December 4, 2001

Squarepusher : Squarepusher

Honestly, this is amazing. It makes everything else shit. That's why it's Single Of The Week, then...

Did you see that documentary about house on Channel 4 a couple of weeks back? There was this bit where Derrick May
was talking about what it was like going to seminal Chicago club the Music Box when Ron Hardy was DJing. He tried to articulate how amazing it was, but couldn't, so just said, "There's no comparison. It made everything else... (i)shit(/i)." That's what this record is like. Seriously, you can take your - So Solid Crew
album and your copy of Aphex Twin’s 'Drukqs' and shove them up your ass.

It's like Squarepusher
mainman Tom Jenkinson has timewarped a couple of decades ahead, nicked the hooks, melodies and breaks from all the records rocking the future top ten, come back to the present, and condensed all of it into four minutes. It's too lazy to say this is garage or d'n'b, because it's both, all stretched and squashed, and fashioned into something totally new. There is literally (i)so much(/i) going on in this record - shattered two-step beats, spectral vocals that lend it a kinda sleaze-rap drive, hardcore bass thuds, echoing electro FX, ambient synth tones - that it would take a lifetime to unpick it all.

And what takes it that step further, just like on his last single 'My Red Hot Car', is the pop sensibility that's driving all these disparate sonic patterns, the way a clattering climax of skittering breaks suddenly collapses to leave a staccato robot voice yelpingSquarepusher!" The rush you get is as big as when launches into the chorus of - Tina Turner's 'River Deep Mountain High'. Honestly, this is amazing. It makes everything else shit.

Christian Ward