if you want to properly apply the strange phenomenon of unsupported
generalizations mixed with appeal to emotion known as "hype", i'd suggest
pop music as a suitable avenue, and not the world of techno, where such
actions can actually hurt an artist and his or her credibility, as has
happened with squarepusher recently. fact is, mr. jenkinson's music is not
truly getting the fair judgement it deserves because everyone is expecting
to hear "feed me wierd things" and go through some sort of epiphany or
something. whether or not you find god by listening to this record is
strictly your own business, and might i warn you, it may take awhile.
squarepusher, after all, ain't mc donald's, and you can't really expect to
just walk in and get instant gratification. this album is no exception- if
you have never heard squarepusher before, or you have and think he is not
all that great, and are skeptical because of all this hype and set up to
"debunk" this false god, then you will probably be put off by this record.
if you already dig mr. jenkinson, or you are listening with an open mind
and are willing to give this thing some time before passing judgement, you
will find that "feed me wierd things" is a pretty damn good, very original
piece of music that was well worth the price you paid for it.
well, enough pontifficating, on with the "review"...
the album kicks off with 'squarepusher theme', which is, you guessed it,
the very same track that appeared on the recent rephlex ep. here, it is
mastered at a slightly lower volume than the rest of the tracks on the cd,
and i am left wondering if the intent of the track was to be a more laid
back kind of thing than i had previously thought. regardless, the track
kicks off with a few sweet guitar chords and then blasts off into a
somewhat laid back yet extremely convoluted drum n bass extravaganza
replete with trademark bass soloing. the interesting thing about this
track, i thought, was the way in which the beats, rather than providing a
tapestry on which to paint the song's picture, interact with the music in
fairly complicated ways, accentuating the various builds and high points of
the track and carrying you softly but briskly through the lows, before
going on vacation for a few seconds toward the track's end and returning in
force for one final onslaught. of course, this track proceeds at such an
incrediibly frantic pace, that one may miss all these intricate dynamics on
the first, second, or sixth listen. despite this, it is a great track, and
calls up images of driving one of those japanese animation robots through a
future tokyo at sunset. pure bliss.
'tundra' follows, with very desolate, ambient chords that float about for a
bit and then start to run into one another, creating some pretty nifty
timbres, that make me think of an old twenty nine minute track on a fax cd
entitled 'slow spiral of clouds', which is just what i see, oddly enough,
when listening to either that track or 'tundra' through headphones with
closed eyes. just when things start to get real dreamy, a drum n bass
rhythm creeps in ever so slightly, and then explodes into utter madness,
jenkinson style. the rhythm takes a break briefly, and you get some chords
of what sounds like a pipe organ, filtered a bit to sound desolate and lo
fi. lovely. the beat returns late on to play around in the spiral of
clouds, agitating it into quite a state before finally going off to bed. on
the whole, this is one of the standouts here, a very cool analog style
ambient timbre-fest mnixed with drum n bass. i know it's probably been done
before and everything, but i dare say this is probably one of the most
original sounding tracks i've heard in some time.
'the swifty' begins in a very afx style, with slow trip hoppish clangy
garbage can percussion over a muddy dub bass line, recalling the mix of
'ventolin' that sounds like a version of 'cow cud is a twin' (for the life
of me i can't remeber the exact name). things start to get a bit more
complicated, and finally the building variety of ployrhytms starts to lose
me. just as this happens however, the track switches to jazz mode, and
winds up sounding like a gondola taking a trip through some secret cavern
beneath the city of venice, with some really funky and damn good longin'
bass lines mixing with the frantic yet laid back beats of a jazz drummer
injected with amphetamine, and the occasional echoy sound of water dripping
off the ceiling. as you emerge from the cave, the track switches back into
afx mode, and begins to get a tad boring, but ends right quick, before you
fall asleep.
next cometh 'dimontaine co' which begins with a grating noise that may be
the sounds of ants walking on sand processed through a billion echos or
something like that, or maybe just a drone or a trash compacter. before the
noise gets annoying, the track shifts into fast jungle mode, with a hyper
speed break beat line that is flanged and pitch shifted continously. the
odd 303 sound comes in (quite unexpectedly, but to great effect) toward the
end of the track, but the real "music" is simply the beat, and it works
well in that respect. This is not a ground breaking track, but it is really
fun to dance your arse off to, and is very well done, epsecially the
restrained use of the 303 to accentuate, rather than dominate, the beats.
'smedley's melody' might be as close to a filler track that you will get on
this album, but in that respect it works very well, as it is short (less
than 3 minutes) and really fun to listen to. the jazz is back here, this
time taking the blatant cheese route, making the track sound like a
soundtrack for whatever event you'd get by combining a hoe-down with a
three ring circus. the breaks are furious in this one, and well done as
always, and the throat-clearing sound coupled with the little cartoon boing
at the end really goes over the top on the cheese factor.
