Squarepusher

Be Up a Hello

Squarepusher's Be Up a Hello asserts that what some would consider an outmoded sound palette can still be mined for fresh ideas, that IDM in its golden-age variety has yet to reach its zenith.

After several records of heady composition and high-concept music, Be Up a Hello is refreshingly direct. Without simply revisiting a bygone golden era, Jenkinson reconsiders some of his old ways, taking some of his more familiar ideas to new, strange places.

On the whole, the album is excellent. It’s a return to what Squarepusher is known most prominently for but his style has developed since the '90s.

What we have here is yet another brain-melting album from an artist who refuses to stand still.

It’s clear that Be Up a Hello was written with the past in mind, but there’s nothing creaky or dated about it. It’s a love letter to his fans, and perhaps the perfect entry point for new ones.

25 years into his career, Jenkinson’s lost none of his mischievousness.

‘Be Up A Hello’ is an adventure to be approached with caution, only the most intrepid explorers need apply for this mission deep into this hostile environment.

While not as cohesive as Squarepusher's seminal works, Be Up a Hello is his most solid work in at least a decade.

With its glitchy bedlam and mischievous spirit, the album does offer moments of gleeful chaos, yet it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s a facsimile, a simulacrum.

Squarepusher is now a long way down his own less-trodden path, and as such Be Up A Hello doesn’t sound like much else out there.

Ultimately Be Up a Hello is a fun albeit bumpy ride through future-retroism, best felt in the moment itself.