Squarepusher's bro has dropped a new record. It's called Box Steady and it's really freakin' good. Andy Jenkinson usually records and performs under the name Ceephax Acid Crew (he has other aliases though, like Ceephax), and has come a long way from the basic but sturdy acid house and drum and bass of his early records. While he has made a home for himself in the worlds of ambient (see, Cro Magnox) and chiptune music (see, United Acid Emirates) over the decades, he's never really lost his sense for melody, something that is very evident on Box Steady. Andy's done a really good job of demarcating transitions between tracks on this record. Allowing each to flourish and find its own sense of purpose before letting it ride out on its own terms. Even though the majority of these tracks slot into his classic acid beat style, they still feel like they each have a distinct and individual persona- almost like they were written by different people, with the intent of them flowing together into a single DJ set. "Amigo" sounds like it was composed by a mad scientist who has programmed a Phuture simulation to run on a SNES sound card, while "Waltzacid" has a suitably slinky fusion jazz vibe to its comet surfing club crush. "Fossil Funk" rides a frisky, house piano pulse that successfully piques one's desire to rotate their hips and mingle their way across the dancefloor, and his cover of John Berry's "Capsule in Space" gives the original soundtrack piece an eerie sci-fi twist, with the addition of mischievous synths waves, deep-space plundering bass lines, and a cosmic-frontier piercing oscillation. Box Steady pops out of the package, ready to go. Plug and play, and get that party started!
