One day, Tom ‘Squarepusher’ Jenkinson had a dream about watching a space/time twisting rock band playing an ‘ultra-gig’ while variously challenging Cro-Magnon men to Monopoly and dodging exploding neutron stars. There were glowing green coat hangers, imploding sonic pin cushions, Venus fly traps, and (wait for it) electromagnetic radiation being demodulated by UHF calf skin. After waking, Jenkinson apparently he felt an urgent sense of responsibility to relay the fantasy to the listening public, and – long story short – now it’s all ours to hear in his 11th release.
 

More in common with Hard Normal Daddy (1997) than the jazzier Ultravisitor (2004), Just a Souvenir communicates all the insanity of Jenkinson’s original vision, with a smattering of fast-paced, complex electronica mashed with eccentric howling rock. Squarepusher doesn’t mess about, and there’s barely a nanosecond wasted in the lounge-breaky ‘Star Time 2’ or the switched-up beats of ‘Potential Govaner’.  

 

The frantic pace that everything rockets along at can be a bit disconcerting to a casual listener, but if you’re just stumbling into the ‘pusher for the first time it’s best to surrender to the energy and just let it smash up all around you. The rock aesthetic of Tom’s feverish dream really melts through on ‘Planet Gear’ amongst the crashing cymbal and distortion (which do the best job of musically representing a time-manipulated beard I’ve ever heard), and ‘Aqueduct’ in the middle somewhere evoking some good ol’ ambient discordance for a breather, which chances are you’ll need. By now, Squarepusher is a master of his craft, and you’d be hard pressed to find a finer experimental electronic producer working today.