SQUAREPUSHER

While generally lumped into both jazz-fusion and drum and bass electronica camps, SQUAREPUSHER is a bit more eclectic and hard to pin down and exhibited a restless creativity matched perhaps only by the similar unpredictabilities of Aphex Twin. FEED ME WEIRD THINGS was the culmination of several years of creative sprees and the 12 tracks that made it onto this album were culled from over 50 that were actually made and date from late 1994 to 1995. In December of 95 Jenkinson was offered a five album contract with War Records which is when he dropped out of his degree program at Chelsea Art College and officially took on the SQUAREPUSHER role to forge bravely into the world of jazz infused electronica where he has remained ever since.

FEED ME WEIRD THINGS is a smorgasbord of differing forms of eclectic sound streams and follows a nonlinear path through various stylistic approaches. While the jazz tag gets used too liberally for SQUAREPUSHER's works, it is by no means incorporated into every track. While the beginning "Squarepusher Theme" indeed starts off as a veritable salute to the great bop bassist jazz cats of the past and continues on throughout the album sporadically on tracks like "The Swifty", "Windscale 2", and "Kodack"and more often than not usually as a contrast to the hyper grooves of the drill and bass percussion session and then only limited to the bass parts, there are just as many moments dedicated to atmospheric passages that provide darkened mood settings that border on horror flick as well as industrial noise such as on "Dimotane Co" which provides a bleakness rarely embarked upon except in small doses.

As the jazzy touches provide the angularities for the twisted melodies (where they exist,) FEED ME WEIRD THINGS is clearly dominated by the heavy electronic fast beats known as drum and bass which is a style of electronic dance music that has big fat quicker percussive drives and heavy bass lines and a derivative style of the greater IDM umbrella term. SQUAREPUSHER also pushes more than squares as he ramps it all up with the even more challenging cousin style called drill and bass which is a rhythmically challenging subgenre of IDM that dishes out intricate and speedy drum patterns derived from drum and bass but engaging in more complex time signature deviations and an incessant desire to provide the most startling weirdness possibly in the context of a relentless groove. While the jazz parts are optional and occasional, the drill and bass rhythms are the entire backbone of SQUAREPUSHER's nu jazz ethos.

Occasionally on the short tracks like "Smedley's Medley" the jazz along with the drill and bass are equal partners on the dance floor. The jazz grooved bass is accompanied by a veritable freakout of percussive drive and weird electronic noises that even includes a goat however one of the most distinct tracks has to be "Theme From Ernest Borgnine" which begins with a Berlin School style of progressive electronic not unlike Tangerine Dream before erupting into a stamped of digital drill and bass freneticism that stays on hyperdrive while the main introductory chilled melodies continue to cyclically loop and build atmospheric intensity and ends in an energetic climax unlike anything else on the album. The track is also a testament to SQUAREPUSHER's master in the producer's seat. The contrasting sounds on this album never compete to be heard but somehow exist in each other's shadow's as if a tapestry of two timelines has momentary intertwined.

What should prove to be a disaster of an unthinkable magnitude is channeled into one of the coolest 90s electronica albums that emerged in the relentless pursuit of more intricately designed sounds that would take the masses off of the dance floor and into the cerebral labyrinth of the mind. With a mix of atmospherics that wouldn't sound out of place on Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works, Vol 1" along with jazzy chord progressions and bass workouts that commingle with highly energetic electronic freakery and drill and bass bombast, SQUAREPUSHER created a dynamic set of mysterious sounding weirdness that more than lives up to the title's intent. While sometimes rooted in the angularities of avant-garde jazz and at others within the more funky danceable realms, FEED ME WEIRD THINGS keeps it all flowing along in an interesting way by alternating the frenetic speedy madness with the more contemplative slower chill out sessions. Perhaps the album is a bit long at 66:38 and could've used a track or two cut from its lengthy sprawl but overall this in an intriguing album.

"Venus 17" is all about electronic music and percussion, heavy on the percussion and crazy electronic sounds. Somehow, he turns this all into an interesting musical and electronic journey. As it continues, more percussion is added, layers and layers of it, and on top of this, noise loops and a nice vibe-like melody create a very interesting and fast paced piece of art. Jazz sensibilities are carried in the way the melody interacts with the other sounds that go on. Almost psychedelic and similar to "Aphex Twin" except with much more "thickness" and less melodic.

