Squarepusher: Damogen Furies review – an exhilarating kind of nightmare

(Warp)

Electronic auteur Tom Jenkinson has always operated at the experimental fringes of dance music, so when he describes his latest record as attempting to explore “the hallucinatory, the nightmarish and the brutally visceral”, it shouldn’t be dismissed as idle talk. But though Damogen Furies is certainly not for the faint-hearted – the distorted electronic stabs and divebombing beats of Baltang Ort may well be the lift muzak for a descent into hell – nor is it quite the Pandora’s box you might expect. Opener Stor Eiglass is driven by exhilarating melodic hooks, while Exjag Nives recalls the euphoric surges of fellow electronic pulveriser Rustie.