Squarepusher can fuck off, basically

[alan nagsworth]

News on his new album, including a new song.

Is that song a joke or what? The bloke is beyond parody if you ask me. His music stinks so badly of trying too hard and achieving fuck all.

The overall aim is to articulate my music through the medium of a band. I always thought that a band would be a limiting thing

Yeah, and it is. And it sounds shit.

I remember reading the description he wrote for his last album 'Just A Souvenir' and thinking, "Wow, this sounds incredible!" and then listening to it and thinking, "Wow, this is complete and utter shit!" It's so unbelievably dull these days, all of it, since 'Ultravisitor'. He shoves in all this fretboard wanking and acoustic drumming as though he is god's gift to Warp Records, but the whole thing sounds so flat and lifeless. He's like some boring jazz lecturer twat. A horrible hybrid of Daft Punk, John Frusciante and The Mars Volta, (who were all, at one point, excellent in my opinion) managing to take all the dull, pretentious elements of all three and merging them into a real life Howard Moon.

Look at this album cover for fucks sake:


"Look at all this stuff I did. Look at my wonky fingers on the mixer, how spontaneous."

Add to that a bonus mini-CD of 'vacuum tracks' - just solid, vacuous tones with no substance or effort whatsoever - and that was pretty much where I realised I was sick of Squarepusher. Shame really, because that album still has about four or five good songs on it.

I noticed his last album had a pretty good reception on here but surely I can't be the only one who thinks Tom Jenkinson is basically just a lame dog who needs putting out of his misery, can I?

and, similarly, could I be alone in thinking his younger brother Andy (Ceephax Acid Crew) has the greater sense of good melodies and faux-serious electronica? His latest album 'United Acid Emirates' is an absolute triumph and one of the best albums I've heard all year.

Tired now. Time for bed. Excuse any incoherence. Do not excuse any bitter resentent of Squarepusher.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I don't know who he is, but your infectious resentment towards him has got me worked up over the cause, so I'll join in.

Fuck Squarepusher, the fucking cunt.

[Guy]

I'd just like to say that Nagsworth's irritation with Squarepusher has amused me greatly this Friday morn.

'Look at my hands on a QY700!'

[Marvin]

Aw, I love it when nagsworth gets really angry about a musician.

Song sounds alright, nothing special or especially terrible.

[purlieu]

A couple of tracks on Ultravistor and Selection Sixteen aside, I've never enjoyed his electronic stuff at all.  He's always seemed to be at the worst end of 'experimental' music, very much wanking around for the sake of wanking around without producing anything worth listening to.  Go Plastic and Do You Know Squarepusher? are two of the most boring records I've been unfortunate enough to hear.
I do like him when he focuses on live instruments, though, and I enjoy Music Is Rotted One Note and especially the acoustic tracks on Budakhan Mindphone and Maximum Priest.
To be fair, I gave up after Hello Everything, although Just A Souvenir sounded like it had potential.

[Paaaaul]

I've never bought a Squarepusher album, but I will now!!!

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

Hard Normal Daddy is pretty flawless as an album IMO. I heard he did a gig once with an hour of street noises so I've never been pushed to see him live. He seems to like taking the piss a lot.

[The Boston Crab]

I saw him live at Liverpool Philharmonic and it was one of the greatest gigs I've ever been to. He absolutely obliterated the place with what sounded like a Death Star attacking my brain via the medium of breakbeat. Sadly, no album has ever lived up to that. I like the earlier straight-forward drill 'n' bass stuff, he gave the medium the FULL RINSE!!! but since then, the highs have been fleeting. The track 'Do You Know Squarepusher?' is fantastic but the album is bloody awful. Same with most since then, one or two absolute belters, Iambic 5 Poetry springs to mind, and the rest is broken biscuits but shit biscuits.

[Vitalstatistix]

I still go weak at the knees for Hard Normal Daddy. What a friggin incredible album, which still sounds great today. It's amazing it came from this dude, because most everything else he's done since has been very hit and miss for me.

When I saw him at Leeds he wanked around on his bass for the whole set, but I think he was properly taking the piss. At Glade he was godlike!

