Ufabulum, good, bad or meh?

[brian trageskin]

whether you like or not, either way it's better than dave monolith's 'welcome'

[Guest ruiagnelo]

if carrots are better than potatoes, than yes definitely

[phudoshin]

LOoooooooong term fan of the [ ]<. (I gave you

and my fabulous megamix that no-one seems to care about: >

<)

 

Anyhoo...here's my view:

 

Fucking brilliant stuff. Largely agree with Joyrex on this one.

 

As squarepusher says himself.. this music is designed to be immersed in and anything else does not do it justice. First i heard the US live sets, then the ozzy radio edits and now the full LP/EP on CD in the car and o the headphones (vinyl comes tomorrow)..... lhope to see him in Ireland/Europe later this year

 

Its been a thrilling ride so far with gorgeous melodies and phat basses and delicious acid lines and that something special that only Tom can deliver - a certain narative and fuck-yes-ness to his intense music.

 

I listen to it all in this order for max effect with these thoughts

 

40.96a*................. perfect as an intro!!!!!

Panic Massive ........ again, the beginning of whats gonna be a groooooooovy set

Angel Integer ........bring on the melody

4001......................well and truly fucking involved now

Unreal Square .......... smashed up over the top neon excessiveness. Love it!!!

Stadium Ice................ one step back form the craziness, just for fucking kicks... giving you time to breath

Energy Wizard ........ gets better every time and keeps the tone of the album the muitcoloured brainfuckery

Red In Blue ........ perfect as a half-time knashing on the pills section

The Metallurgist ....... ITS OOOOOOOOOOOOON.... proper raving now

Drax 2 .........................feeling the autechre vibe continuing

Dark Steering 3....... excellence in every fucking way

03 Scopem Hard ...... winding down now

Ecstatic Shock.... back with the perfect ending, completeing the circle that was made by the square...

 

...PUSHER

 

I knew he could do it.

 

Now check out my

....ITs a part 2 to VLR's "his fucking sound"...

[perunamuusi]

(I gave you my fabulous megamix that no-one seems to care about: >

<)

 

Maybe because it is absolutely unlistenable. Playing 2 songs at once is not mixing.

[phudoshin]

listen to it all to get it

[perunamuusi]

I listened to it whenever you first uploaded it and thought it was a horrible unlistenable mess because it is.

 

It's just a bunch of squarepusher tracks being played on top of each other.

[Guest ruiagnelo]

(I gave you my fabulous megamix that no-one seems to care about: >

<)

 

Maybe because it is absolutely unlistenable. Playing 2 songs at once is not mixing.

 

sounds as good as this

 

 

 

[J3FF3R00]

Let me preface this by saying I've been a HUGE squarepusher fan since 96...

 

Man.

I have only gotten though about 8 songs so far.

4001 is the best track from Tom in years... IMO.

 

There is some cool stuff here, but there seems to be a lot of throwaways.

 

I have to say, I'm THOROUGHLY bored of a song that just has a beat and a bunch of "Zip... Crash... Whoosh... Zop... Boing... Swish... Wang... yadayadayada".

That shit is old and tired. It just turns me right off. I thought Go Plastic (however fantastic) dried up that well for SP.

Speaking of Go Plastic, I get a strong sense, listening to this, that Tom is fighting every impulse he has to venture into Jungle territory. I'll go out on a limb and assume that (this is just a theory) maybe it is only because he thinks it might be "out of style".

My feeling is, the few beats that he has on this that are reminiscent of "dubstep" make him sound like an old dude trying to hang with the young kids.

 

Also... WHERE THE FECK IS THE BASS!?!?!

Either the mastering on it is shit, or he is just missing many opportunities to drop some sub-bass frequencies. Something is missing. I dunno.

Even on 4001 (my favorite... so far), it just sounds like there is almost a whole track missing.

 

Again, I haven't listened to the whole thing, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I could change my entire opinion tomorrow.

 

 

Edit

 

 

Also... there is no way Tom is Steinvord. Not even half.

[Silent Member]

The EP is the best part of this release, imo, but the album is still good. Nice trance tunes.

[Guest CraniumXII]

Opinions are quite amusing... I like "Zip... Crash... Whoosh... Zop... Boing... Swish... Wang... yadayadayada" & I also found "Angel Integer" to be by FAR the weakest track

 

I do enjoy "My Sharona" and "4o.96A"

 

Also, I have not release my physical copy... Sad panda.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Let me preface this by saying I've been a HUGE squarepusher fan since 96...

 

Also... WHERE THE FECK IS THE BASS!?!?!

 

 

.... Album had tons of bass on my system, are you using headphones? Most would agree this album should be played relatively loud compared to his other stuff, but I got tons of bass off this (had to turn down my subs actually..)

[Guest CraniumXII]

Let me preface this by saying I've been a HUGE squarepusher fan since 96...

 

Also... WHERE THE FECK IS THE BASS!?!?!

 

 

.... Album had tons of bass on my system, are you using headphones? Most would agree this album should be played relatively loud compared to his other stuff, but I got tons of bass off this (had to turn down my subs actually..)

