Last week I discovered an absolutely amazing artist: Squarepusher. A lot of people who are into avantgarde-electro-stuff know this guy, most of the others don't - time to change this!
The englishman Tom Jenkinson (born 1975) is mixing up jazz, IDM (intelligent dance music, e.g. aphex twin) with some oldschool drum and bass and Stockhausen-inspired atonal minimalism. He's also an outstanding bass player - His music is mind-blowing, disturbing, groovy and dissonant, definitely nothing you can play on your little sister's birthday. (except her brain consists of nuclear marshmallows)
But music says more than 1000 words, so check it out:
<come on my selector>
<hello meow>
<delta-v>
<heliacal torch>
<plug me in>
for those of you who'd like to taste the really freaky stuff: listen to the album "music is rotted one note". this is hardcore.
It is nice that humans have so different taste in music. It means I each year get to hear music I like less than what I thought I disliked the most out of all music not designed to be annoying.
I went through the entire first video and found nothing I liked about it. Might be why the artist isn't so well known outside of this genre of music.
On July 21 2011 04:24 Gatsbi wrote: Oh god yes, a Squarepusher thread. A lot of people don't "get" IDM music, but for those who do.. Squarepusher is just awesome.
Great thread!!
I'm pretty agnostic about the content of IDM, but I am a little miffed that it has the gall to call itself "intelligent." That just screams elitist, hipster nonsense to me. What other subgenre of a field of art could call itself "intelligent" and not take crap for it? "Intelligent mysteries." "Intelligent dramatic films." I don't think so.
On July 21 2011 04:24 Gatsbi wrote: Oh god yes, a Squarepusher thread. A lot of people don't "get" IDM music, but for those who do.. Squarepusher is just awesome.
Great thread!!
I'm pretty agnostic about the content of IDM, but I am a little miffed that it has the gall to call itself "intelligent." That just screams elitist, hipster nonsense to me. What other subgenre of a field of art could call itself "intelligent" and not take crap for it? "Intelligent mysteries." "Intelligent dramatic films." I don't think so.
99% of IDM artists do not take the name seriously. Do you want more examples of shitty names for obscure music genres that have little or nothing to do with the type of music it attempts to describe?
On July 21 2011 04:24 Gatsbi wrote: Oh god yes, a Squarepusher thread. A lot of people don't "get" IDM music, but for those who do.. Squarepusher is just awesome.
Great thread!!
Could you expand upon what there is to be "got"? Honest interest, no troll.
On July 21 2011 05:12 drooL wrote: iambic 5 poetry is one of my allll time favorite songs. such a good piece of art.
Same for me, lovelovelove that track. I'm more partial to his earlier stuff up through do you know squarepusher but really liked the new album quite a but.
On July 21 2011 04:24 Gatsbi wrote: Oh god yes, a Squarepusher thread. A lot of people don't "get" IDM music, but for those who do.. Squarepusher is just awesome.
Great thread!!
Could you expand upon what there is to be "got"? Honest interest, no troll.
Yeah, unless there's something really special to 'get' out of the music from Super Mario Bros, there isn't anything particularly special to be had out of his music. It's basically just SMB but less funky, which, in my opinion, isn't a good thing. It is a little cute is its own right though, so I'll give you that.
I'm slightly peeved that you called his music dissonant, because it isn't, and it also definitely is not avant garde. If you are speaking of the first video, yes that would have been avant garde in the early to mid 1900s. Lambic 5 poetry would make pretty good ambient video game music.
On July 21 2011 04:24 Gatsbi wrote: Oh god yes, a Squarepusher thread. A lot of people don't "get" IDM music, but for those who do.. Squarepusher is just awesome.
Great thread!!
Could you expand upon what there is to be "got"? Honest interest, no troll.
Yeah, unless there's something really special to 'get' out of the music from Super Mario Bros, there isn't anything particularly special to be had out of his music. It's basically just SMB but less funky, which, in my opinion, isn't a good thing. It is a little cute is its own right though, so I'll give you that.
I'm slightly peeved that you called his music dissonant, because it isn't, and it also definitely is not avant garde. If you are speaking of the first video, yes that would have been avant garde in the early to mid 1900s. Lambic 5 poetry would make pretty good ambient video game music.
well stuff like lambic surely isn`t dissonant, that's very straight material. (a bit too straight for me) I like that "clonky" stuff on "just a souvenir" and "numbers lucent", very complex at some moments and definitely not following common major/minor-harmonics.
like this one (from hello everything):
I never really liked the term "avantgarde" to classify pieces of art, because today's real avantgarde will be recognized in about 20 years from now. and even that's not for sure. Squarepusher has such a huge variety in his music, I think that this is, what makes his tracks so special. Others repeat their style over and over again. Here you can see constant development and progress.
