squarepusher I just "got" Ultravisitor

[springymajig]

I'm not a huge fan of Squarepusher but I do really like what I've heard so far, I have Hard Normal Daddy which is fantastic and Big Loada which is just too much fun. Then a few months ago I decided to buy Ultravisitor.

 

I hated it. I could barely get through it once. I loved the title track and Iambic 9 Poetry and that was it. I didn't listen to it again.

 

Until a couple of days ago, I was waiting for the bus, and kinda bored, and in the mood for something fast and loud, so I thought I'd give it another go. It sounds like a completely different album to me now! I love when this happens, had the same thing with Cornelius' Fantasma... it's like a revelation, I can't stop listening to it now!

[awesomeperson]

That's the Squarepusher effect.

[Guest Wall Bird]

Now if only everyone else on this board would realize that this is a masterpiece.

[kiya]

I hated this release for the first 4 listens, i actually thought i'd never take it out again.. then i stuck with it and it clicked and now it sounds like Tom doing R&B though his twisted mind. Really good stuff.

[Mr.Sensi]

Next up - Tundra 4.

[YEK]

it sounds like he's jamming a lot, it sounds like a live album though it isn't

[Guest AcrossCanyons]

it sounds like he's jamming a lot, it sounds like a live album though it isn't

 

Isn't that the idea? Crowd samples n all?

[Chris Moss Acid]

i can tell you in full confidence that the album ultravisitor is maybe live and maybe not.

[goDel]

how about digging up the thread where it was leaked. hope mr j hasn't deleted it.

[Stock]

Ultravisitor is just like, what, my favourite album ?

Yeah

 

It works, it flows, it jumps between your ears and makes love to your mind all night long, 'til you fall asleep with a feeling of being part of the Universe and part of your own body. Yes. SIMULTANEOUSLY.

 

This is an experience. And I basically never heard something like this. Quite unique.

Thanks.

[Guest bitroast]

pure psychedelia musical genius.

his best effort : )

[Root5]

It's really cool how he mixes live recordings with studio recording of him playing his instruments, with electronic music. It's a beautiful cycle between those three elements.

 

Interestingly enough, when I play electronic music around my parents, they usually don't like it much because they think it is lacking a "human element". But my dad instantly loved Ultravisitor.

[Stock]

Interestingly enough, when I play electronic music around my parents, they usually don't like it much because they think it is lacking a "human element". But my dad instantly loved Ultravisitor.

 

This is cool. Amongst all the Squarepusher I own, and amongst approx. all the electronic albums I own, my parents really can't stand Ultravisitor, except the most "mellow" tracks (Iambic 9 Poetry). Same thing goes with my friends, even when they're into electronic stuff and sometimes into Squarepusher : I guess Ultravisitor sounds too unusual for 'em. For sure the album has its identity, giving it this strength, but to me that's a good thing. Maybe that's why it needs a bit more time to "click" with the listener, I don't know. But it's clearly not as easy as Hello Everything, for example.

[mcbpete]

I'd say it's by far my favourite Squarepusher album, there's so many outstanding tracks on it ...

[karmakramer]

his best album yeah!

[YEK]

but i don't own it (record) :(

[Stock]

but i don't own it (record) :(

 

WHAT DA HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR ?

[YEK]

but i don't own it (record) :(

 

WHAT DA HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR ?

record. i own the cd...

[Guest hahathhat]

i still don't particularly like this album. it's just too... chewed over. like on Menelec, this long-winded intro, meh. but these drums, sure, i'll take that. that bassline is nice. but where's it going?? no!! stop those annoying tiny little edits! i don't care!! ARGH

[Root5]

i still don't particularly like this album. it's just too... chewed over. like on Menelec, this long-winded intro, meh. but these drums, sure, i'll take that. that bassline is nice. but where's it going?? no!! stop those annoying tiny little edits! i don't care!! ARGH

 

You need to think of where the album is going, not the tracks (well, not all of them at least).

[Guest hahathhat]

nowhere?

[phudoshin]

remember the UV live tour?

 

Particularly blinding white light and CO2 for "Steinbolt" made you really feel that you were on another planet... as you were utterly surrounded by pure white fog. A planet that was about to eat you!!!

[chim]

Definitely his best album.

[Guest hahathhat]

i always felt that ultravisitor was squarepusher trying to compete with afx's drukqs... but drukqs has a coherency ultravisitor lacks. despite the dizzying, insane number of events going down, drukqs is remarkably coherent and easy for the ear to follow. ultravisitor isn't. i hear the edits and cuts i love from big loada -- those sudden blasts of flange etc., you know? but instead of being amazed at the picture, i lose the plot. i find myself tapping my foot and waiting for the track to end, some foothold or something. but no, he wants you to be amazed at how much detail there is and how he spent two months recursively editing the track until it was the maximum utmost etc. and fuck you if you want a coherent song to hum along to instead of some pretentious astral voyage to uranus.

 

furthermore, i find the spanish guitar/acoustic/etc crap boring as hell, and there's a lot of it on ultravisitor. but that's not tom's fault -- i'm not a huge fan of most of the drukqs piano trax either. i like drum machines

 

edit: i just found out venus no. 17 is from ultravisitor era? i love venus no. 17.... why can't ultravisitor be like THAT?

[Guest Wall Bird]

fuck you if you want a coherent song to hum along to instead of some pretentious astral voyage to uranus.

 

That's the reason I decide to listen to Ultravisitor. The album happens to be a very specific and extreme permutation of musical composition that certainly has no agenda of trying to cover every musical angle. It's a very specialized kind of music that one listens to for a certain kind of release that you sure aren't going to find anywhere else.

 

I don't think there's anything pretentious about this album. It seems that whenever anyone uses the word pretentious they're doing it in a way that suggests the accused person is not able to be the thing they may be projecting themselves as. As if they're some sort of poser. I think Tom deliberate in not presenting himself as anything other than a very dedicated musician; one who happens to be pushing the limits of his imagination and virtuosity.