Squarepusher

Been soo long since I've listened to Squarepusher.

feed me's nostalgia factor is huge right now

http://squarepusher.net/shobaleader-one/

WTF? this is pretty great. Is it really Squarepusher or what?

Too widdly. Is it not just an act he's endorsing, or possibly producing?

Apparently it really is him, just a pseudonym. He released a single under the same name on Ed Banger last month. I think its awful, the last thing Jenkinson needs to do right now is some whack Ratatat tribute shit.

I liked Hello Everything quite a bit, he should do more jolly breakbeaty stuff like that. I've never been particularly into the jazz-funk side of his work.

Having said that, this album description is pretty good:

Just a Souvenir is an album by Squarepusher, which was released to the general listening public on October 27, 2008. The album was made available to purchase as a download from bleep.com on September 15, 2008.[1]

The album's genesis came from a daydream, in which Tom Jenkinson envisioned a rock band performing a concert against the backdrop of a large, glowing coathanger. The performance quickly became surreal: among other things, a river forces the band to kayak whilst performing; the guitarist is able to accelerate or decelerate time at will; and every drum in the drummer's kit begins to switch places with one another.[2] As such, the majority of the album consists of Jenkinson's own version of jazz fusion, threaded through with classical guitar, math rock and funk recordings.

Am I listening to the same thing as everyone else? I don't hear any widdlyness or Ratatat or jazz or breakbeat - more epic horror kinda goth/new wave stuff. I hope I was listening to the right thing and not Tim Exile or something.

this is pretty alright (remix is better):

http://soundcloud.com/hypetrak/sets/squarepusher-cryptic-motion-edits

did y'all hear that shobaleader one thing yet?

Has he done anything of merit since the "Do You Know Squarepusher" single?

Yes, a fair bit.

I like the Shobaleader One single, but the Mr Oizo mix was best.

I am still trying to get my head around the Shobaleader thing. Every time I hear it, halfway through I keep expecting to go somewhere, and it doesn't, so I really just want to take it off and put on Chrome Hoof instead.

Has he done anything of merit since the "Do You Know Squarepusher" single?

― Mr. Snrub, Friday, October 22, 2010 1:20 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

Hello Everything.

if you ever get to see him in an improv / jazz situation dooo it. it's fucking cool when he starts playing some wacky squarepusher bass shit in that context. i think pretty much everything he does is worth a listen just not always worth revisiting.

I've never been into his jazz improv stuff. If I wanted to listen to something like that I'd seek out people who've dedicated their careers to it, not a moonlighting IDM producer.

tbf he has been doing the jazz improv thing quite heavily for most of his career, or at least since Music Is Rotted One Note, which was 98? 97? That said I know what you mean because a lot of it is tributary rather than truly innovative.

a lot of it is tributary rather than truly innovative.

You put it better than I did.

Then again, while a lot of it might be trying to channel Bitches Brew through a bunch of warped-out synths, the man knows his jazz and is a remarkable bassist and drummer, so it's maybe doing him a disservice to slate a good 50% of his career as "Switched On Miles" or something. Especially when every so often he comes out with a "My Sound" or a "Underwatertorch" or a "Iambic 5 Poetry", all of which are very beautiful with hardly anything ostensibly electronic.

oh shit I haven't thought about "Iambic 5 Poetry" in YEARS

one of my all time favourite tracks. first time i heard it i was in Paris, which fits nicely.

iambic 9 is my favourite

wait... which one is the one on Budakhan Mindphone?

Has he done anything of merit since the "Do You Know Squarepusher" single?

― Mr. Snrub, Friday, October 22, 2010 1:20 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

Hello Everything.

― A brownish area with points (chap), Friday, 22 October 2010 10:51 (Yesterday) Bookmark

hold up, surely you mean this one?
http://blog.nettribe.org/user_images/36/03/413fda2a10b6644c37ccada81f58d43a.jpg

actually the non 1-D sub-Lightning Bolt rawk shite on Just A Souvenir was fun, if more diverting than classic - but still fuckloads better than the tripe Tom's put out this year.

Been catching up with the last few Squarepusher releases. Not convinced by Shobaleader, but surprised how good his Solo Electric Bass Vol1 thing is.