 

Actually, I also get quite a lot of bass. On both my speakers and headphones (when plugged into my amp).

 

Good day, Mr. Stephen

[Hugh Mughnus]

Good morning!

[Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin]

Good afternoon!

[Silent Member]

Hello everything!

[mcbpete]

Good morning!

Good afternoon!

 

... and goodnight

 

 

 

[Guest CraniumXII]

Lol, what just happened here!! Hellow World!

[Hautlle]

I LIKE IT

[J3FF3R00]

Let me preface this by saying I've been a HUGE squarepusher fan since 96...

 

Also... WHERE THE FECK IS THE BASS!?!?!

 

 

.... Album had tons of bass on my system, are you using headphones? Most would agree this album should be played relatively loud compared to his other stuff, but I got tons of bass off this (had to turn down my subs actually..)

 

Actually, I also get quite a lot of bass. On both my speakers and headphones (when plugged into my amp).

 

Good day, Mr. Stephen

 

There is not enough bass. My test is in my car. I have the settings just right to shake the buhjeezus out of whatever I'm stopped next to when some bass madness drops.

 

I listen to A LOT of jungle in the car and I use this one to calibrate my system...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBQP71yPEX4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Check that one out with your subwoofer.

[mcbpete]

There is not enough bass. My test is I'm my car. I have the settings just right to shake the buhjeezus out of whatever I'm stopped next to when some bass madness drops.

Absolutely, thought this second time I listened to the album on my reference 'phones (the first time I attributed it to ear fatigue as it was late at night). The mids and top end are there fine but the bass (and sub bass) is virtually non-existent - It's like someone slipped and knocked the

[J3FF3R00]

There is not enough bass. My test is I'm my car. I have the settings just right to shake the buhjeezus out of whatever I'm stopped next to when some bass madness drops.

Absolutely, thought this second time I listened to the album on my reference 'phones (the first time I attributed it to ear fatigue as it was late at night). The mids and top end are there fine but the bass (and sub bass) is virtually non-existent - It's like someone slipped and knocked the <100Hz eq slider when it was mastered.

 

Right!!?!? I know!

The sub-bass is missing, for sure.

[Guest CraniumXII]

I think ur systemz are broken!!!

 

Nah... I dunno, maybe it's cause I don't care for too much bass. It's good for me, but I guess I see where the sub-bass is missing.

 

Interesting too, since people who have seen the live shows commented on the bass being like a full body massage.

[acid1]

I didn't really keep up with WATMM and its opinion of this release, nor did I listen to the EP or the leaks. I did purchase this album the other day and I feel I still need to give it a few more listens before I have a solid impression of it.

 

First of all, i think this album has some very strong visuals, even though I was laying on my recliener the first time I listened to this, I felt like the music worked very will with the album cover (or perhaps visa versa). I felt like this album had a very robot/human feeling to it. There are parts that seemed both impossibly human with emotion and impossibly robotic with chaos.

 

Speaking of being robotic with chaos, it seems Squarepusher is back to his old bagof tricks and has a couple new ones. Being a listener from a musician perspective, I had/have a lot of fun listening to these songs and imagining how he pulls off some of the more chaotic things in them. The end of 303 Scopem Hard has some good clues. Speaking of 303's he's rocking them VERY hard in this release.

 

Musically it definitely feels like he's ontop of his game. Very strong melodies and chords. All the songs have a similar progression which begins to annoy me by the end of the album. ABABC is his general song progressions, where C is basically all out madness. The content musically reminds me of a mix of Hello Everything and Shobaleader1.

 

A few things bug me: Red in Blue is just agonizingly boring. I've tried to listen to it a few times, but there is absolutely nothing inspired about this. I believe its only purpose is to act as a resting spot between the two songs it surrounds. The first half of the album seems a bit more gimmickly then the second half. I feel like un Unreal Square he's basically making fun of dubstep as a whole (which is fine with me, I sorta did the same in my last album).

 

Some notible absentee's I noticed: No amens, no ragga samples, and no bass guitar (although you can hear him doing his guitar to MIDI thing a few tims).

[Hugh Mughnus]

There is not enough bass. My test is I'm my car. I have the settings just right to shake the buhjeezus out of whatever I'm stopped next to when some bass madness drops.

Absolutely, thought this second time I listened to the album on my reference 'phones (the first time I attributed it to ear fatigue as it was late at night). The mids and top end are there fine but the bass (and sub bass) is virtually non-existent - It's like someone slipped and knocked the <100Hz eq slider when it was mastered.

 

Right!!?!? I know!

The sub-bass is missing, for sure.

 

Maybe I'm just getting it because I have excessive-subwoofer-action going on...?

 

I have 2 powered 12 inch subs. I do notice the bass is inconsistent throughout. Like Energy Wizard sounds kind of flat, but drax2, dark steering, unreal square, 4001, and 303 scopem hard shake the house purty good...

 

 

I don't know whats up

[cruising for burgers]

The content musically reminds me of a mix of Hello Everything and Shobaleader1.

 

hello everything and shobaleaader is jazzy

 

this one is hurrr durrrr calvin harris vs dyksp...