by Sean Cooper
Tom Jenkinson's jazz roots come through louder and clearer on his full-length Warp debut. Although, like the preceding Port Rhombus EP, this album sounds substantially cleaner and more thought out than previous releases for Spymania and Rephlex, it also far surpasses those releases in terms of musicality and track development, not simply relying on the shock value of &tripping-over-myself& drum programming and light-speed fretless bass noodling. Jenkinson's bass accompaniment also sounds far less prog rock-influenced here, making Hard Normal Daddy his overall most listenable work to date.