Welcome to yet another issue (?!?!) of Sugatis & Co.'s reviews... this
time, our jewel of the recent record shopping spree is T. Jenkinson's
Bubble and Squeak. Hmm... where to start... let's see, there is the simply
lovely cover art on the sleeve... (ahem), there isn't any, so we turn to
the label, which features a nice, blurry, brown picture of a wall on the
front and some dude walking through a puddle on the flip. To get to the
point, the sign said "33/45" on the first side and "45 rpm" on the second,
so it was decided that it would probably be in the best interests of
humanity to play the darn thing at 45, you know, to save time and
electricity or something... So "Bubble" starts up in a vein not unlike the
one established on the Rephlex EP, you know, all jazzy and such, at which
point, I think "groovy", as Jenkinson's jazz in and of itself, whilst it
may not impress some, does wonders for me and wipes the floor with all
those coctail noodly jazzjungleheads out there... but anyway, off I am
floating into space to a nice drumbeat, cool bass as usual, and some nifty
spacey sounds (which actually don't sound annoying, as is typical), when...
WHAM!!!! All of a sudden the alien spacecraft have surrounded me out of
nowhere and are involved in a full scale Amen break attack that is rending
my fragile space chill cruiser into a million tiny pieces of space dust and
then recombining that dust into a new space chill cruiser a thousand times
a second. Then everything just lets go into a wild utter frenzy of rhythm.
I think, damn, it must've taken Jenkinson sixty years to cut and paste the
Amen break into this formidable supercomplicated arsenal of utter rhythmic
devestation. I just sit and revel in the pieces of my destroyed spaceship,
and then the track takes a turn back in the direction of the chillin' jazz
groove, whilst the alien armada has some tea, and then WHAM again and again
as I am assaulted several more times by an ever intensifying barrage of
complicated breakery... when the dust finally settles with a resurgence of
the trademark Jenkinson melody/ bass line thing, I am left wanting more...
and then I remember that this record contains TWO songs. Yay!!!! In the
"Squeak" cafe, a nice, sweet melody line is enjoying some quality espresso
with a swingin jazzy drumline, Jenkinson style, while in the shadows, a
cabal of sub-bass line ninjas scurry about, plotting their assasination.
This situation just kinda wanders for awhile, with the melody and drums
talking about old times and enjoying coffee, when suddenly the ninja spring
from the shadows and surround the two, frightening the melody and the drum
line. Fortunately, just before the ninja break out their throwing knives,
the ever growing tension in mr. drumline's steady voice catches the
attention of the drum line's big bro, the Amen break, who rushes in out of
nowhere to save them and... BAM , POW! Suddenly ninjas are flying
everywhere as the Amen break starts kicking some serious ass! The cabal
call in reinforcements, and the break just keeps on beating the crap out of
them. The battle gets so intense at sone point that the drum line and the
melody have to hide under a table and keep silent as the Amen break just
goes crazy. Finally the ninja are beat into submission, and the Amen break
sits down with the drumline and the melody line, now quite vocal again, and
has a cappucino. However, ninja still lurk in the darkness... and of course
the break hears this and gets increasingly pissed as time goes on. Finally,
he just snaps, and goes totally nuts and destroys the entire cafe, killing
off the ninja, the melody, and finally, you, the observer, as the track
ends abruptly. In an nutshell, this release is closer to the DJ Food remix
than anything else Jenkinson has out, so if you doubt his godliness, buy
this... now if I can just get my American hands on the album... 9/10
The Hidden Camera by Photek had some pretty neat packaging... a video
screen showing, I guess, a parking garage, and in the screen a reflection
of the famous Photek logo can be seen... neat. Popped this (a cd) in my
changer as I drove home in the middle of the night, as the Jungle in which
Photek resides has animals that are mostly nocturnal... the first track was
really interesting, and as typical for Photek, was dark, very ambient (in
the sense that it creates a sonic environment... but this is not a chill
out track for sure), and suprisingly polyrhythmic, to the point where my
body kept calling up my brain and asking it "at which speed shall I groove,
sir?" The track kind of goes on and on, but it's really neat, and far
better than all other ambient jungle out there, as usual with Photek. Then
here comes the second track, with its cool, somewhat jazzy, but, as always,
very lush and dark synth effects. All of a sudden, I cry "damn!" as the
beat kicks in... a very unique beat, definitely jungle, but mid tempo
instead of breakneck pace... all I can say is, wow. This track sounds very
experimental, and, in fact, is very experimental, but after all it is
Photek and that is to be expected. The next piece is a remix of the
previous one, and it starts out with similaar synth effects, and I think
"borrrring", but it just diverges from there, and you wind up getting a
whole new track, essentially, with some jazzy bass lines, evil, minimal,
atmospheric synths, and the distinctive, very noticable polyrhythm as in
track 1. Pretty nifty. Finally, things wind to a close with what seems at
first like another slow, atmospheric track, with scary effects kind of like
those heard on the last PTK 12", UFO, but the beat does kick in, and it is
a real winner, fast, complicated, and hard, and if I wasn't in a car I
would've went nuts and danced my arse off, surely. Overall, this EP is
basically a continuation of the trends that were emerging on UFO/Rings
Around Saturn, and this is good, defintiely. Very refined, dark,
atmospheric, lush, and beats with enough punch to dance to and enough
uniqueness to write home about. 8/10.