Search - Squarepusher :: Go Plastic

Huh?

bowery boy | seattle | 07/27/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I don't "get" squarepusher.Having bought 'budakhan mindphone' and only liking two tracks on it, I was skeptical about buying this release. However, after reading the rave reviews on this page, having the guy at the music store rant and rave on and on about this CD and the fact that squarepusher is touring with plaid, one of my favorite IDM/electronica artists whom I plan on seeing live, I bought this CD.Now, I love IDM/jungle/drum'n'bass/experimental type of stuff (like industrial pioneers throbbing gristle or the analog sonic assaults of add N to (X) ) and autechre is my all time favorite electronic artist but squarepusher baffles me. Don't get me wrong, there are moments of brilliance here i.e. 'my red hot car' is an awesome track that lives up to all of the accolades on this page (and is he saying what i think he's saying?). I love the spastic shouted vocals backed with manic drum beats on 'the exploding pscyhology'. 'i wish you could talk' is dreamy perfection and the one track I really like a lot and 'plaistow flex out' is a laidback analog close to the disc. However the other tracks sound like random electric screeches, squelches and jarring beats haphazardly thrown together. I could do the same thing on my music generator for playstation ... and I have.I guess to really appreciate squarepusher you must be under the influence of some mind altering consciousness raising hallucinogenic ... whatever. I gave this CD three stars because it's average. Not really bad but not really good. For me (and those are the key words here: FOR ME) I like music that is challenging but I couldn't find the challenge here. Perhaps as I get older my music tastes are slowly changing or perhaps the state of electronic music is becoming so stagnant and tired that now the challenge is to find the music amongst the chaos and debris (check out autechre's new release ... yeesch). I think I'll stick to the softer, more organic sounds of plaid.Buy 'go plastic' only if you're a tried and true squarepusher fan as all of the reviewers on this page are. I'm just trying to add a little diversity to the reviews so those out there who haven't heard squarepusher before can get both sides of the coin before making a decision."

My new favorite Squarepusher album

Jacob Frautschi | Los Angeles, CA 90026 | 03/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lately, Squarepusher has been outdoing himself with every release (with the exception of Do You Know Squarepusher? - a hit-and-miss EP). This is my new favorite album of his. He is the only electronic artists who can stimulate my mind as much as some of the best jazz musicians. True to jazz, most of this album's drum tracks never repeat themselves - and at the frenetic jungle-like pace he sometimes achieves, I can only wonder how much time and effort must have gone into it (and that's just the drum tracks! Influenced, I'm sure, by hearing his dad play).Squarepusher often utilizes effects and modulates the sounds he uses as much as the notes themselves as an output for his musical genious (with just as much spontenaity, intelligence, and creativity), taking his art to the next level. Even though I'm playing this album for the 30th-40th time, I still hear something new with every listen. He really takes advantage of the electronic music production environment and crafts his work to perfection.A few of the tracks don't stand incredibly well on their own (this is no pop album), but they fit beautifully into the whole of the work. This is truly an album - when I listen to it I listen from beginning to end (with the exception of My Red Hot Car, which is a good way to introduce friends to the crazy world of Squarepusher).If you like Squarepusher for his jungle-jazz side, this is the epitome of his greatest work - the fusion of his earlier head-nodding hardcore and drum-n-bass with his later adventures in spaced-out-acid-jazz and avant-garde synthesizerings. It is hard for me to write a review of this man's work with out using a bunch of hyphenated or made-up words, because there is no genre - no generic name - for the music. It is Squarepusher."

Back in top form!

Matthew D. Mercer | Chicago, IL United States | 07/18/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have always regarded Tom Jenkinson as a true musical genius, one of the few. His early work like "Feed Me Weird Things" and "Hard Normal Daddy" blew the roof off of drum & bass conventions with its frenetic beats and insane attention to detail.Quality control went out the window with some of his more recent EPs, with the exception of the genuinely interesting "Music is Rotted One Note" release. And now, after a long hiatus (a welcomed one, to be sure), he has returned with "Go Plastic," easily his most accomplished work to date.The tracks here not only reprise all areas of his backcatalogue (including some of the more caustic moments of Chaos AD) but also manage to combine them with a lot of the newer, crazier electronics of artists like Richard Devine and Otto von Schirach on the Schematic label. However, it is Jenkinsons's prowess as a musician that propels his tracks into a whole different zone from any of what else is happening in electronic music. "Greenways Trajectory," "My F*cking Sound" and "Boneville Occident" are amazing in their construction, not just in programming and technique, but in overall songwriting form; they take you on a full-blown journey.After sitting through "Go Plastic," most likely you'll be glad it's over... and even need a few moments to recover! And then turn it on all over again."