Thanks WR. I got the crowd noise thing (never been a big fan of that). I just wanted to know if he was actually playing the drums on that track or not.
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Tom Jenkinson / Squarepusher
- Thread starter rwagne2
- Start date
I don't know, but I do know that on Ultravisitor one of the midi sounds he uses is found on the roland midi systems. I recognized it because it's on my roommates gr-33 and I've used it before. (even though Jenkinson effected it a bunch)
Friend of mine just saw him in NC the other night. She said it was amazing. I've only heard clips of his stuff...sounds cool tho.
I'm going to see him at the Glade Festival in July! And I saw him at Reading Festival last year, was really good, but he spent pretty much his whole set swearing at the sound guys because the PA was crap... At one point he threw (yes threw) his Warwick Corvette onto the floor (it went blllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnggggg!) and stormed off stage, and it was possible to hear him shouting at the guys off to the side of the stage 
Was funny, but not so great for listening to
Was funny, but not so great for listening to
It was a fantastic show, and after some more thought, I would rank it among the top 10 best shows I have seen!
I am pretty new to Squarepusher, and when I saw him, I had only been introduced to his music a few weeks earlier. I am now a big fan of his. There was one song that he played that had a sampled sound of a drum kit that sounded very live, (i looked for a drummer off to the side, and there was none...), and he played bass to, and it was great, as was the rest of the set. I am not sure what it was called, but I would be curious as to that. My favorites of his so far are Come on My Selector, My F*&^ing Sound
, and Squarepusher Theme. The man is BAD!
I think that people like him, and Aphex Twin, and I'm sure several others, bring a new light, and level of talent to electronic music. One that MUSICIANS can actually appreciate.
I am pretty new to Squarepusher, and when I saw him, I had only been introduced to his music a few weeks earlier. I am now a big fan of his. There was one song that he played that had a sampled sound of a drum kit that sounded very live, (i looked for a drummer off to the side, and there was none...), and he played bass to, and it was great, as was the rest of the set. I am not sure what it was called, but I would be curious as to that. My favorites of his so far are Come on My Selector, My F*&^ing Sound
, and Squarepusher Theme. The man is BAD!I think that people like him, and Aphex Twin, and I'm sure several others, bring a new light, and level of talent to electronic music. One that MUSICIANS can actually appreciate.
www.warprecords.com
Squarepusher's label, many other great acts on it, like autechre, Prefuse 73*, boards of canada, plaid..etc.
Another great artist is µ-ziq, he's Aphex Twin(Richard D james'**) old partner, Mike. His music is as experimental and interesting as Rich's, only it's generally far more palpable.
As for the 'great sounding sampled kit', I haven't seen him live recently, but I'd wager it's so 'great sounding' because it's his kit and playing that he sampled.
*Real name: Scott Herren, Aliases include: Prefuse 73, Savath and savalas, Delarosa+asora
**Richard D. James Aliases include: AFX, Caustic Window, Power pill, GAK, Joyrex. His record label is Invalid Link Removed
Squarepusher's label, many other great acts on it, like autechre, Prefuse 73*, boards of canada, plaid..etc.
Another great artist is µ-ziq, he's Aphex Twin(Richard D james'**) old partner, Mike. His music is as experimental and interesting as Rich's, only it's generally far more palpable.
As for the 'great sounding sampled kit', I haven't seen him live recently, but I'd wager it's so 'great sounding' because it's his kit and playing that he sampled.
*Real name: Scott Herren, Aliases include: Prefuse 73, Savath and savalas, Delarosa+asora
**Richard D. James Aliases include: AFX, Caustic Window, Power pill, GAK, Joyrex. His record label is Invalid Link Removed
John Ruiz said:
That one might be 'Iambic 9 Poetry' off Ultravisitor, kinda slow, harmonics n stuff... Those drums sound very live, kinda amateurish but it works really well.
I don't get it. I've listened to Ultravisitor and for the most part - it's best described as post-modern gunk. An Anti-melody - anti-harmony noise fest without the slightest hint of anything beyond the most basic musical understanding. (Circlewave for example)
The "live" stuff sounds like a kid recorded his keyless, time signature-less noodlefest with his V-bass and mixed in some crowd effects so he could listen to it and pretend it's his "live" CD. I refer you to C-Town Smash.
