squarepusher Is Steinvord a pseudonym of Tom Jenkinson?

[SQUIDLID]

Clearly Rephlex's release of the Steinvord EP has hit some sort of nerve within the nerdy, geeky, music obsessive recesses of the internet. Debate has been rife ever since the tracks surfaced on Myspace. Aphex Twin being one of the supposed chief tricksters in this musical arena was immediately fingered as being an obvious candidate for the wizard behind the curtain pulling the wool over our eyes. Some who felt the quality of the material or perhaps the composition or tone didn't live up to what they had come to expect from their favourite producer denounced the material as being the work of a new, different or less established musician. After all the information on Myspace could be correct and the music might have been made by an 18 year old enthusiastically interweaving his own sounds amongst those of our musical idols in such a convincing fashion that even Rephlex felt it worthy of a release. Of course as soon as the denizens of WATMM had to wait more than a few meagre months to get their grubby mitts on the material several conspiracy theories had arisen, many of which were exceedingly humorous and equally ludicrous.

 

Finally the release has hit the streets and rather than listen to severely dilapidated mp3's one can now listen to the EP in full as it was intended and in clear and fantastic depth and quality on vinyl. Still I'm sure for a great many WATMMer's the way in which this release is absorbed is via illegal rips, but generally the quality of these will far above that of the Myspace rips. Now I have finally received my copy in the post and listened to it in full I feel I can start to form a solid opinion of this work.

 

It would be slightly naive to expect an honest in depth discussion on this subject but I'm sure at least a few of you will share the same opinion as me. Steinvord in my opinion is the work of Tom Jenkinson. When the Tuss was released many enthusiastic fans denied (for their own amusement or because they actually believed it) it to be the work of Richard D James. The names of other producers who share a similar heritage where banded about, and many people claimed the work to be a collaboration. In the end the simplest most obvious answer was correct, it was that crafty bugger Aphex Twin under a different alias, and perhaps everyone had built the release up to such a ridiculous status that the answer seemed too easy. In my belief the same is true of the Steinvord release. These tracks sound like something that Tom wanted to put out that he felt perhaps didn't fit the Squarepusher name or at least how he currently wants to represent himself under that pseudonym. While Rephlex is happy to release music that shares many of the qualities of Aphex or (perhaps to a lesser extent) Squarepusher's output I honestly cannot believe that they would deem tracks that borrowed so heavily from Squarepusher's back catalogue an acceptable output for a label so closely associated with him. Rather than merely taking reference from Tom's music Steinvord contains the same formula, passages which are beyond similarity and the mastery and quality of production reeks of him too. Once you listen to the reverb, the synth tones, the drum edits and the organ pads in full quality from the vinyl it seems unmistakable to me.

 

In the end it doesn't really matter who produced this music, I'm just thankful to be able to hear it, however, I can't help but be greedy and hope there's more on the way. To push the speculation to a ridiculous level perhaps this is Squarepusher finally opening up his archives and allowing us to hear some unreleased gems from the past, if so we may eventually get the chance to own some legendary tracks that have only ever been played live previously.

 

Discuss.

[impakt]

No.

[psn]

Might very well be.

[Guest liquiday]

hi Tom.

[Guest RadarJammer]

He might have felt embarrassed about the Shobaleader One goof and decided that he needed to prove to himself that he could really keep a secret for reals this time honestly.

[goDel]

Pizza

[TechDiff]

He might have felt embarrassed about the Shobaleader One goof and decided that he needed to prove to himself that he could really keep a secret for reals this time honestly.

 

yeah I fink that the afecks tween and sighlob deleted pearsquasher from their "superleet idmz sooperstars" icq channel because they didn't fink him cool after the shoobadooby release. so now Toms like "ohemgee I am still the sooper cool also, luk at my jungle mash" and now they is frendz again.

[YO303]

Steinvord sounds like Cylob to me.

[schlucharski]

cylob theme 2:23

[impakt]

Pizza

[Guest teetime]

Other the occasional "deja-vu" because of the use of some jungle samples and the attempt of go plastic like granular synthesis gimmicky i have no question to strongly doubt this is the work of tom. This is because the composition in terms in terms of harmonic and rhythm never reaches the heights of go plastic track or tracks like district line 2. Additionally the production is very diffrent from toms stuff. In comparison steinvord sample sounding like they are highly compressed. No dynamic range in highs and lows. Other then that the new album by Tom will feature for the most part TR-909, and no breaks at all. In my opinion the steinvord ep sounds like somebody attempts to pay homage to druqus / go plastic without reaching in any of those realms.

 

All in all: This is not Toms work.

