Wednesday, May 30, 2007

i am very much upset and have been for the past few days because, in a cruel twist of fate, i will not be on these green and pleasant lands on the 20th to 22nd of august when mr. tom jenkinson will be “taking a computer and just bustin the computer open and making some music out of it” at glade – which would be worth the ticket price alone if the rest of the lineup wasn’t also so fucking killer, they got everyone from vsnares to scotch egg up in there.

in an effort to fend off this depression i’ve been trying to formulate some logic within my brain which dictates that squarepusher isn’t actually the greatest musical genius of all time and the fact that i have never EVER seen him live isn’t a heinous omission from my lifestory punishable by death but it’s just not working so instead i’ve decided to orate in the form of five reasons just why he’s such a fucking genius, after each of which i’ve posted a track by him which illustrates the point but isn’t as venerated as songs with a video by chris Cunningham, which seems to be all most people care about in terms of idm really (“aphex twin? Oh shit yeah he’s fucked up, you seen the come to daddy video?” – yeah shut the fuck up)

1. his attention to melody is just as intricate and perfectly contrived as his attention to spasmodic skitzoid drum programming. with nothing but his good friend roland mr. jenkinson can weave a tune which sounds like the future but feels as warm and familiar as the past.

squarepusher - tomorrow world (from selection sixteen)

2. he does insanity just as insanely as the most insane end of the breakcore spectrum yet even when he’s assaulting your ears and melting your brain it never sounds detatced and ironic or offensive, but always gleeful and inclusive, like he himself says if you don’t appreciate his shizat the only possible reason is that you’re “stupid and stubborn”

squarepusher - go! spastic (from go plastic)

3. i’m a traditionalist, me, I like my rockers drug-addled and debauches and my electronic wizards nerdy and obsessive, so I always find it very disheartening when there’s an interview with the latter and they seem to be moronic wreckheads like many of their fans. Luckily, though, tommy fits quite neatly into the “nerdy and obsessive” category as his ten-million page long manifresto in the do you squarepusher liner notes can attest. in interviews he often seems unassuming and quite bemused by the extent of his godlike status and desperate to get back to his reclusive existence, meddling with circuit boards and finding new sounds a bass guitar can make when plugged into five laptops and ten distortion pedals. or something.

squarepusher - do you know squarepusher (from do you know squarepusher)

4. in addition to being a master of the beat and bleep, quite unlike any of the other paradigms of idm, tom jenkinson is also a virtuoso jazz musician. On bass, of course, he IS the fucking daddy but he’s also been known to drop some guitar both electric and acoustic and when not beating the fuck out of the amen break he’s a very talented sticksman too.

squarepusher - chunks (from music is rotted one note)

5. this quote

"The point of using live versions of the tracks is that they show stupid people that, though their own stubbornness prevents them from being able to engage with my music, they hear other people cheering in the background, and realise that although this music is obscure, it cannot be totally inaccessible because other people like it. Because it is obscure, but not totally inaccessible, this makes it cool. This makes stupid people buy it. One day their children will dust it off and play it, and realise that I am the supreme musical genius of my generation. This means I'll still be able to play gigs when I'm an old fart with no ideas. Hopefully."

squarepusher - tetra-sync (from ultravisitor)

and now i wish i'd found room for journey to reedham and theme from ernest borgnine.

buy them

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