Received the new issue of Electronic Sound magazine featuring Squarepusher which also (optionally) comes with an exclusive 7″ white vinyl record with two previously unreleased Squarepusher recordings.

First, the feature interview comes from The Quietus’ John Doran, a fact I was unaware of going in and delighted to find out since his work is always 1) enlightening and 2) often darkly hilarious. This plays out in the very first paragraphs as Doran recounts that one time he found himself jamming with SP (aka Tom Jenkinson.) Because of course he did.

While the feature is on the extended side I could have easily read much more as Doran provides an easy to follow through-line to much of Jenkinson’s deeply obsequious discography, adding insight into Jenkinson’s creative process and life in general, and specifically SP’s newest album Kammerkonzert.

Second, the record. After reading the decsription on the ES site I had a pretty good idea of what it would be, and was not disappointed. Two extremely minimal tracks featuring a few pure sound waves weaving in and out, droning with both a sense of dread and a searching inquisitiveness. Exactly the kind of thing you’d throw at a magazine looking to blag something special for the trainspotters (ahem.)

Of course this is just one feature in an almost 100 page magazine. And what a high quality production it is! This is my first encounter with the physical specimen and I can tell you it’s extremely high quality. Taking it out of the cardboard mailer felt more like revealing a book than a typical magazine (even ignoring the record stuffed inside.) “Thicc AF” comes to mind. Anyway, it’s filled with much more to discover (I was listening to the record while reading the story of Gentle Hum, a colab between Ah! Kosmos and friggin’ Hainbach!, and was happy to see a review of the new BoC), reminding me of the olde days of picking up a UK music mag at Barnes & Noble and reading it cover to cover over a swimming pool sized mocha at their coffee shop before putting it back on the shelf. In this case the lavish production lends weight (literally) to the words within and I will definitely be on the lookout for future issues.

(Cat for scale.)