I didn't really like either, but Just a Souvenir was pretty great
Still, I can't help but feel he's not really trying anymore...?

Some might argue he hasn't REALLY tried since Hard Normal Daddy. I can't name a single release by him which I can positively say isn't 50% filler. That said nearly everything has something very good on it. He's always been in desperate need of a quality filter.

Ultravisitor was great but he's one of those guys who I can only listen to his stuff at the time. Someone could steal my ten Squarepusher albums and I'd never notice.

Yeah. HND is probably his best but Ultravisitor was his real "opus" album.

I would still go back to HND and Music Is Rotted One Note. The Come On My Selector EP is great fun. After that it got very pick'n'mix until Hello Everything which went back to his Hard Normal Daddy sound for a bit. I couldn't get into Ultravisitor, although it was well received.

My POhowmany (in reough chronological order):

Theme From Ernest Borgnine
Coopers World
Chin Hippy
A Journey To Reedham (7am Mix)
Full Rinse (feat. MC Twin Tub)
My Sound
Shin Triad
Iambic 5 Poetry
Tomorrow World
Song: Our Underwater Torch
My Red Hot Car
Mutilation Colony
Do You Know Squarepusher
Greenways Trajectory
Kill Robok
Tetra-Sync
Talk About You And Me
Welcome To Europe
The Modern Bass Guitar
Bubble Life
Open Society
A Real Woman
Duotone Moonbeam

A Journey To Reedham (7am Mix)

this is fucking brilliant, probably the best thing he ever did

Coopers World

my god you're going to have me pulling up Squarepusher albums all day

^^^ those two, along with Iambic 5 Poetry are def my faves of the whole lot. HAven't heard any of them in years though.

Iambic 5 (that's the one on Ultravisitor right?) is one of the most amazing pieces of music to ever come out of that whole scene. I was almost upset that it comes so early on the album.

Iambic 5 Poetry is on Budakhan Mindphone and has some lovely marimba melodies. I think Iambic 9 is on Ultravisitor, but I don't know it well enough. NTS: Must dig out Ultravisitor again.

yeah, that's the one I mean. track 3 or 4 I think. absolutely give that one another listen

k

A Journey To Reedham (7am Mix)

this is fucking brilliant, probably the best thing he ever did

yup. slow harmony and fast beats is what's up.

Hello Everything is terrific I think.

Yeah, it's really good. Just a shame it didn't come out 5 years earlier.

I've decided this track may be his masterpiece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6GYCrEoTPQ

So dense and complex, and very emotionally rich I think.

personally I lean more towards "Iambic 9 Poetry" and "A Journey To Reedham" but that track is great

No talk about his new work? With albums my favourite track will often change depending on my mood and my deepening relationship with that workk. It doesn't often happen with single tracks. I suspect this one will fit that category. Such a dense mix with dozens of wonderful little bits in it. Current favourite, the warped siren at about 6'30. More importantly it works as a whole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvLAKrVbCBM&ob=av3e

Wow, that's really good. Stoked for the album now.

Until he makes an absolutely AMAZING album, I'm really starting to lose interest in the man I must admit. So much of what he does just falls short of the mark. Still, I could pick maybe one to two blinding tracks from each release. If I were to put these into one compilation, it would be the greatest electronica album ever, possibly.

Hard Normal Daddy is pretty amazing

yes it is. it's also about 15 years old or something.

Yeah I guess I was just being pedantic there, I know what you mean. Though I would definitely make a case for Ultravisitor as his 2nd best album, nearly a really great one, but again low on self-editing. I'm not really sure I understand what he's been up to lately. I will defend Just a Souvenir some (it really is a pretty fun little album) but this guy has such an insane amount of talent and a weird inability to put it together any more. That said, I do have hopes for this new album...

My three favourites are Hard Normal Daddy, Go Plastic and Hello Everything. A few skippable tracks on each, but all pretty consistent (and very different!).

Of the ones I've heard, I'd rate em:

Hard Normal Daddy
Music Is Rotted One Note
Big Loada
Hello Everything
Budakhan Mindphone
Go Plastic
Just a Souvenir
Ultravisitor
Maximum Priest
Do You Know Squarepusher
Selection Sixteen
Solo Electric Bass 1
Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator

The guy's just not got any quality control whatsoever, and other than on Just A Souvenir, never really broke out of either of the two dimensions originally sketched out on Hard Normal Daddy and Music Is Rotted - one being his best dance record, the other being his best jazz record.

wait you've heard all those but not Feed Me Weird Things!?

lots of discussion on my FB about whether the Fracture remix is by Fracture or not... bit confused.