"Venus 17 (Acid Mix)" is a reworking of the previous track, but with a lot more noise and less melody. This mix is much too busy for my taste, but there are places where the beat breaks down for short spans to at least let you come up for air. The melody only becomes apparent towards the end of the track and then you really have to listen for it.

As I said earlier, the remaining track is "Tundra 4", a much longer reworking of "Tundra" from the debut album. It starts out quite subdued and ambient and even though the rhythm starts up soon after the beginning, it stays soft for a while. This one has more of a funk vibe as it gets going, and as it builds, more electronic noises and percussion keeps getting added. The melody, driven by sustained keyboard chords, gives you a feeling of passing time, and sticks out more when the percussion quiets down later. Electronic notes and sounds continue, though the percussion drops back in the mix for a while. Things become quite chaotic around the 5 minute mark. Then, about a minute later, everything drops off except for the keyboard chords and the music returns to ambience. The keyboards take on an organ tone. Things feel cold and expansive at this point. As you lose yourself in the spaciousness of the music, suddenly at 9:25, electronic tones start up again, and builds with percussion coming back in. Things stay on the sane side of chaotic this time at least until 11:30, then it gets nuts again, but this time the keyboards is right there at the forefront with everything else as it gets quite intense before it all ends.

This little taste of Squarepusher only makes me more curious, and I should have known that would happen. I didn't care for the Acid Mix, but everything else was interesting, and I understand that it is hard to really know what his other albums might sound like based on only a few tracks. So, yes I will try out other releases, but as for this recording, at least it is good enough to not turn me off to the sound altogether.

You have to hand it to Jenkinson for being able to move past mash it up extreme slice and dice drum programming into actual song writing, and he proves he is actually one of the best writers out there, but the sound of this album is going to be really hard for a lot of people to get past. There is no doubt that Tom wants this music to sound very artificial in an almost kitsch sort of way; the drum machine is retro, the guitar samples sound like the earliest days of digital technology and the vocoder vocals are present on almost every tune. Although most of the music on here could be labeled as some sort of future pop, on "Cryptic Motion" Jenkinson's restless exploratory side comes through with an odd mix of plastic tech thrash metal topped with heavy gothic keyboards. Also, "Maximum Planck" is cartoony speed metal topped with string synths, a perfect soundtrack for some high speed video game for the modern attention span deficit crowd.

This is an odd one, the plastic sounds are not for everybody, but there is no doubting the excellent craftsmanship and songwriting.

If there is one unifying factor to all of these songs it is this purposefully cheap and tacky overly digital production that would usually sound annoying, but works surprisingly well on this set of ultra-futuristic pop music. The drums in particular sound thin and plastic on purpose, like an 80s computer game, likewise a lot of the metal guitar work sounds like those early guitar samples that always sounded so obviously fake. All of this plastic sound is part of Jenkinson's grand design for this album and just adds to its exotic appeal. I think there is also a lot of humor at work here, especially when the cheap tacky drums start working out furiously on a thrash beat.

This is an excellent album that defies easy description and also makes a case for Mr Jenkinson as one of the most original and independent musical minds of the new century. Like Sun Ra and Les Baxter from the previous century, Squarepusher fuses elements that most would not dare to combine. If there is ever a genre called drumnbass-progmetal-exotica, this album will be the first.

There are a few short songs here with acoustic guitar. A couple of songs with vocoderized vocals. As usual with this guy, he plays everything and samples and manipulates his own playing. "Star Time 2" is disco-fusion. Very upbeat and accesible. Halfway through there is nice keyboards. The beats eventually drop out and there is some lovely keys. "The Coathanger" sounds like a cross between Jaco Pastorius and Daft Punk. Vocoder vocals.

"A Real Woman" is the only song that I had heard previously. This is a punk song with vocoder vocals. It has a poppy chorus. Then jazzy bass after every chorus. "Delta-V" is straight up punk metal. Halfway through it reminds me of Ruins. "Potential Govaner" sounds like its skipping at first. It stops the skipping when the jazzy guitar comes in. Jazzy bass solo. "Planet Gear" is more punk metal. This time there is some keyboards. It gets more funky and jazzy later then goes back to the punk metal part.

