Squarepusher - Feed Me Weird Things (Remastered) (2021) [Hi-Res]

The Pusherman's debut album celebrates a quarter-century this year. Remastered from the original DATs it's never sounded heavier, with all the virtuoso bass noodling and hyperactive break editing you can squash into one album = an IDM classic, no doubt.

Along with μ-Ziq, AFX and Luke Vibert's Plug, Tom Jenkinson was instrumental in bringing innovations made by jungle pioneers like Goldie, Dego, Jumpin' Jack Frost and Rob Haigh to a global legion of antisocial, screen burned e-boys. At the time, he was widely credited for spearheading various jungle-patented techniques, but listening now it's harder to make that case. Drill 'n bass was always an iffy concept, but with the benefit of a couple of decades, it's easier to listen to "Feed Me Weird Things" free of this context. Now we can simply enjoy its proggy abstraction of Brit TV theme oddness, lightning-fast funk, jazz fusion and druggy rave excess.

All of Jenkinson's albums are a mixed bag (we reckon you could make one belter by grabbing a couple of tracks from each of the good 'uns), but "Feed Me Weird Things" is more reliable than most. The better moments find Jenkinson relying less on bass noodling and more on spooky wooze: 'Tundra' for example, with its wobbly synth and canned beatbox skitter, or enduring fan fave 'Theme From Ernest Borgnine' with its acidic synth squeals and sadboi pads. These tracks influenced hundreds of copyists and still sound just as brilliant today, expertly balancing the indulgent headmash energy of jungle and the gooey synthesized star-surfing of Jean-Michel Jarre or Kraftwerk.