Album: Squarepusher, Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator (Warp)

Andy Gill
Friday 15 October 2010 00:00 BST
Comments

Tom Jenkinson has been moving jazzwards for a while, with releases such as his Solo Electric Bass live recording and the broader-based Hello Everything shifting away from the computerised sample-bricolage approach of his earlier albums.

Here, he presents himself as the leader of a band, Shobaleader One (which, as with the notional "group" of 2008's Just A Souvenir, may exist only in his imagination) on nine tracks marked by auto-tuned vocals and a numbing affection for the kind of wheedling jazz-rock synth riffs favoured by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It starts out okay – Plug Me In is bubblebath techno-soul, and Into The Blue has a pop consciousness akin to Röyksopp – but the album's latter half is awash in stompy jazz-rock noodling and leaden fuzz-synth riffing, reaching an unbearable Gothick cacophony on the concluding Maximum Planck.

DOWNLOAD THIS Plug Me In; Into The Blue

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in