3 out of 5

Label: Rephlex Records

Produced by: Andy Jenkinson

Like a lot of things Andy Jenkinson, this first of two albums released for Rephlex rides a fine, high-frequency sound-waved line between being genius and a kind of playful slop. That last bit would be more of a slight except that Jenkinson seems to come by it very honestly and earnestly – the repetition; the caustic d&b doesn’t seem anti-music, really, maybe just a degree of being a scoundrel – and he almost always finds his way to those sloppy moments, or out of them, from / to incredibly fascinating or rewarding moments in the same song. If Volume One were a little more concise overall – it codes like a compilation to a degree; some of the tracks sound like they could have been pulled from different times or other albums – all of that would amount to a banger of a release. As presented, it’d a bit broad, leaving some slack with its midsection and longer running tracks for attentions to wander. Still, that doesn’t rule it out of your Jenkinson playlist: the first few tracks are gold: the best Ceephax brews of hard-hitting acid beats and experimental production, mapped to memorable melodies. With ‘Here We Gowowowo,’ the balance gets shifted more towards the slop side, with Andy kind of just playing around with the drums for the last couple minutes over a repeated sample, though followups ‘Toxico Gang’ and ‘Texaco Gang’ peel apart that approach and match it with more emotive sections, or some good ol’ video game bleeps and bloops. Another pair of tracks – ‘Tx Highway’ and ‘Tx Jammer’ – have a similar ratio of hits and repetitive (relative) misses, with the last third of the album swinging around to more ambient style beats to chill things out, ‘Dreamer’ in particular a really well layered tune.

Jenkinson, like Ed DMX, is a master of compositional simplicity, often making a lot out of a beat and one or two synth lines. Volume One tends to lean in to his more playful and noisy antics alongside some killer acid / d&b beats, preventing the whole album from really coming together, but certainly not preventing it from having some fantastic singles, and the usual bevy of great Jenkinson ideas.