by Michael Alan Goldberg

Squarepusher

w/Luke Vibert (AKA Wagon Christ)

Sat July 26, Chop Suey, 9 pm, $15 adv.

One of the biggest bummers for any music fan is getting psyched up to see one of your favorite artists, anticipating the vibe of the performer and the crowd while driving your car or riding the bus for what seems like an eternity, and maybe even ingesting something of the mind-altering variety as you near the venue, only to be confronted with the Sharpie-scrawled words "Tonight's show canceled" on a piece of paper taped to the front door.

Such was the scenario for Squarepusher devotees who didn't get the memo that Tom Jenkinson, the late-twentysomething Brit behind the pseudonym, wasn't going to turn up for what was supposed to be his first-ever proper North American tour in 2001 because he'd fallen ill with an unspecified ailment. Not only did that disappoint fans, the aborted jaunt added to Jenkinson's near decade-old reputation as a reclusive, somewhat mad electronic scientist on par with fellow structure-fucker-upper Richard D. James, AKA Aphex Twin.

Jenkinson once derisively characterized his media portrayal to Jockey Slut magazine (in one of the exceptionally rare interviews he's given in recent years) as "the retiring home-studio mutant" protesting that his "only link verbally with most of the world is through the press, who like to paint you as a weirdo just because your music is a bit 'off it.'"

No doubt his oft-manic IDM/drum 'n' bass sounds seem complicated, unpredictable, and pretty much schizophrenic, but there's an undeniable beauty in the percussive melodies and a strange sense of purpose to their exhilarative constructions. It's not the abstract-just-for-the-sake-of-being-abstract thing that you get from the hordes of imitators extracting the most obvious and regurgitable elements of the Squarepusher style--skittery, fractured breakbeats and minimal synth bleats--while unable to tap into the intangible, indubitable soul that resides in Jenkinson's music.

Neither is a Squarepusher gig a one-man-and-his-Power Mac affair: Jenkinson's got a full complement of gear at his disposal, from racks of samplers and processors to the fretless bass that reflects his jazz-fusion roots. On paper, it should be an amazing show--now let's all just pray that the guy makes it to Seattle.

editor@thestranger.com