterns most junglists prefer or their vapid soundscapes. Instead his songs douse you in rhythm and melody. The acoustic Brazilian guitar of 'Squarepusher Theme' is soon devoured by a steaming, staccato drum groove, the track ultimately resolving itself as a kind of 21st-century Latin jazz epic. 'Tundra' recalls a battery of mad insects destroying a caterpillar; 'UFOs over Leytonstone' creates a slow death rumba; 'Kodack' revels in glistening beats and streamlined and manic synths, a sign of Squarepusher to come. 'Goodnight Jade' is the album's most unusual track, a lush, ambient drone of lovely bass harmonics and a mouselike melody, showing Jenkinson to be a composer of surprising weight and depth. Squarepusher would make records harder, more intense, and more spectacular, but none more musical than Feed Me Weird Things. Rephlex. 2005.