SQUAREPUSHER ULTRAVISITOR ALBUM WARP RELEASE: MARCH 8, 2004 REVIEW: MARCH 12, 2004

How do you start? This is the very thought I had when it came to expressing what this album has done to my perception of music and its possibilities. Quite simply this is the Squarepusher album I have been waiting for, and if you are reading this, quite possibly you have too.
In the past it could be argued that Tom Jenkinson has created some genre defining tracks, and has been responsible for some of the most out-there music ever to be captured on record - this should be enough. But something has always niggled me when listening to his albums, that is the sense of it not quite being perfect, the little imperfections that you always pick at - the track that could have been better, or you didn't quite "get"; the experimentation that just went that bit too far.
I am pleased to say that this is the album that finally fullfills the promise. There is not one dodgy track on here, and because of this it must be described as not only Squarepushers' greatest album of all time, but mainly because of his exceptional talent, one of electronic music's finest - it is an instant electronica classic!
The music veers wildly all over the place; breaking conventions and making new styles sometimes several times within the space of a single track. Check out "50 Cycles" for sheer eye-popping creativity - with its ambience-to-gabba-babble-vocal-to-white-noise-washes - all within the space of the first three minutes of an eight minute plus track! This is even before we get to the trademark broken shuffle beats and bass we know and love so well - it is simply next level music.
Elsewhere just about every rule is broken, torn from the book and burnt as Squarepusher takes us on a journey of electronic futurism, taking us through distorted bubbling church bells ("Menelec"), hyper-drill and bass ("Ultravisitor") and proto-flamenco ("Every Day I Love") and a million more places besides, overall showing us through the course of this substantial album how music will be at the beginning of the next millennium.
You have no choice but to admire this album, it is simply Squarepushers most coherent and brilliant album yet - we are just lucky we were born at the right time to appreciate it!

MIKE WHYTE