On July 21 2011 04:24 Gatsbi wrote: Oh god yes, a Squarepusher thread. A lot of people don't "get" IDM music, but for those who do.. Squarepusher is just awesome.
Great thread!!
Could you expand upon what there is to be "got"? Honest interest, no troll.
Well I mean, take a song like Aphex Twin's 'Vordhosbn' or even better yet, 'Mt St Michel + Saint Michaels Mount'. To 99% of the world they probably just sound like annoying noise, but in reality you just have to listen closer and understand that there's bigger themes. To me, for example those two songs are trying to represent order coming out of chaos, and then back into chaos again.
IDM isn't the kind of music that should be listened to in the background while playing a game or something. I like to put on some nice headphones in a quiet place and just listen to it. Turn off your lights and close your eyes for added effect (hopefully you have the song in FLAC or at least 320kbps MP3 format too).
That's all I really meant by being "got". Most people would listen to some crappy youtube clip and be like, "this just sounds like some bleeps and bloops and clicks and clacks and noise" and never try to listen to it again.
On July 21 2011 04:24 Gatsbi wrote: Oh god yes, a Squarepusher thread. A lot of people don't "get" IDM music, but for those who do.. Squarepusher is just awesome.
Great thread!!
Could you expand upon what there is to be "got"? Honest interest, no troll.
Well I mean, take a song like Aphex Twin's 'Vordhosbn' or even better yet, 'Mt St Michel + Saint Michaels Mount'. To 99% of the world they probably just sound like annoying noise, but in reality you just have to listen closer and understand that there's bigger themes. To me, for example those two songs are trying to represent order coming out of chaos, and then back into chaos again.
IDM isn't the kind of music that should be listened to in the background while playing a game or something. I like to put on some nice headphones in a quiet place and just listen to it. Turn off your lights and close your eyes for added effect (hopefully you have the song in FLAC or at least 320kbps MP3 format too).
That's all I really meant by being "got". Most people would listen to some crappy youtube clip and be like, "this just sounds like some bleeps and bloops and clicks and clacks and noise" and never try to listen to it again.
At first I didn't really like it, but after reading your post I got a better understanding of his music. I can see someone listening to this like that. I'll probably try it myself at some point.
On July 21 2011 04:24 Gatsbi wrote: Oh god yes, a Squarepusher thread. A lot of people don't "get" IDM music, but for those who do.. Squarepusher is just awesome.
Great thread!!
I'm pretty agnostic about the content of IDM, but I am a little miffed that it has the gall to call itself "intelligent." That just screams elitist, hipster nonsense to me. What other subgenre of a field of art could call itself "intelligent" and not take crap for it? "Intelligent mysteries." "Intelligent dramatic films." I don't think so.
99% of IDM artists do not take the name seriously. Do you want more examples of shitty names for obscure music genres that have little or nothing to do with the type of music it attempts to describe?
On July 21 2011 04:24 Gatsbi wrote: Oh god yes, a Squarepusher thread. A lot of people don't "get" IDM music, but for those who do.. Squarepusher is just awesome.
Great thread!!
I'm pretty agnostic about the content of IDM, but I am a little miffed that it has the gall to call itself "intelligent." That just screams elitist, hipster nonsense to me. What other subgenre of a field of art could call itself "intelligent" and not take crap for it? "Intelligent mysteries." "Intelligent dramatic films." I don't think so.
Most of the artists agree with you, its a rather disliked label that just happened to stick.
as Squarepusher said:
I just think it's really funny to have terms like that. It's basically saying 'this is intelligent and everything else is stupid.' It's really nasty to everyone else's music. (laughs) It makes me laugh, things like that. I don't use names. I just say that I like something or I don't.
Never been very fond of SP's music, don't like the meandering beeping and hat explosions, but whatever floats your boat.
On July 21 2011 04:24 Gatsbi wrote: Oh god yes, a Squarepusher thread. A lot of people don't "get" IDM music, but for those who do.. Squarepusher is just awesome.
Great thread!!
I'm pretty agnostic about the content of IDM, but I am a little miffed that it has the gall to call itself "intelligent." That just screams elitist, hipster nonsense to me. What other subgenre of a field of art could call itself "intelligent" and not take crap for it? "Intelligent mysteries." "Intelligent dramatic films." I don't think so.
Most of the artists agree with you, its a rather disliked label that just happened to stick.
I just think it's really funny to have terms like that. It's basically saying 'this is intelligent and everything else is stupid.' It's really nasty to everyone else's music. (laughs) It makes me laugh, things like that. I don't use names. I just say that I like something or I don't.
Never been very fond of SP's music, don't like the meandering beeping and hat explosions, but whatever floats your boat.
I think that's an Aphex Twin quote, or at least it's very similar. But yeah either way, most IDM artists hate the name of the genre lol
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.abload.de/img/squarepusherqyua.jpg)