[clingfilm portent]

I've swung between really-like and really-dislike ever since I heard of him. A lot of his work leading up to Ultravisitor was sprinkled with magic but, aside from Music is Rotted One Note, for me I wouldn't call any of his albums MUST-HEAR. After 2004 it's been, as others say, hit and miss. But I feel like I should defend him here; Hello Everything is not the work of pretentiousness. It's a man freed (not quite entirely, Just a Souvenir came next) from his pigeonhole, something that I commend in any artist, regardless of the results. There was the Amen break, and the track Modern Bass Guitar could've been on DYKS? but I thought it was nice to hear gentle composition after Ultravisitor's pounding epicness. Come on, Rotate Electrolyte is the man. Just a Souvenir was a better album overall I thought, like Hello Everything (and just about all music ever) it had to be met on its own terms rather than with the enormous weight of the 'IDM God' label.

Hang on, you like Venetian Snares don't you?

[Danger Man]

I saw him live at Liverpool Philharmonic and it was one of the greatest gigs I've ever been to.

If that isn't the final nail in his coffin then I don't know what is.

[mcbpete]

Look at this album cover for fucks sake:

"Look at all this stuff I did. Look at my wonky fingers on the mixer, how spontaneous."

To be honest I think that the cover was done with a fair bit of tongue in cheek - Ol' Tom Jenkinson is no where as po faced as a lot of people make him out to be. He did an entire track about a coat hanger for fook's sake ! He's just having fun with what he does and it's coming across more and more with his releases post Ultravisitor. I think his brother (Andy Jenkinson / Ceephax Acid Crew) has possible been an influence in his not taking music too seriously and yet still be enjoyable and have a lot of replay value and depth - the complete embodiment of that for me is his latest album (the aforementioned United Acid Emirates) which is utterly stunning: full of detail and just complete fun.

Mr Nagsworth - The other released track from his Shobaleader one alias (Cryptic Motion) is a bit more conventional in style Squarepusher style so I'd give that a go before you completely dismiss it (Take a listen here - http://bleep.com/index.php?page=release_details&releaseid=26310 )

[imitationleather]

I'm sure me and nags have talked before about this as it's a topic I go on about a lot. Anyway, I'm in complete agreement. I find it odd that he became really popular with people who don't usually listen to electronic music with Ultravisitor - possibly his worst album. Like there was a feature on The Culture Show and a big stand in HMV promoting it and stuff! I think his only perfect album is Go Plastic, the rest have two or three good tracks and then a load of bland nothingness. Actually Big Loada and Feed Me Weird Things are quite good too...

Another problem with Squarepusher is how shit he is live. The only time I ever saw him and he was good was at Glastonbury once, but I was getting over a really intense acid trip and wasn't able to enjoy it properly. It was like he was doing it on purpose! The other times have been so boring and pretentious that now if he's playing at somewhere I'm at I don't bother to go and see him.

More controversially perhaps, I have similar feelings about Aphex Twin. Although that is possibly more directed at his diehard fans who refuse to accept that bar a few tracks (such as I'm Self Employed, an absolutely brilliant tune - annoyingly hidden away on the ridiculously uneven Analord series) he's been really poor for the past decade and there are loads of other producers doing far more interesting stuff that never get coverage. It's clearly because Aphex Twin is the only electronic stuff they listen to and they can't be bother to check out people like Kettel, Jega, The Flashbulb, (the ridiculously under-rated) Luke Vibert, (the perhaps slightly over-rated - actually nah, fuck that, he's amazing) Venetian Snares and so on.

Aphex Twin also suffers from the being underwhelming live problem. I haven't seen him that many times, but he's never really lived up to his reputation. His set at Bloc was particularly poor (not helped by the complete lack of atmosphere, admittedly). However, people I know who went to LED at Victoria Park said he was amazing, although they are proper AFX fans. I guess it relies on whether he wants to put the effort in or not, and so far I've been unlucky every time.

