Jackson and His Computerband

Jackson Fourgeaud first showed up on the French scene two years ago, out of nowhere, with a twelve-inch single that boasted "Utopia” as it’s a-side and "Radio Caca” on the flip. These two tracks now bookend Smash, his debut album, and pretty much sum up what he does best. Put simplistically, Jackson slaps and slashes micro-samples like a samurai gone rabid on deep funk. But that doesn’t quite convey the complex and, at times, brilliant mess he’s concocted here. Tracks like "Rock On” and "Arpeggio” lean heavily on inspired lunacy, in which he mixes fragments of new wave, big beat, hip-hop, guitar solos, broken toys, children’s voices, drum marches and anything else he can knock into the mix, usually within one track, all while flailing around his padded room of a studio. In a year where much of what has come out on Warp sounds more mature, Jackson sounds like that refreshing, warped kid that made the label so integral in the first place.