Everyday I Love sounds fake, humanless - empty. It sounds like a demo for MIDI - not a hint of sublety or nuance.
Why doesn't he unplug the V-Bass "models and processing" jujst sit down with the bass and just play it about 10 BPM slower - with feeling - with some semblance of humanity? Could he even?
An Arched Pathway is simply noise. No offense but Reznor did noise better and Skinny Puppy and Ministry did it better before him.
Menelec? Glitch is so 89-90. Jeeeze already.
To say this guy makes Jaco look like a jerk-off is probably one of the more musically ignorant statements I ever read on here. It's the exhaltation of - at best - a moderate talent over that who was clearly a master by every definition
That's pretty sad.This "music" won't last 10 years. It will be forgotten.
The same cannot be said of Jaco's work.
Bass of Galt said:
I don't get it. I've listened to Ultravisitor and for the most part - it's best described as post-modern gunk. An Anti-melody - anti-harmony noise fest without the slightest hint of anything beyond the most basic musical understanding. (Circlewave for example)
The "live" stuff sounds like a kid recorded his keyless, time signature-less noodlefest with his V-bass and mixed in some crowd effects so he could listen to it and pretend it's his "live" CD. I refer you to C-Town Smash.
Everyday I Love sounds fake, humanless - empty. It sounds like a demo for MIDI - not a hint of sublety or nuance.
Why doesn't he unplug the V-Bass "models and processing" jujst sit down with the bass and just play it about 10 BPM slower - with feeling - with some semblance of humanity? Could he even?
An Arched Pathway is simply noise. No offense but Reznor did noise better and Skinny Puppy and Ministry did it better before him.
Menelec? Glitch is so 89-90. Jeeeze already.
To say this guy makes Jaco look like a jerk-off is probably one of the more musically ignorant statements I ever read on here. It's the exhaltation of - at best - a moderate talent over that who was clearly a master by every definition
This "music" won't last 10 years. It will be forgotten.
The same cannot be said of Jaco's work.
I think you may be approaching this at the wrong angle. "Ultravisitor" sounds NOTHING like his previous albums. He is attempting here to do a little more with his bass than he was in his previous albums.
This is not jazz, and I wouldn't dare compare him to Jaco, or any other Jazz artist. This is electronic music, and like it or not, he has been around for 8 1/2 years, and I doubt he will be going away anytime soon.
The thead starter compared him to Jaco - therefore for me question the comparison is legit.
The "wrong angle"? I listened to the CD being commented on by the thread starter who said it is "his best work yet". He's obviously a fan (tom is his "god" afterall) therefore I can only trust that it is indeed his "best work yet".
For the sake of argument - I'll grab some more tunes from other releases for compraison.
But I stand by my orginal comment.
Ultravisitor is highly unlikely to stand the test of time.
The "wrong angle"? I listened to the CD being commented on by the thread starter who said it is "his best work yet". He's obviously a fan (tom is his "god" afterall) therefore I can only trust that it is indeed his "best work yet".
For the sake of argument - I'll grab some more tunes from other releases for compraison.
But I stand by my orginal comment.
Ultravisitor is highly unlikely to stand the test of time.
Bass of Galt said:
Yeah, the only person I can compare to Jaco is Jeff Berlin- maybe Michael Manring.
I am just saying that I think you may have started out on Squarepusher with the wrong album. Start early and come to the present.
Forgot one thing... if you don't like electronic music, you wont like the early stuff.
Actually I love electronic music from all all genres - but for me it's got to have some intelligence and most of all - soul.
I'm glad you mention Michael Manring - cuz his last album "The Book of Flame" is what I'd consider to be vastly intelligent electronic music that takes the bass into adventerous new territory.
It's not a chops-fest, or a appropriate for club spin - but listen with headphones and you hear some amazing things on every song. It's very William Orbit.
Also Doug Wimbish's "Trippy notes for Bass" can easily be heard as simply a top notch down tempo/dub project until you realize it's almost all basses! Amazing, creative and human.
Electronic music does not have to be sterile. Even Kraftwerk had moments of humanity and soul!
Like I said - I will listen to more Squarepusher because I WANT to hear as much great stuff as exists. I sincerely hope I find a new source of inspiration in Tom's eariler work.
