Lianne Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Mind you, I do believe Squarepusher is being genuine here - it's the sound I'm thinking of, not his intentions. Who knows what they really are? When I read your posts, I feel enormous gratitude that people like Squarepusher don't make their intentions apparent. I am just putting perspectives in for sake of discussion. My only intention when I get a new record (including Squarepusher's latest) is to enjoy it. I never want to not enjoy a new record. His latest is actually quite enjoyable - but in my opinion, it is part of a trend in his music (and in electronic music in general) towards a more hokey sound. Feel free to completely disagree with that, but otherwise I can't see why there should be any issue with the manner in which it was expressed (or any 'intentions' my part.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candiru Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 I'm just tired of kitsch and an ugly sort of knowingness and hokyness invading everything, from the mainstream to the so-called experimental. Fun music is great, but it doesn't need to always sound like it's in quotation marks Amen to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hautlle Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Mind you, I do believe Squarepusher is being genuine here - it's the sound I'm thinking of, not his intentions. Who knows what they really are? When I read your posts, I feel enormous gratitude that people like Squarepusher don't make their intentions apparent. I am just putting perspectives in for sake of discussion. My only intention when I get a new record (including Squarepusher's latest) is to enjoy it. I never want to not enjoy a new record. His latest is actually quite enjoyable - but in my opinion, it is part of a trend in his music (and in electronic music in general) towards a more hokey sound. Feel free to completely disagree with that, but otherwise I can't see why there should be any issue with the manner in which it was expressed (or any 'intentions' my part.) Could I get some examples of this "hokey" sound? I'm not sure what you're getting at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lianne Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Maybe I'm wrong but I guess for instance Hello Meow, which is just a simple amen with light-hearted melody and easy basswork. Some people see it as "hokey", others just accept that world-class musicians can play simple too. It's the sonics of a track like that that can make it 'hokey' for me, not the simplicity (though I still like that one and love most of the rest of Hello Everything despite the weird mastering.) Simplicity can be wonderful - but just as great musicians can make tasteless music full of bombastic, symphonic complexity for complexity's sake, great musicians can also make simple music that (to my ears) doesn't sound particularly good. I've been wrong about this before - at first I found 'Oversteps' very disappointing, for example, but now it's become one of my favourites of theirs. But when it comes to JAS and this new one (and hints of his new sound in Hello Everything)... I don't know. I like vocoders, I like synthy-synth sounds, I like funk, I like videogame music, and I like silly lyrics, but the new SP stuff is beginning to miss the mark to my ears. I'm not sure what it is - perhaps it's the lack of restraint? The mixing, production and mastering? Wrong expectations? Boredom at this 'reaction' against any semblance of experimentation or seriousness in electronic music? (I know lots will disagree with the last one.) At least he is not putting 'wacky' samples from soaps and films in his new music, and at least it is still more interesting than most stuff out there. I hope he does very well with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest yikes Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 all traces of rave are gone the last shards evident in uv this music reflects now and now sucks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retape Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 ^ I take it you never heard Numbers Lucent which came out last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sunshine generation Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 At times magnificent! other moments failing to really hit the mark. A fairly cohesive album (by standards) which gets better with each listen, imo. True standout is Frisco Wave, Plug Me In, Abstract Lover & Into The Blue. I too would like to see where subsequent Shobaleaders will take us. 4 out of 5 Red Hot Cocks™ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJW Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Absolute shite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thepilot Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 This is a great thread. Thanks to all contributors. This approach to dissecting the record trumps all the other shobaleader threads. Anyway I think the d'Demonstrator record has quite a lot of beautiful work in terms of melodic content and chord progressions. I quite appreciate the fact that he has so drastically altered his production style and technique with recent records. Just a Souvenir was quite a shock to my ears initially but there is something truly endearing about the production in and of itself. Do you guys get a 'jam' feel from this record? Despite the 'live band' press and whatnot, it sounds to me like a squarepusher production through and through. Regardless, I can't imagine anyone being violently put-off by the sound of (or songs on) this record. I'm kind of surprised at the negativity being leveled at the record. Is it just the drastic stylistic shift that is so off-putting to fans of Jenkinson's earlier work? I hear the emotional thread running through just a souvenir continuing on throughout the new one. Again, I really like this thread; carry on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJW Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Absolute shite. This was in response to the one track, Megazine, the one with dafy punk like vocoder sounding stuff on it. Haven't heard the rest yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest myosis Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 thepilot, i hear you... Just A Souvenir was very 70's-rock-oriented (with some glam, garage, prog, punk, new wave, metal). Numbers Luscent was a dance version of that sound. this is pretty much the R&B version of the same concept. All of them funky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaarg Posted November 6, 2010 Share Posted November 6, 2010 I kinda like this release. Probably because I don't suffer artists going further in ways they choose ok. Its a matter of time if I'll be able to respect it as much as Go plastic, Ultravisitor or Hard normal daddy but we'll see. So far it's a lot of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thepilot Posted November 6, 2010 Share Posted November 6, 2010 I agree it is a fun record. I'm not sure I get the Daft Punk references that people are projecting onto this release. There are plenty of releases that owe their existence to Daft Punk, but I don't see this as one of them. The figure on the cover wearing the mask is essentially the beginning and end of the Daft Punk comparison for me. I suppose his recent association with ed banger and oizo had initially caused speculation but upon hearing the music itself I am reminded of Roger Troutman more than anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EXX Posted November 6, 2010 Share Posted November 6, 2010 Its quality. Reviews have been quite stupidly negative... to me. Overplaying the Daft Punk/post-Daft Punk thing. And Daft Punk invented the vocoder didn't they (sarcasm). Or 'its too loud'... this music has to have bite and energy or it would go against genre... People who hate it because they just don't want him to go alt-pop, fair enough, thats a matter of taste. (I can't really imagine a Squarepusher semi-pop record being anything other than what this is really.) There's also a helluva lot of people that found Squarepusher, pre-Hello Everything let's say, to be putting out, amongst the odd great piece, a great amount of pretentious, formless, tuneless, digital warfare emperor new clothes bollocks in the past, so I guess he can't really win whatever he does with some... To me this record is obviously the bridge between Just a Souvenir and whatever this Outkast collaboration might end up being, its a way of bringing him closer to the idea of collaborating with an R'n'B act... hard to see it any other way. I also like the idea of starting out rebelling against conventional music and then going really out there and then rebelling against that too and coming back from where you were. But bringing an individuality back with you. It isn't a Daft Punk pastiche... and if Daft Punk ever sounded as high-end sonically, I must have missed those tracks completely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thepilot Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 I like that the voice/vocoder is treated as an instrument of sonic imagery and not a point of focus. This alone disqualifies the record as being some "mainstream cross-over" attempt. Vocals in electronic music (idm, whatever) usually do not appeal to me so much. Tim Exile, for example, should put the mic down for a while. Listening Tree nauseated me despite many attempts to get into it. Also the toilet-themed trajectory with which I associate Jamie Lidell's stylistic choices has much to do in my mind with his obsession with the human voice and its omnipresence front and center within his work. (I personally liked Muddlin Gear ) Anyway I like what Jenkinson does with the vocals and melodic content here. For me personally vocal content is a slippery slope but I like this approach. (expired horse sufficiently beaten, no?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terpentintollwut Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 I didn't visit the Squarepusher subforum in a while apparently, last I heard there's a new album coming at some point and was mildly excited about it, more curious than excited. I didn't hear any of the rumors or band-stuff, but I've just heard some of the samples and I guess at this point it really is safe to say for me that I don't care for any of his new output. I don't know if it's good or bad, but he just took in a direction I'm completely uninterested in, which is a bit of a shame for me personally, because I like him and what he can do. But he seems to be pretty confident about this new direction, which is good for him I guess. Still a little sad. Seems like back in the day he was experimenting rather than emulating ... but well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sneaksta303 Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 I didn't visit the Squarepusher subforum in a while apparently, last I heard there's a new album coming at some point and was mildly excited about it, more curious than excited. I didn't hear any of the rumors or band-stuff, but I've just heard some of the samples and I guess at this point it really is safe to say for me that I don't care for any of his new output. I don't know if it's good or bad, but he just took in a direction I'm completely uninterested in, which is a bit of a shame for me personally, because I like him and what he can do. But he seems to be pretty confident about this new direction, which is good for him I guess. Still a little sad. Seems like back in the day he was experimenting rather than emulating ... but well. why don't you stfu and listen to it b4 you go judging it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Billov Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 I like that the voice/vocoder is treated as an instrument of sonic imagery and not a point of focus. This alone disqualifies the record as being some "mainstream cross-over" attempt. Vocals in electronic music (idm, whatever) usually do not appeal to me so much. this... Really enjoying this album, I don't see why people are tearing into it so much. Its good to see an age old artist send himself in a completely new direction. Personally I never got into Just a Souvenir. Something about the 70's prog rock thing really turned me off... made me think of Hawkwind, not my thing. But the RnB influences on d'Demonstrator really worked for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dirty Protest Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Something about the 70's prog rock thing really turned me off... made me think of Hawkwind, not my thing. In Search of Space has been a constant my whole life, its fucking incredible, even after the hundreds/thousands of times ive listened to it. I always assumed this was everyones thing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvEtqGDFPA0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Member Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Listened to this album again the other night, I'm liking it less every time I listen. At first I thought it was pretty decent. Do not want. No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phudoshin Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I find the album very addictive..... the subtle melodies are aching to be played over and over....the synths n Plug Me In, that little sprinkle on Cryptic Motion itself is gorgeous....before the final funk assault. The vocals straddle the edge of cheezieness and melody too - rather clever really..... lending he whole thing a spacey 70's vibe........The rock guitar is a brilliant continuation of JAS too...... In fact i've gone back to JAS a lot after this release and sort of re-discovered it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terpentintollwut Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Well I'm not exactly crazy about Hello Everything and kinda hate Just a Souvenir, I highly doubt I'll like this one ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stock Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Well I'm not exactly crazy about Hello Everything and kinda hate Just a Souvenir, I highly doubt I'll like this one ... You should try it ! It's slightly different than JaS imo - maybe much mature, I dunno. Give it a try, dude ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nene multiple assgasms Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 I love this album. if you can't get over the 909 drums, you're missing the point. the drums are an afterthought. this album is all about melody. the tunes have definitely grown on me. I can't get frisco wave out of my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaarg Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 I'm still liking it, but I feel it could be more dynamic. You know, the second track-wise. I'm certain it has great potential for further development and a lot of artists will look in the way of this new Tom release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.