As for United Acid Emirates, it is surely album of the year. It's also the first time Ceephax has made an album which is as good as his live shows. For about four years I'd been going to see him play live, think it was amazing, then listen to his proper releases and be completely underwhelmed. I don't understand what took him so long! Also, it has Sidney's Sizzler on it, a track I've been obsessed with for years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLqAQQ5frv4#

Rave on!

[Capt.Midnight]

Either Squarepusher likes defying people's expectations, or he just gets bored very easily. Flouting people's expectations of his music seems to be a good way of keeping ahead of the curve and not being in direct competition with another artist. Like when venetian snares was getting popular, afx and squarepusher seemed to shy away from that style of music. Which is a shame as they were the tits at that sort of stuff.

This Shobaleader stuff seems a bit too piss-takey for my liking, still quite catchy though.

I want to post more but I'm going out for a walk, with fresh air and everything!

[BlodwynPig]

Thanks for the heads up on the new Ceephax...phenomenal. Still think Mrs. Jynx - Shark Carousel is the album of the year so far, but I will give this Ceephax a full listen.

[imitationleather]

The album artwork is so good as well.



He's riding on a 303 magic carpet!

The man's got game.

[DJ One Record]

I can't comment on his live work, but as far as his albums go he's a massively frustrating exercise in quantity over quality. On the albums I've heard, for every track that's like nothing I've ever heard before, there's about five or six adjacent tracks that I never want to hear again. I love "Tetra Sync" and "Iambic 9 Poetry" on Ultravisitor, and I love "My Sound" and "Last Ap Roach" on Music Is Rotted One Note, but they're atypical within Jenkinson's oeuvre. I like his cover of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" as well. The problem is of course - or perhaps no longer is in the age of the mp3 - that you routinely end up having to sift through all the other filler to get to such moments.

Has he ever even remotely tried to be a singles artist? I mean even Aphex and Autechre have released singles in amongst their albums (although admittedly never with content that overlaps with their albums).

[Pepotamo1985]

On the basis of this;

Squarepusher - A Real Woman

From Just A Souvenir, I decided I never, ever wanted to listen to anything Squarepusher ever did ever again. The absolutely laughable, pretentious torrent of wank writeup which accompanied that album (you can find it on the Wikipedia page if you really, really want to, but I'm not that much of a sadist to directly link to it - but in truncated form, he claims the album was inspired by a dream he had about a massive, glowing coat hanger or something).

Nagsworth has done a good job of further convincing me I don't need him in my life any more.

[scrambles the cat]

I'd recommend anyone disenchanted (or, on the basis of this thread, furiously pissed off) with Squarepusher to check out the set he did for Warp 20 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/lmqhad) recently. Lots of unreleased stuff and it's really bloody good. On Ceephax, saw him last month. As soon as the audience cheered with recognition at Sidney's Sizzler he fucked the song up and abandoned it. Oh well.

[Viero_Berlotti]

I loved his insane take on drum and bass when he first came out in the mid-nineties, and he really did push musical boundaries back then. Over the years though, as the experimental electronic dance music scene has expanded and evolved, his creative output has become less relevant. The more I hear of his new stuff these days the more he's just starting to sound like a shit Mark King.

[Benway]

I'd recommend anyone disenchanted (or, on the basis of this thread, furiously pissed off) with Squarepusher to check out the set he did for Warp 20 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/lmqhad) recently. Lots of unreleased stuff and it's really bloody good. On Ceephax, saw him last month. As soon as the audience cheered with recognition at Sidney's Sizzler he fucked the song up and abandoned it. Oh well.

Indeed, his Warp20 set was very good. I just wish that he'd release some of it. It was also funny seeing some of the AFX fanboys discover that some of the unreleased AFX acid tracks that had been talked about for many years may have been Squarepusher all along. I enjoyed Hello Everything mostly, but the last Squarepusher thing that I really enjoyed was the Venus No. 17 EP - although that was culled mostly from a Breezeblock session. While I enjoy Music Is Rotted One Note providing that I'm in the right mood for it, most of his recent bass stuff sounds like reinterpretations of the Seinfeld theme to me.

