Maximum Priest

Despite its abbreviated running time, Maximum Priest still ranks as Squarepusher’s dankest, darkest collection of music. The album’s songs, including the three remixes added at the end, seem to emanate from deep within some moldy cavern. Like most of Tom Jenkinson’s late-'90s work, these songs grew out of the jazz-fusion experiment of Music Is Rotted One Note, but while “Song: Our Underwater Torch” and “You’re Going Down” are rooted in Jenkinson’s formal jazz training, they're equally shaped by concepts drawn from dub and hip-hop production. The instrumentation is pretty and organic, but there's no dismissing the music's underlying existential tone. The remixes (from Jenkinson’s likeminded peers Autechre and Wagon Christ) retain the atmospheric conditions of Maximum Priest while stamping on the signature of each artist. The Autechre remix of “Two Bass Hit” is baroque and introverted, while Wagon Christ’s remix of “Shin Triad” is funky and lascivious—a subterranean interpretation of The Sugarhill Gang.