'windscale 2' is one of the neater tracks on the album, in that it
seamlessly combines the accomplished jazzy styles of jenkinson's previous
records with the racket-beats and isolationist electronica of hangable auto
bulbian aphex twin. these are of course two styles of music that i really
dig, and hearing them combined so well despite the fact that they are
diametrically opposed is really neat. this is one of those tracks that the
debunkers will really hate and play 'spot the influence' all day long with,
but i think it is comparable to the stuff on tango n' vectif in the sense
that it combines elements of preexisting things that were good in their own
right into an entirely new thing that is even better. cheers to you, mr.
jenkinson.
'north circular' is a really scary track, and is one of those which does
not come off well to those giving it only a passive listen. on the surface,
all there is to this track is breaks, layered one on top of the other in a
nifty manner, with the occasional noise poking through the substructure. if
you dig deeper, the track really shines. i recall richie hawtin saying
again and again ant one time something like "it is not the music or the
beats but the spaces in between that counts". this track takes that to
heart, as a veritable symphony lies hidden in the spaces between the beats,
if you can believe that. listening to this intently on headphones, the
breaks sound as though they are "cut off" in the sense that the drums are
not alowed to decay, only attack (listen and you'll understand what i
mean), and you find that throughout the track there are spaces that last
only fractions of a second where all the beats simply stop and you are left
with total silence. these all keep adding up over time and i begin to feel
extremely claustrophobic for some reason, and just when the tension becomes
unbearable, the drum sounds begin to "follow through" so to speak, and
resolution occurs. what wonderful and unusual dynamics, i think to myself.
'goodnight jade' is, i suppose, jenkinon's equivalent to "i" by aphex twin
and "23" by mike paradinas, in the sense that it is a short, beatless,
ambient piece wedged in between two intense tracks. however, most of the
beauty present in the equivalents by afx and muziq was due to the slow
biuld of the tracks in complexity, and the expectations you are left with
when they end abruptly. in this respect, 'goodnight jade' falls short,
because the track, though pretty enough, doesn't really build into
anything. still it is good enough as filler, and is pretty in its own
right, and serves as a welcome respite from the frantic breeaks and thus
lends flow to the album.
just after you are lulled into a state of inner peace by 'goodnight jade',
'theme from ernest borgnine', which is clearly the highlight of the album,
takes off with a very nice, sweet, fairly complicated melody played out on
an analog synth (ask someone who knows / cares for the model number), that
goes through several timbral shifts, and quite suddenly, as you are sitting
there soaking in this pretty music, the beats kick in, full throttle, just
like that, and you say "damn!" as you are swept away by them. the beats are
not as complicated here or as ever-changing as in most other jenkinson
work, and do not interact with the melody too much, instead they kind of
serve as a nice, super-fast yet pleasing backdrop for the beauty of the
timbre-twisting ambience. after a few minutes, you realize that this track
is going on in a sort of trancey, uplifting vibe that is not typical of
jenkinson at all, but is extremely good nonetheless. the track continues
quite blissfully and never gets boring until six minutes in or so, where
the synth line is swapped in favor of a really neat 303 thing, that bends
and twists in all sorts of neat directions before finally bringing the
track to a close. i am somewhat reminded of 'digeridoo' when i listen to
this track, because both acheive their effect by manipulating timbre as
opposed to melody. i'd say this track is as good as 'digeridoo', in fact,
and it will probably be on my deck forever. pure bliss.
'ufo's over leytonstone' helps you recover from the onslaught of the
previous track as it simultaneously tries its damnedest to change the smile
that 'borgnine' has put on your face into a depressed, melancholy frown,
with its this mortal coil type dissonant piano and synths. all of a sudden,
a sullen trip hop beat kicks in, and the track simply clangs and depresses
its way along, wallowing in its own misery to the point where a 303 comes
in in the middle and is too damn depressed to do anything but give a slow,
soft, half hearted squiggle, before finally leaving to go hang itself in a
nearby tree. this is a simply beautiful track, packed with emotion, and
would be great for a rainy evening.
'kodack' is a funky jazzy lounge type thing, whic sounds so jazzy it may in
fact just be jazz, with a tiny bit of drum n bass layered over the top. the
track makes me think of that same jazz band from the tunnel beneath venice
(from 'the swifty') playing at a party taking place on a yacht in the
bahamas, except the drummer has just had a little too much espresso this
time as oppsed to being shot up with amphetamine. the track flows very
well, and has kind of a "song" structure in the sense that it builds to a
kind of "chorus" of stronger drums, and releases into a sort of "verse" of
jazzy floatation. i dig it, and it brings the intensity of the album down
gradually, adding to its flow.
finally, we have 'future gibbon', which is a short, but worthy, hangable
auto bulb style ending to a great album, that tweaks, clangs, and sproings
its way into oblivion. i dig, and for some reason it does make me think of
a robotic gibbon, who had a little too much to dringk and is now wandering
around a maze of girders, thinking it is one of the long-extinct jungles of
old, and bumping into everything and everyone along the way.
in conclusion (finally) i highly recommend this album, but only to
listeners willing to enter into it with an open mind and give it a chance.
i promise you won't be disappointed. it has been a long time since i found
an album that was so complete, eclectic, and flowed so well by the way, as
this one. it is defintely well worth tracking down. ell, thanks, have a
nice day...