[Pepotamo1985]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZi5Y7KgzsQ

New track, sounds like Daft Punk, looks like Daft Punk, smells like Daft Punk...good job I didn't tread in it.

[imitationleather]

Errr... What the fuck?

Just when you thought he couldn't lose it any more!

[purlieu]

It's pretty hilarious, isn't it?
Supposedly he's been in touch with André from OutKast about... oh, God knows, probably some awful attempt at a funk album or something.

[Custard]

Just wanted to say that this thread has properly had me giggling. Namely the title, and:

"Look at all this stuff I did. Look at my wonky fingers on the mixer, how spontaneous."

I actually remembered that whilst out earlier, and laughed in the middle of the street.

You silly bloody lot! With yer sillyness!

[Custard]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZi5Y7KgzsQ

New track, sounds like Daft Punk, looks like Daft Punk, smells like Daft Punk...good job I didn't tread in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iZBWLs8owE

[Buchstansangur]

From Just A Souvenir, I decided I never, ever wanted to listen to anything Squarepusher ever did ever again. The absolutely laughable, pretentious torrent of wank writeup which accompanied that album (you can find it on the Wikipedia page if you really, really want to, but I'm not that much of a sadist to directly link to it - but in truncated form, he claims the album was inspired by a dream he had about a massive, glowing coat hanger or something).

This just made me feel that he can be (almost) as much fun as his little brother. I loved it. I think you're supposed to laugh at it, not take it seriously.

[Pepotamo1985]

You're also meant to laugh at movie White Chicks...it's still absolute shite concocted by a wanker.

[alan nagsworth]

Oi you daft plums - that song was included in my opening post. PAY ATTENSHUN

Glad some of you agree that his stuff is really rubbish. It's not like I'm totally opposed, though; 'Tundra' is one of my favourite electronica tunes ever, 'Squarepusher Theme' is awesome too and then there's the phenomenal 'Do You Know Squarepusher' and 'Anstrom-Feck 4', too. All brilliant stuff. He's just completely lost touch recently and I can't tell whhat he's trying to tune into. He's obviously trying to do his own thing but it draws way too much from other obvious, recent sources to be considered relevant. Andre Benjamin and Daft Punk have been mentioned, as well as my previous mentions of John Frusciante and The Mars Volta, all of whom have been recently involved in things that have been either in the public eye or seen as unique and interesting.

And I can't be the only one who's sick of his fucking bass solos. Yeah you're a self-taught expert-level six-string bass player WHO GIVES A FUCK maybe if your new song has some decent scales to the solo I might GIVE A FUCK but as it stands it is banal shite that conjurs up less envigorating vibes than the dull-as-dishwater drum intro so to be honest you're lucky I even decided to listen that far because I DON'T GIVE A FUCK about Squarepusher.

Something I've never understood is how people (not you guys, but maybe one of you is thinking this) can say "yeah but he's made some really good individual songs in the past" - Look, if I'm starving, I will maybe on rare occasions pick the tasty raisins from the stale bun, but 90% of the time I am perfectly happy to throw the whole thing in the bin, walk to Baker's Oven and shell out the cash for a wholesome snack, you know what I'm sayin'?



As for Aphex Twin... I have to disagree with the 'overrated' tag. He's one of, if not THE, best at what he does. The Analord series is a triumph and his sense of composition and melody is often imitated, rarely matched, but never paralleled in consistency. The bizarre nostalgia to an experience I may never have had when listening to his music is unreal. There's the odd track like 'Geometry' by Jega, or 'Sydney's Sizzler' by Ceephax Acid Crew, that has summed up that same discordant, vague and distant memory that Aphex nails every time, but on the whole, nothing really comes close. You can take yer 'Come To Daddy' and yer funny faces monged onto teddy bears but you can never take our 'I Care Because You Do', because that shit is TIGHT.

[purlieu]

My problem with Aphex is with the majority of his output from Hangable Autobulb to Smojphace, most of which I find entirely unengaging.  This is also the era which seems to have gained him the most post-Radiohead critical acclaim and is why I find him a little overrated.
I didn't make that tag, though.