But Ultravisitor is pretty lame.
I'm glad you mention Michael Manring - cuz his last album "The Book of Flame" is what I'd consider to be vastly intelligent electronic music that takes the bass into adventerous new territory.
It's not a chops-fest, or a appropriate for club spin - but listen with headphones and you hear some amazing things on every song. It's very William Orbit.
Also Doug Wimbish's "Trippy notes for Bass" can easily be heard as simply a top notch down tempo/dub project until you realize it's almost all basses! Amazing, creative and human.
Electronic music does not have to be sterile. Even Kraftwerk had moments of humanity and soul!
Like I said - I will listen to more Squarepusher because I WANT to hear as much great stuff as exists. I sincerely hope I find a new source of inspiration in Tom's eariler work.
But Ultravisitor is pretty lame.
Bass of Galt said:Actually I love electronic music from all all genres - but for me it's got to have some intelligence and most of all - soul.
I'm glad you mention Michael Manring - cuz his last album "The Book of Flame" is what I'd consider to be vastly intelligent electronic music that takes the bass into adventerous new territory.
It's not a chops-fest, or a appropriate for club spin - but listen with headphones and you hear some amazing things on every song. It's very William Orbit.
Also Doug Wimbish's "Trippy notes for Bass" can easily be heard as simply a top notch down tempo/dub project until you realize it's almost all basses! Amazing, creative and human.
Electronic music does not have to be sterile. Even Kraftwerk had moments of humanity and soul!
Like I said - I will listen to more Squarepusher because I WANT to hear as much great stuff as exists. I sincerely hope I find a new source of inspiration in Tom's eariler work.
But Ultravisitor is pretty lame.
It would be best to hear his earlier stuff just to know where he is coming from. For example, Iambic 9 Poetry is a sequel in sorts to Iambic 5 Poetry (both great cuts). However, if you can't get into it, then you can't get into it. It's not the end of the world!
God, I wish someone else would chime in on the subject though. I have only been listening to this guy for a couple of months! We need and experienced Squarepusher fan in here...
Interesting how you would say that ultravisitor is such a conflagration of noise an amateurish production, and cite a couple examples, but are you forgetting iambic9 poetry, andrei, Telluric Piece, Every Day I love, Circlewave, tetrasync, tommib help buss
Those pieces, particularly andrei and iambic are brilliantly composed, produced and performed. If you are any familiar with squarepusher's work you will know it's always a very mixed bag, he'll play a soothing, thoughtful, emotional ballad, then turn it into an ear pounding heart exploding barrage of noise in a second.
even in this respect you could easily compare him to jaco, who, wrote such wonderful tunes, but also wrote such chaotic tunes. Who would have no problems cranking the distortion and tearing a ripping solo in the middle of a ballad seemingly just to **** with people.
If you are familiar with other contemporaries of Squarepusher; Autechre, Aphex Twin, µ-ziq, Plaid(to mention a few) you would see an amazing variety of sounds, some soothing and immersive in their composition and sounds. Others totally disjointed and difficult to listen to.
There are many differences to the aforementioned artists, but one common thread is that they all love to **** with sound, be it for easy listening or for headache inducing. They also are not afraid to throw it all at you at once, and bugger you if you can't stomach it.*
So, you get Tom jenkinson who doesn't want to be pinned down to any one sound, he wants to constantly throw people curve balls, have fun with his sonic experiments, push the boundaries of conventional drum and bass music, Throw out a bunch of whacked out **** and then laugh at the world.
He cites Duck Dunn as being one of his biggest influences, the man that made him pick up bass and such. Whoulda thunk from listening to his music though
You mention soul, and I think that this is an interesting point, I respect your opinion, but I would argue that humans give soul to music regardless of the means that it is created. If not through physical playing, then through composition, arrangement and production.
Additionally, there is more to expression than simply putting your soul on the line(so to speak) I don't know about you, but when I listen to a lot of the more abstract, not-easy-to-take-in electronic music, (the real head-**** stuff) I can feel the emotion of the creator, through the way he crafts it. Or, like a good poem, I can feel my emotions reflect off the music, for better or worse.
