by MITCHELL COTE
Staff Writer
Do you know Squarepusher? If you’ve watched Adult Swim, it’s likely that you have heard his work, along with the work of many others signed to the Warp label. The project – not named after anything in particular according to the sole member, Tom Jenkinson – has been producing a varied array of mostly drum-based electronica since 1994 – and although this album comes at the end of a 5-year break, he’s shown no signs of slowing down since then.
In Be Up A Hello, Tom goes back to his original 1994 hardware to make, in his own words, an album that was “something familiar, something simple, and something that [he] could do without really thinking.” But while it may seem simple on the music-makers end, the album still manages to be a multi-layered, frenetic, and chaotic bash of an album. From the upbeat “Oberlove” to the dire “Merkrev Bass,” the album almost never lets up the brisk pace it’s set for itself – but when it does in tracks like “Detroit People Mover” and the ambient closer “80 Ondula”, it still manages to make it worth your while.
While it may seem grating if the drum ‘n’ bass style isn’t your thing, the album rewards the curious listener with some of the best electronic music coming out of Europe this decade. While that may seem odd, given that the decade’s only just started, it’s likely this may be considered for 2029’s potential “Best Electronic Album” lists – and honestly, I couldn’t blame those hypothetical decision-makers, because this album’s just fantastic.