"Tensor In Green" is even more punk metal. Also some keyboards. After a minute there is a guitar solo. Another one after 3 minutes. "The Grass Road" is the longest, proggiest and best song on the album. Starts with vibraphone. Goes punk metal with jazzy guitar. Then hardcore punk. Then jazz metal. Then a symphonic prog style guitar. Some nice keyboards follow. Vibraphones again. Back to symph prog guitar. Hardcore punk again. Back to vibraphones. The last minute or so is just ambient sounds. What a song!

"Duotone Moonbeam" is almost trad jazz. "Quadrature" has some beautiful chords. Very accesible and catchy. Lots of synth effects throughout the song. Good live drumming too. Jazz guitar solo. Then classical guitar with classical bass dueting. Back to jazz guitar. Great song. I was pleasantly surprised with this album. Not exactly what I was expecting. Although not extremely proggy by any means, this is a great modern album. 3 stars.

There isn't anything particularly striking to catch the casual listener on here, probably a lot of people would consider this to be another typical drumnbass affair, but to a long-time fan of this genre this is the first really interesting DnB record I've heard in almost a decade. Although Jenkinson is often known for his radical drill-n-bass approach with surreal tempos and machine gun drum rolls, on the first four songs of this EP he keeps things fairly natural with mostly real drums played back at their original recorded speed. I think that is the main appeal of this album, this is some of the most human and natural sounding DnB I have ever encountered, the overall sound is like a very futuristic synth led progressive pop-jazz combo. On the last two cuts he breaks out the hyper tempos and insanely creative sampling that are often his trademark.

For some reason some of the songs on here remind me of the old synthesizer exotica rock- jazz classic Tank, by ELP. The overall pleasantly kitsch effect is similar, ..'Welcome to the Future'. Although I had expected this EP to be modern jazz fusion with DnB beats, Tom instead shoots for a pure drumnbass/jungle ascetic, but does so with far more musicality than most.

This was my favourite Squarepusher album. Hard Normal Daddy is usually regarded as his best. Music Is Rotted One Note is his most fusionesque album(although I admit I've haven't kept up to date with Jenkinson since about 2002). Tom is a multi-instrumentalist who samples his own playing. On this instrumental album you get both programmed and "real" drums, keyboards and bass. The bass is mostly fretless and there is a little guitar too. This will appeal to fusion lovers who are not allergic to Jungle/Drum'n'Bass. Or more correctly, this will appeal to Jungle/Drum'n'Bass lovers who don't mind jazz fusion.

"Squarepusher Theme" begins with some jazzy acoustic guitar. The rest of the song has strong bass playing, synths and breakbeats. "Tundra" is my fave here. Of all the songs on the album it sounds the most like IDM("Intelligent Dance Music"). "The Swifty" sounds like dub reggae at the beginning and end. In between there is some sampled drumming and fusion-y electric piano and bass. "Dimotane Co" and "North Circular" are the most traditional Drum'n'Bass songs here. "Smedley's Medley" starts with jazzy guitar and bass then goes into breakbeats territory. Some weird vocal noises at the end.

"Windscale 2" has a hip-hop beat played on drums before it goes all Jungle. Some spacey synths and a deep bass synth later on. Some good funky bass in this song. "Goodnight Jade" is an ambient piece with no drums or bass. "UFO's Over Leytonstone" sounds like Boards Of Canada. Generally not very proggy but this was groundbreaking stuff in the mid-90s. Some of his other albums might be a better place to start for Fusion fans. Good but not essential. 3 stars.

Almost all album songs are fusion there, with many of electronic sound accessories. Drumming and bass sound are both one of main component of album's music. In many compositions you can hear jazz fusion classics spirit, but performed in the end of the century, with unusual vision and techniques. It's sometimes difficult to believe, but some compositions are full of Miles Davis spirit in them!

Interesting work! Start from "Dust Switch". Not for jazz or jazz-rock purists, though.

"Vic Acid" song is rhythmic mix of electronic sound, drums and bass over it. Drumming and bass are both very fast and complex, as usual with Squarepusher. "Lone Raver" is even faster. Some voices and screams are added over the sound."Fat Controller" is slower, with "metallic" drumming sound and virtuoso bass line."The Barn" (last composition) is ultra-fast again, with some short oriental melody, added at the very beginning.

Generally, all work is fast, cold, electronic, and openly oriented to d'n'b club culture. Not for jazz fusion lovers.