7/10

Since first emerging in the mid 90s, Tom Jenkinson's Squarepusher project has been a fluid and ever-morphing experience for us to listen to. While beginning his career as the bombastic and kinetic golden child of the Warp Records family, Jenkinson has always been keen to move and adapt to whatever he feels like. We have had Squarepusher albums which were largely ethereal works, some which were minimal in production, and one that was just him on a bass guitar. But as he returns to his pseudonym for the first time in five years, his fifteenth full-length 'Be Up A Hello' looks to see a return to those electrifying early years.

From the very start, you can expect almost nothing but pure and manic electronics from 'Be Up A Hello'. As one of the innovators behind the so-called glitch wave of the 1990s, this style of music is the one most closely associated with Squarepusher and despite its near thirty-year shelf life, he is still very much capable of giving us something fresh and original with it. While it naturally sounds like audio equivalent of scatty cat bouncing around inside a Moog synthesiser, this new collection manages to create a ebb and flow of pace that keeps you from needing to turn it off periodically in order to settle your brain and delivers some wonderfully serene moments in-between the mania.

It may not be the sheer balls-to-the-wall comeback many of his fans were hoping for, but it still allows itself to be creative and diverse at almost every turn. 'Be Up A Hello' is a confident and assured returned from a producer that never ceases to surprise us.