Except for Squarepusher’s debut Feed Me Weird Things (Rephlex) his albums have been ultimately disappointing. Of course each album has had some amazing tracks and his EPs have been consistently reliable but with such a strong and genre-breaking debut reaching that early height again would be difficult. So, now, a decade later comes another album, the eighth – Hello Everything.
Hello Everything has a bit of everything old – chopped beats, virtuoso bass – but the overall mood, this time is different. Previous albums have swayed from ADHD manic-ness to depressive noise, but on Hello Everything these moods are tempered by an overall brightness. Unfortunately it opens with the weakest track – the pseudo rave-y retroism Hello Meow which sets up a false impression of the rest. Planetarium is full of chopped amens but rather than being a nutty pisstake evolves into a lovely panoramic and melodic jungle track recalling Aphex Twin’s Polynomial-C (from 1992’s Xylem Tube EP). Circlewave 2 is close to the most exquisite Squarepusher track yet even with its noodly jazz jam in the latter third, bumping Iambic 5 Poetry from Budakhan Mindphone of its perch. Rotate Electrolyte is more amen junglism meeting reminiscent Detroit techno, and then there are two 1960s academic avant-electronic-styled experiments – Vacuum Garden and Orient Orange. Vacuum Garden is a disturbing droning ambient piece that sounds like a dark void of a black hole from some science fiction movie. Orient Orange starts of as musique concrete but slowly melodic chords enter the frame before fading to tones. Although seemingly awkwardly sequenced, the eclectic mish mash of styles works well together. Skip the opener and this is a the most interesting and most enjoyable Squarepusher album in a long time.
