Ceephax & Squarepusher: Exploring the Jenkinsons

As per usual Ceephax Acid Crew (Andy Jenkinson) has us on an Acid-Train to a sweaty-convulsing music mecca. After the initial bitune/acid frenzy he slows down the pace to allow us to not only collect our thoughts, but prepare ourselves for a final acid onslaught. He achieves this with his typically playful, yet masterful blend of ad-lib music manipulation and poker straight sequencing styles. By many he is considered the bastard child of the infamous Jenkinson family, but in the post-Ultravisitor years this is now proving to no longer be the case. Since Hello Everything, Squarepusher (Tom Jenkinson) has proven that more mainstream interpretations of his music may hide the odd gem and even be considered ok, but the spirit of his earlier work has dissipated, leaving us with highly polished (near perfect work) that I feel is inherently inane and lacks the emotional depth that his previous albums foam at the mouth with. Enter Ceephax, with his ludicrously chaotic style that oozes emotional clarity, whilst also not being afraid to parody and mock the sites of this definition. He lacks the ego of his older brother and strolled casually amongst fans at his last Irish gig. We openly engaged in conversation with him at this gig about the availability of some of his earlier vinyl and his 'setup'. After this, the gig that he launched at the audience only served to fuel both the raw and frantic nature of his talent, whilst also expressing a clear sense of his easygoing personality that we had only just experienced a sample of. My advice to Squarepusher is that he should take a leaf out of his brother's book and leave the vocoder to one side and get back to basics, if not he is running the risk of shifting from the niche into the banal or even worse, becoming a mainstream puppet that casts out all integrity in favour of a fat paycheck.