Squarepusher "Maximum Priest" Warp / Nothing INTD-90997 1999 (28:59)
Song: Our Underwater Torch (6:27)
Decathlon Oxide (4:05)
You're Going Down (3:35)
Cranium Oxide (:32)
Two Bass Hit (Ae mix) (4:01)
Circular Flexing (Yee-King mix) (5:35)
Shin Triad (Wagonchrist mix) (4:44)
Squarepusher is Tom Jenkinson.
"Maximum Priest" is the 2nd ep in '99 from Squarepusher and it follows not all that long after "Budakhan Mindphone". This one gives us 4 new tracks (well, 3 if you don't bother counting the 32 second "Cranium Oxide") and 3 re-mixes. "Song:.." continues to explore the avante-jazz that Jenkinson has slipped into recently, slow and watery with underwater percussion and organ groove ... very nice. "Decathlon.." is a welcome flashback to "Big Loada"-era beats, blips and bass aplenty Squarepusher mixed with bits and pieces of the more recent jazz-y sound ... yummy! "You're.." begins as a slow jazzy number but veers off into sample/bass slapping weirdness for a bit, then returns to the slow section ... odd. "Cranium.." is a bizarre drone and yelling ... worthless. Autechre essentially turn "Two Bass Hit" (originally on "Budakhan..") into one of their own tunes (which is never a bad thing) with the addition of odd mechanical bleeps and blips. The next two are re-mixes of tunes from "Music is Rotted One Note". Yee-king's "Circular.." is very active for the first half of the track: lots of percussion fills and in your face squelchy analog bleeps. The latter half slows things down with atmospheres and slow percussion sections. The Wagonchrist re-mix of "Shin Triad" has a bouncy big beat feel to it with lots of bass throbs and all sorts of keyboard/sample wackiness. All together, I'm pretty fond of "Maximum Priest". It's a good ep, well balanced sound wise and better than the majority of "Budakhan..". "Cranium Oxide" is the only loser here, but it's forgivable. I do hope Jenkinson waits awhile before his next release, hopefully a really solid album of all new material many months from now ...
Where did I get this cd? - mail order via Maries CDs