Squarepusher: Dostrotime (Warp Records)
More than one friend has told me that I cannot possibly object so strongly to jazz music when I appreciate the work of speed bassist and jazz fiend Tom 'Squarepusher' Jenkinson. And to those friends, I say... er.... eeerm..... [runs out of the room, drives off in car, gets on a plane]
The Square dancer's previous album Be Up A Hello was written through adversity, when an accident forced him into a new approach. I learn that in my 2019 interview with him. For this album, he swapped one battle with another, writing this sixteenth Squarepusher album during the long isolation of Covid lockdown.
The melodic Enbounce sounds like Mozart leading an army of bewigged robots. He lets the clouds part on the tense Stromcor only to loosen up into slappy bass noodles. The starched march of Wendorlan falls apart wildly: snare drums out of sync, drum machine on def con one.
Whereas Be Up A Hello lightened its mood with the simplicity of Detroit People Mover, this time Squarepusher adds in a series of numbered "Arkteon" pastoral interventions. Passing daydreams before we get back to the frenetic stuff. They're placed at the start, middle and end. The 'pusher comes across as chaotic, but he really knows about album structure.
And yes, there's a whole bunch of jazz bass. Slappy, flappy-fingered jazz bass. Look, let me address the jazz thing for one final time. A last word on the matter. My exact precise opinion about jazz music is-- oh look over there! [walks slowly backwards into hedge]
This is part of a series, currently live-blogging on 3, 4 & 5 January 2025. Read the posts so far.
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