Squarepusher

(This article’s English version was produced with AI-assisted translation)

There are visionary concepts and risky experiments. It is hard to say where "Kammerkonzert" stands. Thomas Jenkinson has been the master of odd time signatures for thirty years, an heir to Jaco Pastorius transformed into an electronic guru moving at schizophrenic speed. Here, however, the synthesizers almost completely disappear: in their place, there is a virtual chamber-music ensemble, conceived and played entirely by him, without bringing in any real orchestra.

The result sounds like cerebral jazz fusion, almost rock in opposition: within an intricate framework of irregular time signatures, it recalls records by Zappa or "Skies Of America" by Ornette Coleman, but filtered through IDM and drill and bass. Constant modal shifts are handled with remarkable precision, and the fourteen pieces navigate twisted moods and shifting BPMs, from subdued passages to mystical fury, avoiding any reliance on loops or repetition. The toolkit of "Feed Me Weird Things" is simply paired with a classical ensemble, enhancing its uncanny, almost uncanny valley effect, with echoes of the breakcore of "Rossz Csillag Alatt Született" by Venetian Snares.

It is not inspired chaos so much as a declaration of entropy that is not always fully focused, and at times the album crosses into the overly cerebral. Whether one finds it a difficult listen or not, spoiler: sometimes it is, it must be said that the ambition is real and the technical control is beyond question. The truly magnetic moments remain few, above all "K10 Terminus", but the operation as a whole works as an experiment consistent with a career that has never sought compromise. We appreciate the attempt and the ambition.

24/04/2026