On Mon, 10 Jun 1996, Jon Drukman wrote:
quoted 6 lines well, i feel the same way everyone else seems to feel about lifeforms -> well, i feel the same way everyone else seems to feel about lifeforms -
> technically proficient, well produced, but just doesn't connect for me.
> the jazz style he does he is obviously good at but i think it's pretty
> shlocky sounding. also, the 303 jungle tracks were just annoying. i am so
> sick of 303's squirting and farting their way through layers of distortion.
> listen to Off And Gone's album to see how to properly use a 303 in 1996!
It's important to listen to this record more than once. I wasn't
thrilled with it at first, but I'm much happier with it now. I'm still
waiting for the finger of god to come down and write the meaning of the
universe on my forehead, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the album for
what it is, a lovely record with some imaginative twists and turns and
some really storming near-industrial jungle.
I don't think you or Sean would make these criticisms if you had spent a
little more time with it. There aren't any "303 jungle tracks", but there
are just a few very restrained 303 squiggles here and there. The cheesy
lounge jazz that bothered Sean (and me originally) is very toungue in
cheek and confined mostly to the first track. Most of the rest of his
bass is either much more geniunely jazzy or funky with real snap. Almost
every track on the record evolves and progresses and expresses all kinds
of moods and emotions. (Check out "Goodnight Jade.")
It's hard to listen to Squarepusher objectively after all the careless
superlatives, but I do think it's a excellent record with a distinctive
sound. My only complaints are that there are a couple of fairly
white-bread electronic dub moments and that the record sort of runs out
of steam for the last three cuts. I DO expect that the new Plug album is
going to wipe the floor with this and all the other drum n' bass records.
(Why the hell did they leave two tracks off the Plug 1+2 CD!?!?!?!?!)
Richard James' liner notes seem completely extraneous. He describes
Jenkinson's music as a something of a music concrete sample collage or a
morph of non-musical elements. There are a lot of different sounds on the
album, but they all sound like familiar gear or drum samples to me.
BTW Teep! You've had those Slazenger and Aphex promos for a while now.
What do you think?