Innovation in the EDM scene was quite a great thing in the 1990s. From the breakup of the UK Hardcore scene post-1992, many artists sought to create new music that was different, innovative and exciting in an individual and artistic way. Squarepusher took this idea and innovation at hand to the next level in a musical sense, incorporating elements of IDM, Drum and Bass and even Jazz into a new form of original music that sounded different. This is Squarepusher’s debut album, released on Aphex Twin’s own Rephlex label, and is widely seen as a classic in intelligent and interesting EDM that deserves to be heard. Let’s hear it.

Squarepusher Theme begins with looped guitar chords, and a Jazzy feel to the proceedings. It’s an interesting listening experience from the start. Soon enough, percussion enters and we are underway on this tune. It’s the EDM equivalent of a logical, intricate and interesting Jazz tune, and it sounds instantly brilliant. It is something that is less body based music, and more intellectual based instead. It is also very catchy and enjoyable, way from the start. A variety of cut-up beats are here, including the famous Amen Break. IDM was a deliberate reaction to John Major’s Conservative government in the UK placing in laws that were anti-Rave parties, and the music here was a reaction to the wording in the legislation per se. Nonetheless, this is EDM that is definitely IDM based, awesome, Jazzy and brilliant. A great and refreshing listening experience, this sounds clear, concise and unique. There is some discreet Fender Stratocaster styled guitar parts present as well. A thrilling and adventurous listening experience, this is the ultimate combination of Free Jazz, Drum and Bass and IDM music. Definitely worth repeated listens, if this is your thing. The beats phase in and out, along with the sounds, playing and samples here. A really excellent piece of music that does sound wonderful to this very day, this sounds fresh and precise. Instantly, this album is a classic album that must be heard and experienced. It takes traditional instrumental values and lifts them up to the next level. Towards the end, the beats phase out for some time, whilst keyboard washes occur. Soon enough, they return, however, and this is a very decent and interesting listening experience overall. Intelligent and brilliant to listen to, especially if you like quirky music. Great start to the album.

Tundra begins with some eerie keyboard styled sounds that are highly atmospheric, which sound really moody and unsettling. This goes on for some time and is rather eerie and suspenseful. Very much like a lucid dream. It sounds super dark, weird and strange. Soon enough, a mixture of beats and samples gradually seep in, making this become a twisted and strange listen. Choppy Amen Break based Drum and Bass beats do gradually enter, and this track is the logical extension of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II. Also, like that record, this is pure genius. A really cool and dark tune that is exactly what the IDM scene of the time needed, this is mellow and marvellous in sections. It breaks down towards the middle with more eerie atmospheric sounds, before more beats re-enter and the whole thing sounds excellent. If Radiohead were inspired to go Electronic on their Kid A and Amnesiac albums later on, an album like this is possibly an inspirational point for that. This sounds like the sort of IDM track that should be in a horror film of sorts. It sounds like a bad LSD trip in some ways, but the music is fantastic, so much so that you’d never wish to stop it, just like that sort of drug induced experience. In the second half, excellent cut-up drum beats re-emerge to take you there. Creepy, moody and extremely intelligent, Squarepusher made music that was inimitable on this album. The eerie sounds conclude towards the end for a bit, leaving just an array of cut-up drum beats and some subsonic basslines. Brilliant and excellent, this is completely different to most forms of music out there. It also works extremely well and sounds very moody. Nearly eight minutes long, but great overall. Decent instrumental.

The Swifty begins with some interesting shuffle style percussion and deep subsonic basslines, which is really cool. This is definitely an adventurous album that is totally worth your time, so far. This is more intricate and spaced out than the previous tracks, with beeps, bleeps and cut-up sounds galore. Nonetheless, this does sound really brilliant. As the track progresses, it gets more layered and the drum beats get more frenetic. These stop briefly, with some variations throughout which are really sweet. An awesome and top listen, there are some mid-position Fender style guitar parts, once again, that sounds incredibly Jazzy and thoughtful. No doubt some Rock fans will appreciate this if experimental is your thing. This has a mellow breakdown in the second half that sounds really chilled out and excellent. A thoroughly cool listen, it is very likely that the likes of Miles Davis would have appreciated this music, it is not too far away from some of his more notable works. Cut-up breakbeats re-enter, and this piece sounds really quirky and gloriously good. A wonderful and tuneful listening experience, this has a slowed down outro that reprises the early part of the track to conclude with. Cool.

