Tom Jenkinson aka Squarepusher has been through a lot in his brief career. Starting with his Spymania drum&bass tinged releases through his fusionesque "Music is Rotted One-Note" and to his current uneasily categorized electronica, Squarepusher has kept listeners guessing, and rarely bored. This American release is a collection of 3 of his 'drill & bass' EPs from the late 1990s (for lack of better description): Port Rhombus, Vic Acid, and Big Loada. This CD contains what I think is the best of this era of Squarepusher, though Hard Normal Daddy is nearly as good.

Squarepusher, whether or not you enjoy his music, is an amazing programmer/sequencer. His drums, unlike typical drum & bass, rarely loop, and are constantly changing in sound, rhythm, and at times, speed. This is most evident on tracks like 'A Journey to Reedham,' which also features a strikingly pretty synth line, 'Tequila Fish,' and 'Come on My Selector,' the album's hit, if it has one (the CD also contains an excellent video for this song, directed by Chris Cunningham, director of superb Bjork and Aphex Twin clips). Squarepusher is known as something of a bedroom musician: All of these songs were created in his home, and one has to wonder how much time it took to make these incredibly intricate songs. The only real problem with this, and all of Squarepusher's releases, lies in his bass-playing. Squarepusher likes to add live bass to some of his songs, and unless you are a fan of his Jaco Pastorius-style funky bass-playing, which I cannot say that I am, it sometimes is a little too much. Luckily, on Big Loada, it rarely gets in the way.

Admittedly, I have grown out of touch with Squarepusher; his most recent release, Selection Sixteen, has left me worried that his best work is past him, though I wouldn't put it past Mr. Jenkinson to pull a fast one on me. But this album was my introduction to electronic music, and easily my favorite of albums of this genre of eletronica. I think the first seven tracks (the Big Loada EP) stand best as a solitary EP. All three EPs are available separately as imports, but that can get expensive. This American release is something a serious electronica fan cannot ignore.

Squarepusher is genre-less. Sure, you can say drum and bass, but the jazz influence, the live bass playing, and the sheer chaotic perfection that is Squarepusher can only be described as that; Squarepusher. I love a whole lot of Squarepusher's work, but this one in particular. With songs such as Port Rhombus, so beautiful and groovy, Massif, Come On My Selector, and Journey to Reedham, I can't help but listen to these songs over and over and over again. And after I'm done, I pick up my jaw and walk back into the world of musical mediocracy.

This is one of those albums that you can listen to and be enthralled by the joyous melodies and destroyed by the insanity of the percussion. Squarepusher seems to be able to do that to his listeners on almost all of his albums. Squarepusher's Tom Jenkinson has a way with his albums, you can tell everyone of his albums is actually by him, yet at the same time, every album has their own unique style about them. This album seems to take the synths from standardized rave music and orchestrate them better with a bit of funk bass and supersonic drums. Somehow Jenkinson makes the drill n' bass technique seem easy and is able to form the ultimate catchiness out of the hyperkenitic styles that run together.

If you like your mind to be drilled and challenged with ever changing music that keeps a consistency about it, you will probalby enjoy this album. For many people, however, it will simply be too much. It is almost like a jock bragging about a military obstacle course being a peice of cake and becoming winded over the first wall. Big Loada' might look easy to tackle from the outside, but once you run the gambit, only the people that holds the most sanity (or insanity??) survives.

trust me, the prev. two reviews are bogus. there is NO WAY all of squarepusher's tracks sound the same. they are all unique, he tries a little bit of everything in this album, and this album is a different world from his others. And there may be tracks that don't appeal to you but that's because there's so much diversity that every song can't appeal to everyone. Personally, i feel this is one of the greatest albums I own. squarepusher is a genius.

BEWARE THE ALBUM IS NOT BIG LOADA IT'S BUDOKHAN MINDPHONE

NOTHING RECORDS MADE A MISTAKE AND SOLD IT.