Squarepusher and related musicians (Breakcore/Jungle/IDM)

Post Reply New Topic

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDxU_7xmKWs[/youtube]
I love Breakcore/Jungle/IDM in general, but Squarepusher ranks up there with Venetian Snares, The Flashbulb, and Aphex Twin. Anyone else love this kind of stuff?

By the way this is also amazing EXTREMELY HARD Breakcore (warning: may blow your mind or cause a meltdown or something):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McJOpTz2wH4[/youtube]

Hmm, time for plan B.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE ANY OF THESE GUYS, THEN YOU SUCK!

*Anticipates flaming stampede*

I went to a Squarepusher gig years ago, I tagged along with some mates who were really into all that stuff, and so my expectations were pretty high, thinking it was going to be amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing.

Yeah, it was okay, but after the build up, it was a bit of an anti-climax tbh. Yeah, it was all right, but not amaaaaaazing or anything.

Just listened, Squarepusher's okay, the other stuff is shite, it's part like someone's just twiddled the tuning knob on an old analogue radio and come across different channels... plus throw in a kid who's just got a synthesizer for their birthday and they're playing with the FX, plus throw in a few random notes from someone's vocal warm up exercise. Lay it all down on separate tracks, play them all simultaneously, and hey presto you've got an assault on your eardrums. Like I said, shite.

I don't know what kind of music you like, but I'm sure the Top 40 hits in Britain are just as bad as here in the US.

I don't tend to listen to the charts, although I don't mind some stuff, as and when I hear it, but I don't go out of my way to check out chart music.

I mostly listen to BBC Radio 4 (I think it's like your PBS radio?) and the BBC World Service. I like news and current affairs and I find commercial radio too much of an assault on my ear drums.

As for what music I like, it really varies, I guess the most up to date stuff I love is Plan B's "She said". http://www.time4planb.co.uk/

I have quite a few musician friends, so instead of checking out mainstream big names, I go to some intimate gigs in smaller venues around town:

*Josephine's I think it was love gave me goose bumps when I heard her sing it live:
http://www.myspace.com/thisisjosephine

*May68 are quite cool, electro-poppy
http://www.myspace.com/may68uk

I also like Little Boots (modern, charts) and Depeche Mode (major league band, old skool) if we're talking those kinda influences.

And I like funky stuff like Jamiroquai (major league band, old skool), they're just about to release a new album... and talking of funky stuff...

Half of these guys are my neighbours, a really good live band, this is how they describe themselves "Archaic funk fables and dub migrations":
* http://www.myspace.com/caulbearers

And for something more offbeat and quirky, *Gideon Conn's quite upbeat and kind of eccentric music, and he's an amazing artist too, and some of his videos include quite cool animations and stuff:
http://www.myspace.com/gideonconn

And some really retro foot-stomping music hall type stuff... the Penny Farthing song really makes me laugh, you have to listen to the lyrics carefully, it's full of double entendres:
* http://www.myspace.com/drbutlershatstandmedicineband

* All those are local bands.

And talking of more retro stuff, some mod stuff, like The Jam (Paul Weller's Hit Parade CD contains so many classics, he's a musical genius, known as the 'Modfather'), Northern Soul (that's more of a genre), Motown (ditto) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_soul

Jazz... I'm not a huge fan of modern, what I call 'squeaky' jazz, the really modern improv stuff, which can be quite inaccessible, I like more of the 'trad jazz' the New Orleans-type jazz, and also Miles Davis, Billie Holliday, Sarah Vaughan, classics...

Jamiroquai is good, I have a couple songs by them, "Canned Heat" being my favorite. Depeche Mode's good too.

It's funny, whenever someone tells me they don't like my taste in music I assume they listen to the hits on the radio, either that or Rap/Metal. It has a lot to do with how people around my age look at it and I don't really think about the older crowd, so sorry for assuming that.

That's cool though, here it's called NPR. I don't really listen to it but when I do they have some interesting things on.

Not related, but I've always wanted to check out the UK and vacation there, being how I really admire the English culture. What do you think the best place is for tourists there?

