Sean Cooper wrote:
quoted 5 lines the context of drum'n'bass), but for the most part flooded with business,> the context of drum'n'bass), but for the most part flooded with business,
> flat delivery, hurried production, and a general lack of dynamics...rome, i[snip]
> assembles a euphoric, dizzying array of technique and stylistic facility
> before the listener, and one which is, at least where these ears are
> concerned, entirely devoid of emotional content and compositional dynamics.
There's that key word: dynamics - I would have to agree that a lot of his material is
rather short in this area, especially tracks like 'Conumber' which have a sort of
'horror vacui' sensibility to them. It gets to the point that the individual layers of
the tune lose any sort of distinction and become this relentless barrage of 16th note
snares and flanged rim shots.
I would disagree on the emotional content side. Although this is a rather subjective
area, I think that many of his tunes really are quite expressive, e.g. 'Theme from
Goodbye Renaldo' and 'Sarcacid pt.2' (last song on the A side of 'Alroy'). On these
tunes Jenkinson does a good job of creating a progression/melody which actually does
have some kind of depth to it - it's not just tonal filler that sits lifelessly behind
the beats like on a lot of ambient jungle tunes.
quoted 3 lines months now), Squarepusher's "feed me weird things" seemed to me to be> months now), Squarepusher's "feed me weird things" seemed to me to be
> something of the drum'n'bass equivelent of the worst of late-era hard-bop
> or (yikes!) early '70s jazz-rock fusion. like middle period jazz messengers
This brings up another point - I wonder what Luke Vibert thinks of Mr. Jenkinson's
efforts and vice-versa. 'Deep Fried Pizza' off of the Rephlex 12" sounds like fusion
or even the Red Hot Chili Peppers in spots, and isn't far off from the type of material
Vibert parodies in tunes like 'Cheesy (Gigolo Mix)' on Plug 2. Jenkinson really likes
that kind of stuff, and Vibert disses it.
All of this is going a bit overboard on the criticism side - the Squarepusher material
is undoubtedly at the top of the heap of d&b releases, and he's just getting started.
GD