Squarepusher

Rave’s DIY spirit might seem at odds with jazz’s virtuosity, but experimental electronic stalwart Squarepusher makes the two seem like natural bedfellows. Born Tom Jenkinson in Chelmsford, UK, in 1975, he absorbed the influence of his jazz-musician father early on, picking up both bass and drums. In the mid-’90s, as jungle’s breakbeat mutations were tearing across the electronic landscape, he began developing his own antic strain of drum ’n’ bass, landing his debut album on Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label and signing with Warp. But unlike club-oriented producers more focused on sustaining a rolling groove, Jenkinson tends to exploit breakbeats’ disruptive potential, chopping them into dizzyingly disorienting patterns. The influence of jazz fusion persists in his acrobatic fretwork; in 2009, he threw fans for a loop with Solo Electric Bass 1, a pared-back album containing just that. As demonstrated by the range of 2020’s Be Up a Hello—spanning elegiac ambient, cartoonish melodies and head-spinning noise—Squarepusher is one of electronic music’s most consistently surprising talents.