Warp Records
1997
Burningn'n Tree
About This Album
Warp Records was playing catch-up with all the excellent Tom Jenkinson material floating around. Just the previous year the label saw good returns on his Hard Normal Daddy LP, and now it was time to buy the rights to previous tracks released on the Brit jungle boutique label Spymania. The selection here on Burningn'n Tree is crunchy and uneven, but certainly rewarding for collectors losing faith in the hunt for original limited vinyl pressings. As a bonus, Jenkinson throws in three previously unreleased selections; decent while they last, though not especially memorable. The real treats are Spymania's early gems. The disc sprints forward with the 1996 track "Central Line," which seems atypically straightforward with its 4/4 drum lines -- lean and underdeveloped by jungle standards (as well as Jenkinson's), but a perfectly energizing opener. It is tracks like this and "Sarcacid" (also known as "The Duke of Harringay") where he leans on his fantastic bass playing and jazz background, rather than his dizzying programming skills that would bloom on future endeavors. One could argue that here was a time when, perhaps due to equipment limitations, he was more on the musician side of the fence; a man who could play live bass at 240 bpm alongside his hyperactive drum machine, as opposed to the disjointed computer-generated brain chop of Go Plastic or the hazy bong water slosh of Budakhan Mindphone.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,10 and 11)

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