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Why hasn’t this album gotten more praise and/or shoutouts yet in 2026? We did see someone compare it to Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, which doesn’t quite sit right, though we understand the reference. One of our favorite releases of the year, Kammerkonzert is essentially chamber music with Tom Jenkinson playing all of the parts, framed by Squarepusher’s electronic vocabulary.
Like so many of the releases that came out after Jenkinson’s breakbeat period and the iconic Feed Me Weird Things (1996), Kammerkonzert positions electronic and acoustic instruments in dialogue. Jenkinson prefers to frame the electronic versus the acoustic as an “argument,” though this 2LP flows quite smoothly between these voices.
There are Venetian Snares-like moments where breakcore and classical music come together with with Rossz Csillag Alatt Született-future-leaning beauty, but most of these tracks evoke Univers Zero and/or orchestral Prog, ECM, fusion, funk and, to our ears and the best side of all, mid-century classical music. Again, Art Bears and Henry Cow provide grab bag references.
Please see the final side of this double record, which as a self-contained unit offers a perfect arc across many classical periods and instrumentation. Ending with organ music in 2026 feels almost like parody coming from Squarepusher. That said, the album closes with somber and still beauty, reverb, then quiet.
Where many of Squarepusher’s contemporaries benefit from the CD format, the purest of uninterrupted long players, this double LP uses its four discrete sides wisely. As is often the case with Squarepusher, his music and ideas demand much of the listener. Having a short break to flip the record offers space/time to digest and appreciate an artist working at a frenetic pace, even if this chamber concert is mostly quite mellow. Even in those places where the bass and percussion point back to last century’s Drum&Bass, everything sounds smooth in presentation and tone, smartly integrated and well considered.
Why hasn’t this album gotten more praise and/or shoutouts yet in 2026? We did see someone compare it to Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, which doesn’t quite sit right, though we understand the reference. One of our favorite releases of the year, Kammerkonzert is essentially chamber music with Tom Jenkinson playing all of the parts, framed by Squarepusher’s electronic vocabulary.
Like so many of the releases that came out after Jenkinson’s breakbeat period and the iconic Feed Me Weird Things (1996), Kammerkonzert positions electronic and acoustic instruments in dialogue. Jenkinson prefers to frame the electronic versus the acoustic as an “argument,” though this 2LP flows quite smoothly between these voices.
There are Venetian Snares-like moments where breakcore and classical music come together with with Rossz Csillag Alatt Született-future-leaning beauty, but most of these tracks evoke Univers Zero and/or orchestral Prog, ECM, fusion, funk and, to our ears and the best side of all, mid-century classical music. Again, Art Bears and Henry Cow provide grab bag references.
Please see the final side of this double record, which as a self-contained unit offers a perfect arc across many classical periods and instrumentation. Ending with organ music in 2026 feels almost like parody coming from Squarepusher. That said, the album closes with somber and still beauty, reverb, then quiet.
Where many of Squarepusher’s contemporaries benefit from the CD format, the purest of uninterrupted long players, this double LP uses its four discrete sides wisely. As is often the case with Squarepusher, his music and ideas demand much of the listener. Having a short break to flip the record offers space/time to digest and appreciate an artist working at a frenetic pace, even if this chamber concert is mostly quite mellow. Even in those places where the bass and percussion point back to last century’s Drum&Bass, everything sounds smooth in presentation and tone, smartly integrated and well considered.