Squarepusher is back with new studio album ‘kammerkonzert’
Tom Jenkinson, aka Squarepusher, presents Kammerkonzert, a riot of onyx-hard, hyperfast riffs, fiendish orchestral themes and handbrake turns through varieties of progressive, ambient, electronic and experimental music.
Coverart ‘Kammerkonzert’
Squarepusher, the singular hardcore rave/electronic producer, experimental musician and creator of futuristic forms of fusion, has a three-decade-long back catalogue studded with jewel-like records. From the furious breakbeat acid and pulverising live bass-guitar attack of Feed Me Weird Things (1996) to the self-explanatory Music for Robots (2014) via the virtuosic live showcase of Solo Electric Bass 1 (2009) and the luxurious and otherworldly concrète jazz of Ultravisitor (2004), few contemporary musicians have covered as much ground in as sure-footed a manner. Given that his dazzling new album for Warp is essentially a chamber concerto with Jenkinson playing all of the parts, it’s safe to say he has come a long way since Port Rhombus EP, his crystalline drum & bass debut for the label in 1996.
Listen to ‘Kammerkonzert’ here
Kammerkonzert displays Jenkinson’s strength not only as a producer but as a composer, shown by the album’s mercurial juxtapositions which can fleetingly remind the listener of the visionary French Zeuhl band Magma 9 (‘K1 Advance’), the liquid fusion of Weather Report in their Body Electric phase (‘K2 Central’), and the baroque blood-drenched giallo soundtracks of Ennio Morricone (‘K7 Museum’). Elsewhere the more contemporary north London jazz riffing of Sons of Kemet (‘K3 Diligence’), the ring-modulated piano of Stockhausen’s Mantra and even the atmosphere of Brian Eno’s ambient work with David Bowie (‘K11 Tideway’) all make themselves felt.
Kammerkonzert – whose tough-sounding name reflects the sonic militancy of the music it presents, while literally meaning chamber concert in German – pushes mischievously inward at the extreme boundaries of music composition itself.