[Guest teetime]

And i do not like it.

[Guest teetime]

Just compare maelstrom to "my fucking sound", greenways tranjectory or district line II. Maelstrom pales just in every aspect compared to these tracks. There is no way that this is a Tom alias!

[Hugh Mughnus]

I'm pretty sure it is Tom, trying to sound like he's not Tom. (versus someone that isn't Tom trying to sound like Tom)....

 

The idea is to create this contention, this conversation around the music because all in all, if people aren't talking about it it's just another release that slips past everyone's radar..

 

I do however contend that the quality is below what I would consider "Squarepusher" material. In the same way, I felt in many ways the Tuss to be lesser quality than straight "Aphex Twin" releases.

[beerwolf]

Playing the vinyl quite a bit this weekend, and got it on now as we speak.

 

I think it is but that's just me making a light hearted observation. I wouldn't put a hundred pounds on it though.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Playing the vinyl quite a bit this weekend, and got it on now as we speak.

 

I think it is but that's just me making a light hearted observation. I wouldn't put a hundred pounds on it though.

 

The most obvious track for me was Maelstrom. Sounds like a mashup of many of his styles. Even the intro (first 1:40 or so) sounds like "My Fucking Sound".

 

The other ones have similarities too...

[Ivan Ooze]

maybe it's da afx messing with squarepusher's stuff and he with afx his equipment cause of the name steinvord?

i don't care anymore, and sure as hell don't know.

i'll just buy it digitally from rephlex and, oh wait damn!

[Hugh Mughnus]

maybe it's da afx messing with squarepusher's stuff and he with afx his equipment cause of the name steinvord?

i don't care anymore, and sure as hell don't know.

i'll just buy it digitally from rephlex and, oh wait damn!

 

I know man, I want a hq digital release NOW >.<

[beerwolf]

If it isn't it is a tribute to him as there are massive references to his music hidden in the tracks.

[Hugh Mughnus]

If it isn't it is a tribute to him as there are massive references to his music hidden in the tracks.

 

Absolutely massive. for sure.

[pissflaps]

Production wise is good. Looks like people are making reviews out of bad vinyl rips.

I would say tho, it's not better/worse than AFX/Pusher, it has a different sound to it. But everything is there sitting on it's right place, I have nothing to complain about it.

Composition wise: Again, the more I listen to this the less it sounds like AFX/Pusher. Sure yiff acid and Maelstrom have AFX/Pusher moments, but tracks like ontrackv2, Backyard and Cyg x-1 simply aren't AFX/Pusher style. Ontrackv2 sounds too much like a proper dnb track (really fast and with some more complex edits here and there), the beat is pretty steady for most of the track. Backyard is a 4 minute track with a huge subbass and nicely layered ambient tones. This could very well be called something like early Photek on steroids if comparing it to something makes you happy. Cyg x-1, I can't compare it to anything else really. It's probably my fav at the moment.

 

So again, I would rather listen to Animal Collective while I watch Impakt post pizzas (not really), than discussing who the hell did this. It's a great record, with very good replay value, greatly welcomed given what the electronic music trends are like nowadays, and for the fact that most people have failed when trying to pull something like this. Plus it has a sound of it's own (buried inside all the conspiracy theories that people have created).

[impakt]

So again, I would rather listen to Animal Collective while I watch Impakt post pizzas (not really)

 

 

!!!!!!!!!

[GORDO]

don't know but it's certainly better than SP's recent output.

 

 

It's funny, when hello everything leaked, many people denied it could be Tom's work because it seemed like 6 steps backwards in the rhythm section, some others said it clearly had his signature even if the beats were too simple, I don't have to say who had it right, but to me it was obvious to be him because the work followed some themes he had been developing in earlier works and which reached maturity in here. And now, with steinvord, it obviously has tom written all over but it doesn't follow the progression that the previous work have set, so it's difficult to say, arguments against it being him are the same that when Hello Everything leaked, but the arguments in favor are not the same, only because the timeline is distorted. if this had been released around the go plastic era, no one would doubt who made it. But it's released now so now we aren't sure. As I said, it's funny, our judgment isn't based only on fact, the materialized product, but on context and time.

 

But the tracks are good so I'm happy, I kinda missed music like this. I listened to drukqs the other day to get myself a drill fix but it turns many of the tracks haven't aged that well.

[Ivan Ooze]

don't know but it's certainly better than SP's recent output.

 

I listened to drukqs the other day to get myself a drill fix but it turns many of the tracks haven't aged that well.

[rstark]

maelstrom sounds exactly like my fucking sound.. i think he's involved