brettworks

Producer and multi-instrumentalist Tom Jenkins (aka Squarepusher) is (re)known(ed) for his intense drum and bass rhythm programming, electric bass playing, and forward thinking about music production. But it may be Jenkins’ mellower and very brief tracks that are his best work.

Leading the way is the magisterial, one-minute-and seventeen-second “Tommib”, a piece that’s organ music in spirit. It sounds like four chords and two or three cadences that simply repeat. But the music is a sleight of ear that conjures something immense out of its progression before it’s gone.

Next is “Les Mains Dansant”, a minute of solo electric guitar that sounds like a hymn.

Finally, “Goodnight Jade” is three minutes of gentle guitar with its attack muted and a downbeat knocking sound (hand on soundboard?) put through a spring reverb. Most of the piece alternates between two chords, and then, in the last 45 seconds, the two chords become four.

These tracks are minimalist vignettes that remind us of how little music needs to be musical. There’s no pyrotechnics or virtuosity here, no long windedness. But there is a sense of restraint. In a quiet minute or two Jenkins says everything he needs to say.