But jumping forward in time from the Motown and Northern Soul and then the Mod era, came:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madchester

Happy Mondays
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG9QrWkcV5I

808 State still sounds fresh, to my ears anyway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jQ_bOP0HfY

808 State! Aphex Twin did an awesome remix of Flow Coma which is what got me into them.

And then Joy Division and New Order deserve a special mention:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Division - Love will tear us apart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ii8m1jgn_M

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Order - Blue Monday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftJZomwDhxQ

It's all kind of derivative/progressive really... can you make out the chronology from the Jazz through to the Motown to the Northern Soul to the Mod stuff, to the Madchester stuff, to the electronica to Squarepusher?

For music, Manchester is your Mecca! Seriously, I don't know what the statistics are, but per square mile, Manchester must have broken some records for the number of brilliant bands coming from here. But call me biased if you want!

808 State (Manchester band), Jamiroquai (Jay Kay born in Manchester)... and I've been to a Jamiroquai gig here and Squarepusher. I kind of went to a Depeche Mode gig as well, although I'd been promised tickets, but I was naughty, so was grounded, but I ran away from home and went to the venue and heard it from the outside. Again, loads of classic, superlative tracks...

Blue Monday brought back good times.

I don't listen to jazz much so I can't say I can make out the chronology. However Electronica has its own sort of chronology. (Probably stating the obvious, but Jazz or Rock featuring synthesizers isn't technically Electronica, but you probably know that.)

Have you heard of Wendy Carlos or Kraftwerk? They did some great early Electronica.

I prefer Virtual Insanity to Canned Heat... They've recently uploaded a snippet of White Knuckle Ride their next single from the album they haven't released yet, although I think I've seen a version recorded on a mobile in a club:
http://www.jamiroquai.com/

Have you heard Martin Gore's collaboration with Bomb the Bass? I think the keyboard sounds a bit like those 'stretched' things, y'know like the Justin Bieber stretch? Only this sounds like a stretched Depeche Mode track, can't think which one though... Master and Servant? People are People? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqB1LNzPXZs

Ah, yeah, NPR, that's what I was thinking of. Nah, not a particular fan of rap or metal, tbh. I don't like the misogynism that's prevalent in a lot of rap and hip hop, and metal is too much of an assault on my eardrums. I like things to be melodic, not just loud thrashy stuff.

I also like a lot of stuff that's randomly lumped together and called 'World Music' over here.

Not Wendy Carlos not, will check it out, thanks for the tip, but Kraftwerk, certainly.

Oh, and I meant the progression from Jazz through to Motown to Northern Soul to Mod to Madchester through to Acid dancy high bpm stuff... I guess I meant the electronica sort of ran parallel in a way to the latter stuff... I didn't mean to imply that jazz or electronic stuff is the same thing at all!

I guess it's more like a family tree than a linear progression, because acid jazz/funk was a branch off the main jazz branch, rather than a chronology... but I meant you can hear the previous influences, where it's come from...

And like with Little Boots, you can hear the influences of the likes of Depeche Mode and Gary Numan... btw, have you seen that YouTube video of her playing the Tenori-on?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6tLRCDqJ2c

Charlie Gillett's World Of Music on the BBC World Service radio threw up some gems as well, although he unfortunately died not so long ago.

The problem is, there's a DJ, Gilles Peterson, who presents a programme that plays some good music, but it's on a more commercial style BBC Radio channel, which is more of a young, lively type of channel, and all those stings and promos irritate the hell out of me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wq8d

Some good music here:
http://www.worldwidefestival.com/

Oh, and I forgot to mention some other favourites: Van Morrison, Johnny Cash... and Abba... and two of my favourite tracks are Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding and Tainted Love by Soft Cell... and I got into a bit of J-Pop a few years ago when I lived in China and listened to/watched their equivalent of MTV, Channel V, and I ended up with some Kinki Kids CDs.

But nope, no metal or rap... and little chart stuff!

All very random and eclectic really.

Never really got into classical or opera though either.

p.s. if you like electronic stuff, have you heard of Delia Derbyshire?

http://www.delia-derbyshire.org/