"Ultravisitor is unknowable, and will never be understood by anybody, least of all its creator," announced Tom "Squarepusher" Jenkinson in a recent email interview. He then described people who don't like his music as "stupid" and "stubborn". What an endearing character.
Unfortunately for this stupid, stubborn reviewer, Ultravisitor is yet another scattershot Squarepusher album (his ninth by some counts) that infuriates as often as it delights. Jenkinson's major innovation is pushing drum'n'bass to the point of rhythmic collapse, but he's been doing that since 1996 and the natural reaction is: oh, this again. However, Ultravisitor also contains some of his most appealing creations yet. On Circlewave, flurries of drums elide into doleful organ, and Tommib Help Buss reprises Tommib, the beautiful ambient sliver featured in Lost in Translation. When, on Tetra-Sync and the title track, Jenkinson achieves the perfect amalgam of beatific melodies and percussive chaos, he's almost as good as he thinks he is.
