Tom Jenkinson grew up in Chelmsford, Essex. The first school he attended was affiliated with Chelmsford Cathedral giving him exposure to organ music, which he has subsequently acknowledged as an influence on his work. He took an interest in music very early in life, and simultaneously became interested in music reproduction equipment. Much of his early experience of music was from scanning through various radio stations for anything that caught his ear irrespective of style or genre, and he was also fascinated by radio static and amplitude modulation artefacts on the Short Wave band.

Jenkinson was offered a five album record contract with Warp Records in December 1995, which was duly signed, and this led him to defer his studies at Chelsea Art College. Early in 1996 Richard D. James completed the compilation process for Feed Me Weird Things which was made from over 50 tracks that Tom had given him on DAT, which were recorded from late 1994 to 1995. Around the same time Richard and Tom recorded two tracks together, one of which was subsequently edited by Tom and released as "Freeman Hardy & Willis Acid" on the We Are Reasonable People compilation album in 1998. Tom's contribution to the other track was reinterpreted and released as "Happy Little Wilberforce" on the Alt. Frequencies compilation released on Worm Interface in 1996. 1996 saw Jenkinson starting to be offered gigs both in the UK and in continental Europe.  Early that year Tom made the acquaintance of Talvin Singh who offered him a slot at his club night "Anokha" held at the Blue Note Club in Hoxton Square, London. Tom and Talvin went on to play together on several occasions during this period including improvised sessions at the end of the night at Anokha, one of which featured guitarist Guthrie Govan, and also at the first Big Chill Festival in 1996.  Shortly after the release of Feed Me Weird Things came "Port Rhombus" which was Tom's first release on Warp Records. The title track actually started life as a remix of a track by Ken Ishii, commissioned by R&S Records in Belgium. However the remix was rejected on the basis of it having insufficient similarity to Ken's piece. "Significant Others" uses the DR660 drum machine running through a spring reverb that Tom found at a jumble sale. Answer this question using a quote from the following article:

What happened in 1996
Early in 1996 Richard D. James completed the compilation process for Feed Me Weird Things