Serial Hodgepodge

AMG Review of Serial Hodgepodge

Andy Kellman
All Music Guide

Jeff McIlwain's timing couldn't be better. After a few years of floating around on small labels with little recognition for his exceptionally protean productions, he has come up with his best album, and he now gains the benefit -- i.e., attention -- of being released on Ghostly International. Serial Hodgepodge, following a pair of low-key 12" releases on Ghostly, can be considered an improved take on 2003's Condensed, a compilation situated to play out as a listen-to-in-whole album that displayed the many paths the producer takes with his echno. While there might be other producers who are more accomplished at making idyllic downtempo, or placid IDM, or abstract hip-hop, or haunting ambient techno, or blipping/skipping minimal house, few -- if any -- are capable of covering all of that ground with such sharp consistency on one disc. What McIlwain lacks in innovation is gained in this ability to be so fluidly versatile.