RhoDeo 1251 Beats

Hello, it was hard to get past all the jolly end of the world fuzz the media created, all over the world people were in fear, millions of candles bought -would make more sense to buy lighters, let alone the nutcases crawling underground, clearly the Mayan calender had gone global unfortunately it wasn't accompanied with real background, just disaster sensationalism. Now as it happens I've been aware of this 'end-date' for a long time and it's a fascinating concept. I've written a blog about it which you can read here The Shift Ages ..there and back you can comment on it, please do

To the Beats matter at hand. An artist that no one dares plagiarize for fear of making an idiot out of themselves – and in the world of cheapskate bandwagon jumpers known as modern electronic music, that's really saying something. Squarepusher remains forward thinking, relevant and as predictably unpredictable as ever.... NJoy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

So what's up with this Squarepusher ?

"I originally wanted to play the electric guitar, but an early insight into the typical psychological make-up of electric guitar players put me off. The driving rationale behind me wanting to play bass was an intrigue about what underpins the general sound picture in modern music. Everybody is acquainted with the singing voice, and most could identify an electric guitar, but the bass is more mysterious. Certainly the bass register is familiar, but the sound of the bass guitar is typically hidden away at the back of a mix. I found myself drawn to this strange sonic hinterland. On the rare occasions where exposed bass-lines could be heard, I found the deep tones very appealing and had to know more!"

Jenkinson was born in Chelmsford, Essex in 1975 and was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School.In 91 the local dance music sage and DJ Hardy Finn introduced Tom to the hitherto hidden worlds of Detroit Techno,  Hardcore, Acid House and New York Garage. Tom made a drastic revision in his outlook due to evocative power of this newly found music. He went on to study Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design. A self-taught drummer and highly skilled bass guitar player, his style of extremely fast, cut-up beats mixed with fusion jazz and interlaced with synth lines and samples has gained him a cult following. He is a friend of Richard D. James (Aphex Twin), and Luke Vibert. His albums have been critically acclaimed for their forward-thinking approach to electronic music. He's a bit of a recluse and interviews are done by email, yet he can be seen playing bass at the local pub now and again.

Jenkinson performs live, playing with a fretless or fretted bass guitar, a laptop, and other hardware. On 26 June 2005, Squarepusher played at London's Royal Festival Hall as part of the Jimi Hendrix tribute show "Songs of Experience". His 12-minute performance was built up of a medley of Hendrix tracks played solely on the bass guitar with the use of effects (he got RHCP's Flea exited)

The toys that make it happen and play with Squarepusher at his derelict farm

Bass guitars: Music Man / Rickenbacker 4001 / Custom built 6 string.
Guitars: Classical and Baritone classical / custom electric guitar.
Software: Reaktor using only home made algorithms.
Electronic Hardware: Eventide "Orville" + "DSP4000" using only homemade algorithms/ Yamaha sequencer / 16 track tape machine / MackieDesk / Sine wave generator / Roland SH101 / Octave "Cat" synth / AKG414 mics / Home made + AKG analogue reverb units / DAT recorder.
Percussion: Ludwig drum kit / Balinese percussion / xylophone.

Critical acclaim for Jenkinson's work peaked with 1998's Music Is Rotted One Note, for which he became a one-man fusion group -- multi-tracking himself playing drums, bass, and keyboards. The following year, he released two EPs (Budakhan Mindphone, Maximum Priest) and another full LP, Selection Sixteen. Go Plastic appeared in summer 2001, featuring the closest thing to a hit Squarepusher had ever seen with the single "My Red Hot Car." Subsequent releases such as 2003's Do You Know Squarepusher and 2004's Ultravisitor found him refining his fusion of composition, programming, and musicianship, characteristics that were also heard on 2006's Hello Everything and 2008's Just a Souvenir. After a record of solo bass (titled Solo Electric Bass, Vol. 1), he unveiled his next project, a masked foursome named Shobaleader One that released a 2010 collaboration album (Shobaleader One: D'Demonstrator) consisting of throwback electronic pop with an R&B edge and synthesized vocals, not unlike Daft Punk. In 2012, Jenkinson returned with the coldly symphonic Ufabulum, adding an apocalyptic soundtrack feel to his already dense programming.


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Warp Records was playing catch-up with all the excellent Tom Jenkinson material floating around. Just the previous year the label saw good returns on his Hard Normal Daddy LP, and now it was time to buy the rights to previous tracks released on the Brit jungle boutique label Spymania. The selection here on Burningn'n Tree is crunchy and uneven, but certainly rewarding for collectors losing faith in the hunt for original limited vinyl pressings. As a bonus, Jenkinson throws in three previously unreleased selections. The real treats are Spymania's early gems. The album opens with the 1996 track "Central Line," which seems atypically straightforward with its 4/4 drum lines -- lean and underdeveloped by jungle standards (as well as Jenkinson's), but a perfectly energizing opener. It is tracks like this and "Sarcacid" (also known as "The Duke of Harringay") where he leans on his fantastic bass playing and jazz background, rather than his dizzying programming skills that would bloom on future endeavors. The compilation here shows Squarepusher in his early days of flight, especially the tracks resurrected from his Conumber EP -- the epic 11-minute title track, plus two barely related versions of "Eviscerate," a wonderful balance of organic sounding jazz, atonal machine loops, and fluid bass playing. Jaco would be proud.

Squarepusher ‎- Burningn'n Tree (flac  407mb)

01 Central Line 3:57
02 Untitled 4:08
03 Nux Vomica 7:57
04 Eviscerate 4:33
05 Untitled 3:20
06 Male Pill Part 5 8:03
07 Sarcacid Part 1 5:56
08 Conumber 11:01
09 Untitled 1:27
10 Eviscerate Version 7:12
11 Toast For Hardy 9:23
12 Sarcacid Part 2 5:05

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Tom Jenkinson's jazz roots come through louder and clearer on his full-length Warp debut. Although, like the preceding Port Rhombus EP, this album sounds substantially cleaner and more thought out than previous releases for Spymania and Rephlex, it also far surpasses those releases in terms of musicality and track development, not simply relying on the shock value of "tripping-over-myself" drum programming and light-speed fretless bass noodling. Jenkinson's bass accompaniment also sounds far less prog rock-influenced here, making Hard Normal Daddy his overall most listenable work to date....dedicated to the Chelmsford rave scene.

Squarepusher ‎- Hard Normal Daddy (flac  426mb)

01 Coopers World 5:09
02 Beep Street 6:37
03 Rustic Raver 5:08
04 Anirog D9 1:11
05 Chin Hippy 3:16
06 Papalon 8:10
07 E8 Boogie 8:13
08 Fat Controller 5:38
09 Vic Acid 3:07
10 Male Pill Part 13 8:38
11 Rat/P's And Q's 4:33
12 Rebus 2:47
 
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

A compilation album of sorts, this is the US release of the Big Loada EP, plus Port Rhombus EP and two tracks from Vic Acid EP. Big Loada finds Tom Jenkinson playing the genre game a bit, skipping from new wave-ish breakbeat to ragga hardstep to the tinker-toy 303 jungle of then recent Aphex and µ-Ziq releases.

Squarepusher - Big Loada (flac 375mb)

01 Rocker 4:48
02 Tubeaction 5:40
03 Beat The Bush 5:47
04 Daktari 8:03
05 Vincent Van Dance 6:52
06 Gate 23 (Lost On Arrival) 2:31
07 Nasty Dollars 3:13
08 Satanic Circus 5:45
09 Raw (Sie Liebt Dich) 6:09
10 Transphormer 7:20

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx