Fans of Squarepusher, a.k.a. Tom Jenkinson, always expect surprises from the British master of drum and bass insanity. With Do You Know Squarepusher, a double disc featuring a studio mini-album and an hour-long live set from 2001, fans will find that Jenkinson is still trying to fuse the various styles he desires, with very little concern for the audience's response.

This is not to say that the album is an unlistenable piece of selfish art trash. For the most part, the experimentation is welcome, such as on the almost-too-fast-but-somehow-catchy title track and the schizophrenic Nintendo-music explosion of "Anstromm-Feck 4."

But the strange thing about the disc is its lack of the organic logic that has made some of Squarepusher's past releases true electronic jazz. Usually known for his speedy live bass playing, Jenkinson has dropped his real instruments in favor of picking up more buttons and dials for no apparent reason.

Also inexplicable is the studio disc's closing track, a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Jenkinson leaves us with an uncharacteristically boring performance that bears little resemblance to anything he has produced before.

To some extent, the live disc makes up for this strange lack of closure, even if its sound quality and production (the disc doesn't even name the tracks anywhere) make it feel like a tacked-on-at-the-last-minute idea.

And even though there's so much going on that it is almost impossible for us at home to picture what Jenkinson could possibly be doing to create these sounds in concert, it is interesting to imagine and exciting to listen to. It's not standard dance music in the least, but his fans stopped expecting that long ago.

--by Paul Weinstein