Squarepusher

Tom "Squarepusher" Jenkinson makes complex, experimental drum'n'bass with a heavy progressive jazz influence and a bent for pushing the clichés of the genre out the proverbial window. A skilled bassist and multi-instrumentalist, Jenkinson's fretless accompaniment is a staple of his music and one of the more obvious affiliations with jazz (although his formal arrangements are often as jazz-derived as his playing). His first full-length work, 1996's Feed Me Weird Things (on Richard "Aphex Twin" James' Rephlex label), was a dizzying, quixotic blend of super-fast jungle breaks with Aphex-style synth textures, goofy, offbeat melodies, and instrumental arrangements that recall jazz fusion pioneers such as Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. After perfecting his marriage of drum'n'bass and fusion with 1997's Hard Normal Daddy, he focused on several different styles with his subsequent albums. 1998's Music Is Rotted One Note was a surprising but successful venture into jazz, sans electronic programming, and 2001's Go Plastic merged U.K. garage with glitchy, manic jungle. 2003's ambitious Ultravisitor was a vast, all-encompassing epic spanning jazz, IDM, and musique concrète. He ventured into prog rock with 2008's Just a Souvenir, then formed the futuristic funk band Shobaleader One. Returning to a purely electronic sound with his solo releases, 2020's Be Up a Hello revisited the high BPMs and analog equipment of his early work. 2024's Dostrotime was a similarly ecstatic work spurred by the downtime of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

From 🇬🇧 United Kingdom