Dimotane Co begins with screaming noise, which may or may not be what you think is good. It is pretty full-on. It quickly stops, launching into a wonderful set of percussion and cut-up drums that sound surreal and unique. A really awesome and decent tune to listen to from the start, this does sound really fantastic and amazing, although it is relatively simple. It goes into another section with weird drums and percussion that are out of this world and are really amazing. This is proof that you do not need to sell out in order to make great music, and Squarepusher is definite proof of that. An exciting, exhilarating and quirky tune, this progresses along with some interesting Acid based sounds as well. A wonderful and awesome listen, this is a great highlight on an already amazing album. The Acid sounds come fore and centre on this mix in the second half, and this has some quite frankly awesome sounds that you will never hear anywhere else. Really awesome music to listen to, this progresses very nicely and is super intelligent. Albert Einstein would approve of this incredibly smart and intellectual approach to music. A great, great listen. Worth it for the nearly five minute long length here. Brilliant.

Smedleys Melody is a quirky two minute plus tune that has some interesting guitar parts, with some slight textural elements present as well. Again, very Jazzy and brilliant. Some bongos quickly enter, and this tune gets underway. A great piece of neo-Jazz music that sounds really brilliant and fantastic, this is a good and short snippet of music that is very, very clever. Wonderful, a bit weird but in a very good way, this is Squarepusher at his very best. The amount of interesting, cut-up sounds throughout is really cool and amazing. It ends with some weird vocal sound effects, which are pseudo-Pink Floyd in nature. Cool.

Windscale 2 begins with some loose electronic bleeps, cut-up metallic sounding drums and some wonderful and weird sounds throughout. There is a good, deep, funky bass guitar here. Squarepusher himself was obviously influenced by many kinds of music out there. A really great and interesting listening experience, there are some original and spacey sound patches here that sound marvellous. Banging beats continue on for some time, and these sound really fun and fantastic. Again, this is a unique tune that really needs to be heard more by the serious music listener. A really great listening experience, this sounds refreshingly awesome. Very ambient, trippy and dreamlike. An enjoyable tune, the midsection sounds very interesting indeed. This is the sort of music one can only ever imagine, in dreams or DMT trips. Nonetheless, a really cool and wonderful listen throughout. This sounds very amazing, and the intelligence of this music cannot be understated. A really awesome listen, this has some thoroughly good editing. If you need some IDM that you can close your eyes and relax to, Squarepusher is your go-to point. In the second half, the funky bass riff returns and the piece here is centred around that. Nonetheless, a very great listening experience. Fun, funky, otherworldly and Jazzy, Squarepusher does a great job here overall. A decent six minute piece of music.

North Circular has some great and interesting beats from the start. It sounds really quite interesting and amazing, to be frank. It is no doubt a great piece from this already great album that sounds really cool, cut up and awesome to hear. Very percussive based, there are some additional spacey sounds that eventually enter this tune here. One of the more memorable pieces from this album, it sounds like the sort of music people in the year 3000 will actively and regularly listen to. It is light years ahead of most of the music of the time, and even of the music of today. Cut-up Amen Breakbeats are here again but done so perfectly and marvellously well that you will not care about the source of the sample. It is, quite literally, amazing. A really fine tune that sounds like a massive headrush of sorts that is so imaginative that it makes The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band look dull in comparison. In the second half, the beats gradually cut out, leaving some theremin like sounds to overtake the show. A really awesome listen, this sounds truly amazing and great to listen to. The beats return towards the end and prove that IDM based EDM has no boundaries. Really cool stuff, prepare some dark shades and some intellectual activities for this listening experience. Great to hear overall, this is a joy. It ends with the beats cutting out and the spacey theremin sounds to conclude. Sweet.

Goodnight Jade begins with some low-end atmospheric sounds, again sounding like it is out of a film of some sort. This is a shorter piece at under three minutes long but sounds quite good regardless. It is the logical continuation of Aphex Twin’s works, carried on by another talented artist. Kind of eerie sounding, but it is supposed to be so. In any case, it’s okay, but not as phenomenal as other listens out there on this album. It’s okay, but fairly uninspired and an oddity on this album. Regardless, a good listen but not a great one here.

Theme From Ernest Borgnine begins with some subdued melodies that are deeply atmospheric and nicely layered, sounding super cool and spacey. This is a good piece from the start, sounding very science fiction based, minimal and clever. A very good tune, it quickly kickstarts with cut-up Drum and Bass style beats and sounds really cool, even to this day. A fine and fantastic listening experience, this is dark Techno mixed with some Acid based sounds and cut-up beats galore. A really great tune to listen to, this sounds very smart and amazing. If IDM is a great display of human intelligence and ingeniousness in music, then this is it. A truly fantastic listening experience, the beats and melodies match each other perfectly in IDM fashion. Awesome tune, worth your ears. This is a step in the right direction for computer based music back in 1996, and it sounds miles ahead of anything else to this day. The mixture of cut-up drum beats and percussion, along with Ambient Techno sounds, makes this an essential listen for any EDM. Great music to hear and to listen to, this is musically addictive. The future had its seeds in the music of the past, and this is especially the case with tracks like this from this album. Nonetheless, an awesome and electrifying listen. This sounds brilliant and amazing. Towards the end, some Acid House based TB-303 textures enter that sound really cool. A fine tune to hear, and something that is a great introduction to IDM based Electronic music. Wonderful, through and through. Definitely worth listening to. An amazing track.

