Anyone who knows me well is bound to get a good dosage of Squarepusher at one point or another. Some love it, some can’t stand it – but very few deny that the man is a talent to be reckoned with.

I’m ecstatic to discover that Squarepusher (or Tom Jenkinson, as his mother knows him) has a new album coming out, which follows his slightly lower-than-peak-performance Hello Everything album.

Jenkinson’s last few records have seen him placing an ever-increasing emphasis on his live bass playing, experimenting with live bass techniques and approaches as well as integrating it into his electronic arsenal via MIDI pickups and filters. Live drums have features, alongside guitars, an assortment of other instruments and classic synthesizers – along with plenty of sequenced synths, drum machines and digital manipulations

A taster for album in the form of a new track – available on the Warp Records Myspace – indicates Jenkinson is once again taking things in an even more live direction while retaining his classic trademarks of manic squalls of rigour and noise.

On first listens the track seems to be little more than Jenkinson permitting himself a little fun – a good natured, fairly capable sounding garage thrash rock-out. It sounds like the instrumentation is all live – no noticeable cut-ups or manipulations. I don’t mind it as a bit of a lark, but I’m not sure what I’ll think if the whole album turns out like this.

Nonetheless, keep October 27 in your diaries. And please, Tom, let’s see some live dates for Australia!

Tracklist for Just a Souvenir: (courtesy of Pitchfork)

1. Star Time 2
2. The Coathanger
3. Open Society
4. A Real Woman
5. Delta-v
6. Aqueduct
7. Potential Govaner
8. Planet Gear
9. Tensor in Green
10. The Glass Road
11. Fluxgate
12. Duotone Moonbeam
13. Quadrature
14. Yes-Sequitur

I’ve been unforgivably AWOL for the last month and a bit, for which I must apologise. Until now I’d been working late nights on a rather insane project and had generally been getting distracted by life’s little quirks. This blog post finds me one day after finishing the aforementioned project (and also not having full use of my computer thanks to a faulty iPhone updater)

Excuses aside, I was pretty darn excited when I heard that Sasha was bringing us a follow-up to his excellent 2004 mix CD, Involver. If you didn’t hear the release (you should buy it), the album was basically a DJ set with a quirk: each track was a unique remix by the DJ himself, all of which were carefully arranged to make a really impressive flow of tracks. The selections were great, and the remixes were hot.

After a lacklustre release in the form of Fundacion NYC (which was, IMHO, a pretty ordinary mix CD), Sasha looks like he’s back to take things to another level. And does the tracklist look killer or what?

1. Intro – Badger
2. You Are The Worst Thing In The World – Telefon Tel Aviv
3. Flesh – Rone
4. Eclipse – Sasha vs Ray LaMontagne
5. Lowlife – Sasha vs Adam Parker
6. Midnight – Charlie May
7. Arcadia – Apparat
8. That You Might – Home Video
9. Destroy Everything You Touch – Ladytron
10. Couleurs – M83
11. The Eraser – Thom Yorke
12. 3 Little Piggys – Sasha
13. Sometimes I Realise – Engineers

I needn’t make too much of a fuss about the quality of the artists represented here. Needless to say, I am excited.

The disc is slated to be released on September 5, and will be heard quite clearly within 5km radius of my block for a good few weeks, I’m sure.