Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy (1997) [16.44 FLAC]

  Genre: Electronic
  Styles: Drum'n'Bass, Jungle, IDM, Jazz Fusion
  Source: CD (log + cue)
  Codec: FLAC
  Bit rate: ~ 900 kbps
  Bit depth: 16
  Sample rate: 44.1 kHz

  01 Coopers World
  02 Beep Street
  03 Rustic Raver
  04 Anirog D9
  05 Chin Hippy
  06 Papalon
  07 E8 Boogie
  08 Fat Controller
  09 Vic Acid
  10 Male Pill Part 13
  11 Rat/P’s and Q’s
  12 Rebus
  
  Artist Bio

  Tom "Squarepusher" Jenkinson makes manic, schizoid, experimental drum'n'bass with a heavy progressive jazz influence and a lean toward pushing the clichés of the genre out the proverbial window. Rising from near-total obscurity to drum'n'bass cause célèbre in the space of a couple of months, Jenkinson released only a pair of EPs and a DJ Food remix for the latter's Refried Food series before securing EP and LP release plans with three different labels. His first full-length work, 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 (he samples his own playing for his tracks) that vaguely recall jazz fusion pioneers such as Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. 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).

  Review

  Tom Jenkinson's jazz roots come through louder and clearer on his full-length Warp debut. Although, like the preceding Port Rhombus EP, this album sounds substantially cleaner and more thought out than previous releases for Spymania and Rephlex, it also far surpasses those releases in terms of musicality and track development, not simply relying on the shock value of "tripping-over-myself" drum programming and light-speed fretless bass noodling. Jenkinson's bass accompaniment also sounds far less prog rock-influenced here, making Hard Normal Daddy his overall most listenable work to date