Hi everyone, Cameron Winter here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Squarepusher album, Kammerkonzert.

Yep, it's a brand new one from multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, electronic music maverick, Mr. Tom Jenkinson, aka Squarepusher. Someone who, despite his somewhat elusive demeanor, has created one of the most bold and adventurous catalogs in modern electronic music.

He's been active under this name for about 30 years at this point. His debut actually dropped, uh, 30 years ago, which I highly recommend, along with many other releases in his catalog.

And while it is true that a lot of Tom's recent output isn't quite as plugged into trends dominating the EDM scene these days, he still has been proving his mettle as one of the best out there when it comes to glitchy, rapid-fire drum and bass.

And it's also been interesting to see him sidequest here and there musically, uh, into styles and concepts that really only he can, given the high caliber of musicality and talent that goes into his work.

And that is exactly what is exemplified here on Kammerkonzert, which is not just another Squarepusher album loaded with mind-blowing edits, insane breaks, and the occasional jazzy touches of keys and bass. What Tom is doing on this record is much more orchestral than it is electronic, or at least that's how it reads, as the music here feels for the most part like an even split between jazz and classical music with a lot of synthetic touches — really Tom flexing his compositional muscles here for over a dozen tracks.

And the recordings on these pieces are really dynamic, spacious, colorful, loaded with evocative, curious progressions that emphasize spontaneity more sometimes than consistency and groove.

For sure, there are cuts in this tracklist that kinda feel like your usual Tom Jenkinson number, but are refined instrumentally and sonically in such a way to where you could present this work to your usual opera house crowd, and it would receive a somewhat warm reception.

Take, for example, the track "Central," which has a very familiar mix of jazz fusion bass, skittering beats too, with some really great percussive embellishments. And what really elevates this track is all of these otherworldly layers of reeds and other orchestrations to boot, that are just so beautifully laid out, just rich and crisp with details.

There's "Museum" as well, which heads even further into jazz territory, but in kind of a third stream way, with even some passages of keys and spiraling arpeggios that have kind of a baroque flavor to them. It's very, very late-era Frank Zappa, for sure, but much more serious in tone, but still somehow works.

Also, gotta mention the track "Terminus," where frankly..., they are jamming! Between all these fast drum sections and these layered licks of bass, synths, and strings. On these tracks, and many others, it's just really impressive to hear how many different musical variations Tom can come up with while sticking to a really cohesive theme or groove.

I would say the whole first leg of the record is pretty strong, too. The song "Fairlands" works at a pretty brisk pace and features the most bustling sequence beat on the entire album, set to these plucked and bowed string sections that undergo some pretty intense evolutions across the track.

There's also "Diligence," which has a really dark, militaristic feel to it. The whole thing sounds like a cracked team of assassins infiltrating an enemy camp under the cover of darkness, with the occasional jazzy lead melody that sounds like a bunch of notes just tumbling down the stairs at breakneck speed. Which, yes, sounds kinda goofy, but that sort of imagery is just par the course for how evocative these pieces often are.

Because in their best moments, not only is there a lot of movement and action to how these compositions flow, but they also strike a great balance between experimentation, musicality, tension, release, ambition, and accessibility.

With that being said, though, there are pockets in which this record does lose me a bit, like with the double-header of "Fremantle" and "Headquarters," both of which feature these endlessly tense and dissonant chord progressions with little to no light at the end of the tunnel. Both these tracks kind of feel like endlessly pushing a boulder up a hill, though I will say the layers and volume of instrumentation on the latter of these two tracks is a bit more exciting and cathartic.

When this record really goes off the rails, though, it's when we hit pieces that purely feel like they're meant as a soundtrack number, as if they were intended purely to fit up against the chase scenes of some kind of futuristic mystery where the lead character is a bionic detective.

Like, the midpoint of "Tideway," for example, literally sounds like we're tiptoeing around corners to catch a thief or something. And while the musicality of these moments is impressive, the actual experience of them isn't quite as immersive or interesting.

I had a similar issue with the song "Vigilant," too, whose ascending and descending melody lines didn't make this track a selling point as much as the dynamics did. Because I do love the ways that Tom sort of, like, will stack certain notes or passages up super high for a booming effect, or strip others back to just kind of let the piece breathe.

Then the closing track is a very somber organ piece whose intro could open up a funeral with how dour it is, though not every portion of it to follow is super dark. It is a very kind of inconsequential way to end off the whole record, though.

But yeah, even though I do have my reservations about how all of these tracks come together in total and how interesting at least a handful of them were, I still thought this was an interesting outing for Tom and resulted in most definitely one of his most ambitious albums ever.

Most creative too, because I can at least see the vision behind all of these pieces, even if I don't necessarily think a lot of them stand up to a solo headphone listen, which is why I'm feeling about a light 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Squarepusher. Forever.