Hard Normal Daddy

iTunes Review

Released in 1997 at the peak of the “drill and bass” movement, Squarepusher’s Hard Normal Daddy was viewed as an uproarious and innovative rejoinder to Aphex Twin’s blueprint of electronic music. In retrospect, removed from the context of the electronica boom, it's easier to see the album as part of a lineage reaching back to fusion, funk, and prog rock. The influence of Miles Davis’ On the Corner is immediately evident on “Cooper’s World,” which also bears traces of Lalo Schifrin’s spy soundtracks. A bassist by training, Tom Jenkinson obviously took some notes from Stanley Clarke, whose frantic late-'70s solo albums bridged the worlds of funk, jazz, and prog. As abrasive as “Fat Controller,” “Vic Acid," and “Rustic Raver” get, it’s easy to see them as exponents of the spastic funk pioneered by Clarke. While there's far more James Brown under the surface of this music than there is in the work of Aphex Twin, Jenkinson still achieves moments of dreaminess and poignancy reminiscent of Richard D. James, especially on “Beep Street.”