Artist - Squarepusher
Album "Feed Me Weird Things"
This is one of my favorite albums. These songs really go somewhere; they
progress. Moods change. Themes evolve. It is a very dynamic album. Plus it's
worth getting just for the PRichard.D.Jams back cover notes alone.
This was the first Squarepusher album and his first material to be released
on CD, I believe. It epitomizes the dense, sophisticated, lightning fast
sampler/computer/drum machine programming that became all the rage of IDM
posterboys Aphex Twin, Plug, MuZiq, etc about three or four years back. The
album is also rich with a jazz sensibility. What do I mean by that? Not jazz
in the sense of samples of someone playing a sax or a trumpet or vibes (like
Throbbing Pouch or Tribe Called Quest), but jazz in a conceptual sense.
There's a sort of improvised feel on a lot of the songs. Plus he plays his
electric bass a good bit on this album. Also there's lots of jazztype chords
that I bet would have those complex names, like "Emin7/11 extended", stuff
like that.
Since that time, Squarepusher largely discarded this style and moved into
more noodley, less structured jazz territory. His most recent release
Selection Sixteen seems to be a return of sorts to his earlier more spirited
d'n'b style. I have to listen to Selection 16 a little bit more though.
Sidebar 1: A preliminary listen to Selection 16 reveals the extensive use of
those high pitched shaky hi-hatty cymbals, like the same as what Luke Vibert
has used relentlessly on his stuff the last couple of years. You know, like
"Chika chika chika..." through the whole song. I don't know, I don't like
them that much.
Sidebar 2: I think I read a couple months ago on the IDM list a description
of the Aphex Twin remix of "Spotlight" as the first drill and bass song.
Hmm.
And now Feed Me Weird Things track by track:
Squarepusher Theme - I hate to be overly dramatic, but if you
1. Haven't heard this album (or the corresponding 12" single of this opening
song) and
2. Have an appreciation for jazzy d'n'b type programming, then
I suggest you buy this album and listen to it the first time, comfortably
seated, loud, with headphones. Of course, a lot of music is best listened to
loud with headphones on. Still, I recommend it especially for this song.
This song is a zenith in Tom J's catalog. Approachable, smooth, jazzy,
percussively dense as hell, quirky but strong-footed. To me it summarizes
how his early stuff was so innovative.
Tundra - Classic Tom J programming, beautiful lush reverby pads. I love how
that one drum machiney beat comes in all simple and bouncy the first time,
then comes in the second time at like half tempo, then quickly builds and
complicates. Nice basic jungley bass line toward the end.
The Swifty - Off-kilter. A stumblebum has gotten hold of the drum machine
and keeps hitting the snare drum pad at random. Well, we can work around
that. Some wonderful restrained bass guitar work. Then the unrestrained beat
comes back. The Ritalin is not working! Who will win? You will be on the
edge of your seat.
Dimotane Co - Let's get down to some thumping. Staticky, filtered beats.
Phase the music. Try to tap your feet about a minute from the end. Synth
chirping like a baby bird.
Smedleys Melody - Welcome to Easy 103.787, nothing but shmoove jazz - what
the - who left that door o - aargh!
Windscale 2 - I wish I could tell you what break this song starts with,
because I know I've heard it before in some hip hop song. I love that
stutter percussion effect, where you just get a quick stab snippet of the
snare or kick drum or what have you. A real quick envelope you know, cut off
with no delay. Plug stuff used that technique well too.
North Circular - A dense programming exercise. Very few tonal elements. The
percussive stutter technique is in full effect.
Goodnight Jade - A lovely beatless ambient tune reminescent of Aphex's
SAWII.
Theme from Ernest Borgnine - Echoey harmonies repeat and build. Breakbeat
starts on a dime. Break it down. Harmonies remain. The kick drum from
Dimotane Co is invited back to the party. This song is the most repetitive
on the album, in terms of structure. Tom J plays with subtle changes of
percussive and tonal texture, a deviation from his technique on most other
songs on this album. And he shows off what I guess is his TB-303 in a most
gratuitously squelchy acid fashion.
UFO's Over Leytonstone - Ripping down-tempo melancholy hip hop beat. This
track is also a departure from the norm, in that it lacks both the trademark
(at that time) Tom J programming flourishes and a breakneck pace. Magestic
and foreboding.
Kodack - A simple repeating jazz chord phrase with quick-tempoed driving
flammy drum machine programming. An Amen-derived (I think) break, 70s theme
song type funkyass wah-wah.
Future Gibbon - Drill 'n' squirt. Heavy cymbal use, foreshadowing the
ludicrously obnoxious cymbals on subsequent Vic Acid and Big Loada EPs.
I got a Squarepusher mix tape (really mixed on turntables) called "The
Shining" once from an IDM listmember. I forget who. It was like half songs
from this album and half older stuff. That tape is great; mixed real smooth.
I gotta find where I put it.
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