Do You Know Squarepusher

by

Squarepusher

Edit

This album travels from one end of the IDM spectrum to the other: pop->punk->experimental->Joy Division. Well, the joy division part was just the statement of intent. This album is great music throughout, but it is only one song of each style, so it leaves you wanting more. Kind of a death by diversity. Regardless, this album's point has been well proven by the comments of the audience. Love ~will~ tear us apart. The pop heads all love the first song, (which sort of demonstrates through the constantly shifting DnB styles, the fact that the beat style doesn't change the song that much at all. it kind of steps on the hands of the jenre wh0res out there who think that "tech step is far supreior to dark step or two step or blah blah blah.") but they hate "all that noise [stuff] at the end." On the other side, the experimental freaks all turn their noses up at the poppier songs as being sonically uncreative and overly commercial. As for the Joy Division cover, it seems like no one understood that. oh well.

As music, DYKS is an interesting tour of the scene, and as art, it is the most poigniant work to date. This album is for music lovers, not trendiods with limited tastes. :-p

It *was* still too damn short, and the live disk *was* an insult. Don't pay [too much]. :-)

This album seems to be decidedly unreviewed on Amazon.com (Amazon.co.uk, by the way, has many more user reviews of this particular album). While I really don't want to criticize any reviewing style, "Do You Know Squarepusher" seems not to be have yet been extensively reviewed here for it's actual content. I hope this review will do just that.

The first CD has the new stuff.

The two tracks that possibly make this album worth it are "Do You Know Squarepusher" (the title track) and "Anstromm-Feck 4". The title track is a pristine and masterful drill n bass piece, sporting superb mixing of its drums, its manipulated vocal bits, and its pristine lead humming a quirky and moody melody. Anstromm-Feck 4 is fast and tightly sequenced, a sort of Drum n Bass anthem twisted into a Drill n Bass brain-splatterer.

Now the other tracks are somewhat less interesting, in my opinion. "F-Train" is probably the best of them, with trippy, quirky, drums, layered with a mumbling science-fiction rant. Its quite similar in sound, in fact, to his track "50 Cycles" on his "Ultravisitor" album. "Kill Robok" has a similar set of quirked-out experimental drums, but lacks the vocals, reducing it to not much more than a novelty. "Conc 2 Symmetriac" and "Mutilation Colony" are both experimental ambient tracks, neither of which I found particularly noteworthy. The last track is a passable cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart Again", and completely different from all the other tracks on the CD, as it's primarily acoustic in flavor and only moderately syncopated.

The second CD is a live recording, containing mostly tracks from this album and from Squarepusher's previous album "Go Plastic!". I personally found the recording very muddled, and the live atmosphere not really worth the price of quality. I prefer listening to these tracks in their original form, as Squarepusher's music just doesn't sound right muffled. His breakcore bits need to remain crisp, and his sparkling leads need to keep their crystalline clarity. In short, I've heard much better live recordings.

All in all, this CD's got some good content, but not enough of it. "Mutilation Colony" fills up an entire 10 minutes of the first CD, and is pointedly unvaried. While I like ambient music, it just clogs up a drill n bass line-up, and felt a bit suspiciously like filler.

If you like Squarepusher, and already have most of his other CD's, then I'd recommend buying "Do You Know Squarepusher". Otherwise, I'd recommend some of Squarepusher's other CD's over this one, such as "Go Plastic!" or "Ultravisitor".

I hope this was helpful!