*not my sentiment
Those pieces, particularly andrei and iambic are brilliantly composed, produced and performed. If you are any familiar with squarepusher's work you will know it's always a very mixed bag, he'll play a soothing, thoughtful, emotional ballad, then turn it into an ear pounding heart exploding barrage of noise in a second.
even in this respect you could easily compare him to jaco, who, wrote such wonderful tunes, but also wrote such chaotic tunes. Who would have no problems cranking the distortion and tearing a ripping solo in the middle of a ballad seemingly just to **** with people.
If you are familiar with other contemporaries of Squarepusher; Autechre, Aphex Twin, µ-ziq, Plaid(to mention a few) you would see an amazing variety of sounds, some soothing and immersive in their composition and sounds. Others totally disjointed and difficult to listen to.
There are many differences to the aforementioned artists, but one common thread is that they all love to **** with sound, be it for easy listening or for headache inducing. They also are not afraid to throw it all at you at once, and bugger you if you can't stomach it.*
So, you get Tom jenkinson who doesn't want to be pinned down to any one sound, he wants to constantly throw people curve balls, have fun with his sonic experiments, push the boundaries of conventional drum and bass music, Throw out a bunch of whacked out **** and then laugh at the world.
He cites Duck Dunn as being one of his biggest influences, the man that made him pick up bass and such. Whoulda thunk from listening to his music though
You mention soul, and I think that this is an interesting point, I respect your opinion, but I would argue that humans give soul to music regardless of the means that it is created. If not through physical playing, then through composition, arrangement and production.
Additionally, there is more to expression than simply putting your soul on the line(so to speak) I don't know about you, but when I listen to a lot of the more abstract, not-easy-to-take-in electronic music, (the real head-**** stuff) I can feel the emotion of the creator, through the way he crafts it. Or, like a good poem, I can feel my emotions reflect off the music, for better or worse.
*not my sentiment
Hey Guys - lets not get into a wizzing contest about who's better and who is a legend and who is not. That's not my intention.
FWIW - I did comment on Every Day I Love - I said it sounded like a demo for MIDI. What's with that classical guitar patch he's using? I don't know- it sounds too fake to touch me. That's me - I understand it moves others and I don't want to take that away from anyone - really!
I'd say the same thing about andrei. It sounds fake to me. I think the patches he uses takes away from his playing. It makes it sound sterile and programmed. I'd love to hear these peices on a bass plugged into an amp. Again - simply my opinion.
Let's not loose sight of what I originally responded to. The statement that Tom Jenkinson makes Jaco look like a jerk off.
Regardless of your musical tastes - it's a serious stretch to justify a comment like that. That's all I really wanted to address. I don't want to be hating on anyone.
FWIW - I did comment on Every Day I Love - I said it sounded like a demo for MIDI. What's with that classical guitar patch he's using? I don't know- it sounds too fake to touch me. That's me - I understand it moves others and I don't want to take that away from anyone - really!
I'd say the same thing about andrei. It sounds fake to me. I think the patches he uses takes away from his playing. It makes it sound sterile and programmed. I'd love to hear these peices on a bass plugged into an amp. Again - simply my opinion.
Let's not loose sight of what I originally responded to. The statement that Tom Jenkinson makes Jaco look like a jerk off.
Regardless of your musical tastes - it's a serious stretch to justify a comment like that. That's all I really wanted to address. I don't want to be hating on anyone.
yup... a main part of his bass tone is a Eventide Harmonizer and a Moogerfooger Ring Mod... He used no bass to midi on Ultravisitor, its all just a custom warwick 6 string... The Sony Vaio is used for Reason, which he has his sampler running through... And he actualy did play drums a a lot of this album, and he is ANYTHING but an amature...
I find it funny how some people can be so judgemental about somthing that they just do not understand...
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Alex
ps. wow, I had no idea this thread would turn out this way... I can not beleave that people dislike Tom so much, I am staying away from replying to this thread... Tom is a very important musican for me, and I may say somthing that I will regret.... So with that I say, eerrmm..
I find it funny how some people can be so judgemental about somthing that they just do not understand...
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Alex
ps. wow, I had no idea this thread would turn out this way... I can not beleave that people dislike Tom so much, I am staying away from replying to this thread... Tom is a very important musican for me, and I may say somthing that I will regret.... So with that I say, eerrmm..
Wrong Robot said:
