js Its hard to know what to expect from Tom Jenkinson (AKA Squarepusher) these days. Once the leader of the jazzy/progressive end of the drumnbass genre, Jenkinson dabbled with odd electronic pop and rock on 2008’s “Just a Souviner” only to return to classic DnB on the follow up, “Numbers Lucent”. On his most recent release, “Shaboleader One - D'Demonstrator”, Tom returns to the electronic pop, only this time with nary a trace of his roots in jungle and drumnbass. Even to long time fans of modern electronic music, this is an odd one. Basically these are well crafted pop songs with hints of artsy 80s new wave and neo-prog rock played with purposefully plastic sounds, an 80s sounding drum machine and plenty of vocoder vocals. If you can imagine an unlikely mix of video game soundtracks, post-70s Stevie Wonder, 80s Genesis, Tears for Fears, Japanese anima, Seal and current electro-popsters Tobacco/Black Moth Super Rainbow, you might have some kind of idea what this sounds like.

You have to hand it to Jenkinson for being able to move past mash it up extreme slice and dice drum programming into actual song writing, and he proves he is actually one of the better writers out there, but the sound of this album is going to be really hard for a lot of people to get past. There is no doubt that Tom wants this music to sound very artificial in an almost kitsch sort of way; the drum machine is retro, the guitar samples sound like the earliest days of digital technology and the vocoder vocals are present on almost every tune. Although most of the music on here could be labeled as some sort of future pop, on "Cryptic Motion" Jenkinson’s restless exploratory side comes through with an odd mix of plastic tech thrash metal topped with heavy gothic keyboards. Also, "Maximum Planck" is cartoony speed metal topped with string synths, a perfect soundtrack for some high speed video game for the modern attention span deficit crowd.

This is an odd one, the plastic sounds are not for everybody, but there is no doubting the excellent craftsmanship and songwriting.

js Although Tom Jenkinson (AKA Squarepusher) is well versed in both jazz fusion and drumnbass, by the time the year 2008 has rolled around his restless creative spirit has left behind the confines of those two genres, as well as any other genre known to man. ‘Just a Souvenir’ uses elements from Jenkinson’s past as a jazzy drumnbassist, but also works in a plethora of other genres including disco, progressive rock, metal, computer game soundtracks, punky new wave and Japanese anima soundtracks. All of these musical styles are effortlessly woven together in songs that defy easy categorization and sound like something only Jenkinson could put together.

If there is one unifying factor to all of these songs it is this purposefully cheap and tacky overly digital production that would usually sound annoying, but works surprisingly well on this set of ultra-futuristic pop music. The drums in particular sound thin and plastic on purpose, like an 80s computer game, likewise a lot of the metal guitar work sounds like those early guitar samples that always sounded so obviously fake. All of this plastic sound is part of Jenkinson’s grand design for this album and just adds to its exotic appeal. I think there is also a lot of humor at work here, especially when the cheap tacky drums start working out furiously on a thrash beat.

This is an excellent album that defies easy description and also makes a case for Mr Jenkinson as one of the most original and independent musical minds of the new century. Like Sun Ra and Les Baxter from the previous century, Squarepusher fuses elements that most would not dare to combine. If there is ever a genre called drumnbass-progmetal-exotica, this album will be the first.

js For those unawares, Squarepusher is the name of the ongoing one-man musical project performed by jazz fusion multi-instrumentalist and electronic composer/producer Tom Jenkinson. Tom has formidable skills on both bass and drums which he records and then slices and dices via computer while adding analog-style synthesizer parts. The end result is some of the freshest and most original drumnbass/jungle music I've heard since those styles first emerged in the early 90s. There isn't anything particularly striking to catch the casual listener on here, probably a lot of people would consider this to be another typical drumnbass affair, but to a long-time fan of this genre this is the first really interesting DnB record I've heard in almost a decade. Although Jenkinson is often known for his radical drill-n-bass approach with surreal tempos and machine gun drum rolls, on the first four songs of this EP he keeps things fairly natural with mostly real drums played back at their original recorded speed. I think that is the main appeal of this album, this is some of the most human and natural sounding DnB I have ever encountered, the overall sound is like a very futuristic synth led progressive pop-jazz combo. On the last two cuts he breaks out the hyper tempos and insanely creative sampling that are often his trademark.

For some reason some of the songs on here remind me of the old synthesizer exotica rock- jazz classic Tank, by ELP. The overall pleasantly kitsch effect is similar, ..'Welcome to the Future'. Although I had expected this EP to be modern jazz fusion with DnB beats, Tom instead shoots for a pure drumnbass/jungle ascetic, but does so with far more musicality than most.