Discogs says it is... but the Pitchfork write up implies it's TJ? Also confused. Tbf he's used random remix names in the past, like on Big Loada

Another one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtSJA_U4W1U

seems to be getting very good reviews has anyone heard it yet

No but a friend of mine who doesn't normally like Squarepusher told me he really likes it.

It sounds like '90s Squarepusher.

listening now and it's really nice and chunky and satisfying. agree, it's the closest thing to Hard Normal Daddy he's done in a while and while being bonkers, it's a lot more accessible - not as much jazzy experiments, more burbling drill'n'bass in a dustbin

i think this might be one of his most enjoyable albums for decades. that said, I don't know if (like almost all his albums since the mid-2000s) I'll listen to it once, enjoy it, and then feel weirdly guilty for never digging it out again

Not enough robots IMHO. "Nervelevers" and "80 Ondula" are the keepers.

lol at opening the record with pachelbel's canon

Feels like a merge between the song structure and musical styles he refined with Hello Everything and Ufabulum combined with his old school gear and editing circa HND. Not sure it will have the staying power of those aforementioned releases, but it's definitely a solid album

I felt like I lost track of Squarepusher c Ultravisitor, which felt really messy and sprawling to me at the time, even for him. Never managed to get back on the Squarepusher train despite probably having heard every album since. But I do remember Hello Everything being good

Why are Tommib and Beep Street his most listened-to tracks on Spotify? Strange...

Maybe Tommib is on a bunch of ambient playlists, plus it's short, but Beep Street never struck me as a SP highlight to be standing over Red Hot Car and Iambic 5 Poetry...

I'm taking a worldwind tour of his discography now.
each album has its own vague overall vibe.
But each one also suffers from wild oscillationgs between tear-out drill'n'bass rave, abstruse avant-jazztronica and the odd ambient or acoustic tune which would otherwise be considered quite pretty.
It's Druqks syndrome all over again - the feeling of listening to three or four albums on shuffle rather than a consolidated whole.
And while that tension can sometimes works, more often than not it's a jarring, implacable listen that never really settles into a groove.
'Hello Everything' starts with a bunch of fun upbeat bangers but halfway through the album it suddenly switches to three consecutive tracks of quiet, contemplative ambient jazz.
This is all very well, but for me as a listener I'm rarely in the mood to be buffeted around in this way.
It's nice that he's showing off his musical range, but it leaves me wondering how wide that range is, when he's released so many albums now that swing from what is ultimately two essential styles.
Personally I'd much rather he released records like 'Music Is Rotted One Note', which was more focused on his jazz/experimental sound and kept the ravey stuff for other releases rather than trying to cram everything into one claustrophobic assortment box. It would let his range express itself more.

one recent-ish record of his I really dug was Just a Souvenir, in which he seemed to force himself to cut the unnecessarily abrasive & doodly stuff and just rock out. I think his audience at large didn't like it but I found it kinda charming.

Listening to the new one after enjoying his RA Exchange interview. It's really good, even though it sounds more like a video game soundtrack than anything else. There's usually a backbeat or a riff that keeps things from going off the rails entirely into squelchy madness.

Just A Souvenir is one of his best

New album continues my personal theory that you could make a “best of squarepusher” album consisting of only the first full-length track on each of his albums/EPs/singles and it would be comprehensive.

You would miss 'Don't Go Plastic', 'Beep Street' and 'UFOs Over Leytonstone' at least.

Just looking at Squarpusher LPs on wiki, hoo boy that Pitchfork review of Go Plastic is one of the wrongest things I have ever read.

returning to stuff I haven't really played since SOY (start of year), forgot how awesome Be Up A Hello is

so many good records (including this one) came out before covid and it literally feels like 2 years ago

yeah thought the same about Dan Deacon's new album, I was like no way did this come out in 2020

Feed Me Weird Things 25th anniversary edition coming out June 4th!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OySHlQzk8bY

enjoyable