Squarepusher "Budakhan Mindphone" Warp/Nothing Records INTD-90312 1999 (30:24)
Iambic 5 Poetry (5:30)
Fly Street (4:52)
The Tide (4:25)
Splask (3:08)
Two Bass Hit (Dub) (3:32)
Varkatope (4:09)
Gong Acid (4:48)
Squarepusher is Tom Jenkinson
Overall impression: ok. I was quite pleased with Jenkinson's
foray into ambient-space-jazz last year with "Music
is Rotted One Note". "Budakhan.." picks up where "Music.."
left off, but this time it seems Jenkinson's goal was to combine the new
jazzier sound with bits of the schizophrenic beats/fills/melodies of earlier
Squarepusher (see "Big
Loada"). It works, really well on a few tracks, but all in all
this disc sounds a bit uninspired. Some brief track by track notes: "Iambic
5 Poetry" is my favorite of the entire lot of tracks from both albums. It's a slow,
jazzy number (somewhat similar to "My Sound" from "Rotted..")
that features melodic keyboard washes, bell tones, a funky plucked bass
line and plenty of percussive hits ... it builds and fades wonderfully.
"Fly Street" gets more spastic with the the percussion and weird
sound samples and is a bit funkier. "The Tide" is more similar
to the tracks on "Rotted.." ... a somewhat random yet cohesive
build of murky bass, percussion and sound washes. "Splask" is
another slow jazzy number with bizarre pipe-like percussion thumpings and
a meandering organ melody throughout. "Two Bass Hit (Dub)" is
heavy on spastic slapped/plucked bass lines and snare rhythms. "Varkatope"
really gets moving with rapidfire percussion hits, fills, bleeps and bass
notes that jump out of the speakers at you. "Gong Acid" is just
plain annoying ... it sounds like Jenkinson banging on miscellaneous objects
with the occasional bass throb. "Iambic 5..", "Fly Street"
and "Varkatope" are my favorites, the others I could take or
leave. Not bad but certainly not mindblowing either, this may have been better off
as a 3 or 4 track single ...
Where did I get this cd? - mail order via Rioux's Records. Email Jason. (tell him markw@southwind.net sent ya!)