U.F.O.’s Over Leytonstone begins with some eerie and discordant melodies to match the track title at hand. It’s weird, all right. Sounding very unusual, this is a good piece but not a great listen. Eventually, some unusual beats and percussion enter, pushing this along. It does sound different, but not really in a good way. Often, even the best EDM styled albums are hit-and-miss affairs, and this is somewhat unable to avoid the miss element as a tune. It’s okay, but not exactly the sort of music you’d really want to hear on a regular basis. The beats stop after a little bit, before quickly resuming after some melodic work. U.F.O.s, depending on if you believe in their existence or not, are freaky things indeed. A really deep tune, this is different for sure. In the second half, some dark Acid sounds punch through the mix, and the beats resume as well. Unfortunately, this is a bit dreary and not exactly IDM you’d really desire to hear at any point. Regardless, this is good, although it is far from fantastic. The length of this tune also makes it a bit of a drag and one may wish to skip this one. It’s barely passable, really. A good exploration through outer space, but still not 2000 Light Years From Home. This one needs a bit of a rethink and isn’t the best. It ends just after six and a half minutes in length.

Kodack begins with some organ sounds, cut-up Amen breakbeats and a feeling that we are going to get more of the same here from before. There are some deep, droning sounds present here which are unusual, and sound like a bit of a tribal American influence here. This is quickly followed by an interesting bunch of layered melodies. Great and quite a lot better and more suspenseful than what came before it. Some deep bass guitar gurgles away in the background as well, this is quite an interesting listening experience throughout. Really twisted in terms of the overall musical listening experience imagination, this sounds really clever, once again. Towards the middle, this launches into a glorious and cool music piece that really is genuinely uplifting in a Techno/Drum and Bass/IDM way. Great tune here, this is a winner of a track that is one of the better listens here. There is some funky Fender Stratocaster styled guitar licks present in the second half, which sound very cool. This is very much like Lounge Jazz music that IDM heads and Psychedelic drug users would dig. It’s smart, cool and clever, and much more intelligent than it sounds. The choppy beats continue throughout the sectional changes, and this is an excellent musical listening experience. The droning sounds and other textures are layered up here right towards the end, sounding quite snazzy. A nice tune and this keeps the album alive towards the end of it all. It ends with an unusual Electronic bleep patch.

Future Gibbon is a shorter piece at over two minutes in length that sounds heavy, percussive and metallic. It’s a good and quirky addition to this interesting album and is a bit of a musical trip. Really great to hear something short and different, this is definitely a crazy sounding tune. Most of the sounds here are treated with a metallic filter, but that is perfectly fine, it sounds very musically interesting and decent. Worth your ears, Squarepusher does impress frequently. Cool and different. It fades out nicely.

Theme From Goodbye Renaldo is a six minute tune with some great beats from the start, a wah-wah guitar and a clock chime. Bongos quickly enter, and this sounds very amazing. This builds up with excitement and just sounds really cool, launching into a great Free Jazz styled tune that is energetic, imaginative and different. Really cool and quirky, this is a really great piece of music to listen to. The bongos in particular are wonderfully cut up and played here, just sounding superb. One can definitely enjoy this unusual music known as IDM, and Squarepusher points to his music work as a real innovator. There are some tranquil and pleasant melodies in the middle here, which sound super sweet. The beats cut out for these melodies, and this is a really nice listen. Some slowed down beats then follow, and this tune progresses nicely into its second half. A fine and fantastic listen, this sounds very awesome. IDM was no doubt a major thing in the Electronic Music scene to pay attention to from this point onwards. A great flurries mixture of music, sounds and samples, Squarepusher pushes the limits of what we musically know on this album. The track ends with some slowed down beats, reoccurring melodies and a gentle finish. Great.

Deep Fried Pizza is the final track on this album, and it has some excellent liquid sounds, cut-up breakbeats and is a very nice conclusion to this unusual album, with some weird bass guitar aplenty. Cool, quirky and different, just like the track title, this is a really intricate and interesting listen that should make you smile. IDM was here to stay after this album, and although it is not as popular as other forms of EDM, it still works extremely well to listen to. A joyous, interesting and surreal tune, the weird slap bass guitar is something definitely worth tuning into. A great and pounding number, this is how the music for those who like weird should be done. Definitely a 1970s vibe ongoing here, but it sounds really cool all the same. A nice way to finish off this album.

This is a very good IDM styled album that should be heard more so by others today. Granted, it is not perfect listening, like most EDM based music, but it does have its genuine fair share of moments upon listening. IDM is a bit of an acquired taste, but nonetheless, Squarepusher makes it worthwhile here. Should you listen to this album? Do give it a spin, but be prepared to skip some tracks if you are not big into its weird fusion of music.

Very, very good.

8/10