Released: 08/03/24
Updating my running playlist this last week, I considered adding my favourite current song ‘Wendorlan’, from Squarepusher’s frankly bananas new album Dostrotime, but given that I knew such a high-intensity track would compel me to attempt a potentially heart-attack inducing 20-minute 5K, I thought better of it. For where the pioneering Essex-born producer's last LP, 2020’s Be Up a Hello, was all cheeky Technicolor drill ’n’ bass (albeit still probably not advisable to run to), Dostrotime contains some of Squarepusher’s – AKA Tom Jenkinson – most brutal, BPMs-off-the-chart acid-inflected techno to date. To my mind, only Richard D. James and Aaron Funk (AKA Venetian Snares) can compete with the Squarepusher catalogue for hyper-rhythmical complexity combined with sheer head-melting production skills, and with the remarkable Dostrotime, Jenkinson has upped the ante considerably. It’s batshit glorious.