laut.de-Kritik
Altersmilde Soulfunk-Disco vom IDM-Braumeister.
Review von Daniel StraubZusammen mit seinem Entdecker und Förderer Aphex Twin gehört Tom Jenkinson alias Squarepusher zu den einflussreichsten Figuren der britischen Elektronik-Szene. Seit Mitte der 90er Jahre veröffentlicht Jenkinson seine zumeist experimentellen Soundgebilde, vorzugsweise auf dem renommierten Progressive-Label Warp Records. Dort erscheint jetzt mit "Just A Souvenir" auch sein inzwischen elftes Studioalbum.
Mit den 14 Tracks des Longplayers setzt Squarepusher die breits auf "Hello Everything" durchscheinende musikalische Entwicklung fort. Die radikale Phase der strukturellen Dekonstruktion von Musiktraditionen scheint sich endgültig ihrem Ende zuzuneigen. Dennoch sind diese Stücke natürlich noch längst kein Mainstream. Die Freude am Experiment ist schließlich eine der essenziellen Eigenschaften Tom Jenkinsons.
Diese Freude führt Squarepusher weg von abstrakten Beat-Ungestümen hin zu Sounds und Strukturen, die ihre Inspiration aus Jazz, Disco und Breakbeat ziehen. Entsprechend scharf sind mitunter die Kontraste, die man in den Tracks auf "Just A Souvenir" vorfindet. Den Auftakt des Albums machen die gleichermaßen luftigen wie jazzigen Nummern "Star Time 2" und "The Coathanger".
Wer sich aufgrund von früheren Releases auf extreme Hörerfahrungen eingestellt hat, der wird hier von den beinahe schon poppigen Anwandlungen des Briten überrascht. Man wartet heuer vergeblich auf eine atonale Soundexplosion. Mehr noch: Squarepusher entlockt seinem Studio mit "A Real Woman" einen Disco-Pop-Track inklusive cheesy Vocader-Vocals. "Just A Souvenir" klingt organisch, ist dem analogen Sound von Gitarre, Percussion oder Klavier nachempfunden.
Die 70er Jahre und ihr Erbe aus Soul, Funk und Disco sind denn auch der prägendste Einfluss, der sich auf "Just A Souvenir" ausmachen lässt. Alleine das erstaunt. Schließlich wurde Squarepusher in der Vergangenheit immer als wichtiger Vertreter der elektronische Avantgarde stilisiert. Da wirkt sein neuer Longplayer beinahe ein bisschen altersmilde. Aber keine Angst, Jenkinso ist noch keine 35. Da stehen zukünftig bestimmt auch wieder wildere Zeiten ins Haus.
6 Kommentare
27.10 über Warp
Cover (http://www.warprecords.com/media/img/WARPC…)
1 Star Time 2 (5:02)
2 The Coathanger (4:03)
3 Open Society (1:04)
4 A Real Woman (3:04)
5 Delta-V (4:08)
6 Aqueduct (1:38)
7 Potential Govaner (2:11)
8 Planet Gear (4:02)
9 Tensor In Green (3:42)
10 The Glass Road (7:10)
11 Fluxgate (1:08)
12 Duotone Moonbeam (2:27)
13 Quadrature (3:20)
14 Yes Sequitur (1:27)
Squarepusher über das Album:
“This album started as a daydream about watching a crazy, beautiful rock band play an ultra-gig.
At first, a giant fluorescent image of a coat hanger appeared at the back of the stage. A couple of seconds later a full size replica of the Camden Falcon backroom materialised around the glowing coat hanger. Upon the stage was a group composed of five musicians. They seemed to be of differing ages, some young, some old. I noticed that the drummer was an Eskimo. They played instruments either of their own design or conventional ones that were modified such that they could be used to generate a range of sounds not typically associated with a rock band. For instance, one of the musicians appeared to be using a device attached to the body of his classical guitar that allowed him to accelerate or decelerate time in his immediate vicinity. At a certain point he seemed to quickly reverse back to a couple of months ago. My suspicions were corroborated by his hair and beard temporarily looking rather shorter. Sonically, this had the effect of extruding certain melodic phrases into shimmering monoliths and slow emotion wave fronts. Other sounds being generated near to him on stage also got partially sucked into the time sponge and were returned at high speed as imploded sonic pin cushions.
The coat hanger started glowing emerald green. At the same time, a river emerged on the stage and appeared to be running under the drum kit. I was concerned for the safety of the musicians being as it was that they were powering their other-worldly equipment with electricity. Just as I began to venture a comment, the members of the band that weren’t kayaking were enveloped in a localised electrical storm. As the electricity arced around various nodal points such as the drummer’s left hand, the guitarist’s teeth and a Venus fly trap that was sitting just behind the bass amp, I noticed to my relief that they weren’t being incinerated by this high voltage extravaganza. No, but it did seem to have the effect of generating a bass -distortion that sounded as if the bass guitar was actually a RSJ being played with a chainsaw, enclosed in a ventilated cabinet of fine mahogany. In fact, the high voltage was smash-mapping the bass line to a lightning wave and then amplifying it millions of times over. The bassist was now using the entire building as a speaker.
My vision at this stage was hence somewhat blurred, but I am sure I saw all of the drums in the drummer’s kit rapidly exchanging places with one another. The snare drum would occasionally rocket to the ceiling and hover there for minutes at a time, oscillating at rates factorially related to the tempo. Thus it started to act as a receiver for electromagnetic radiation emitted by nearby neutron stars. The strange lonely songs of astral bodies echoed about the room as their electromagnetic radiation was demodulated by the UHF calf skin. Then it exploded, showering the band in pieces of plywood.
It was at this stage that my attention was switched to the electric guitar player. Splinters of detonated snare drum were striking the strings of his guitar such that his right hand was free to operate a cupboard full of granite spheres illuminated in a dull orange. As he did, his person rapidly fragmented into various historical stages of mankind. For example, there was a Cro-Magnon man and a Homo Erectus playing Monopoly. The Cro-Magnon appeared to be winning. Suddenly the Cro-Magnon was in a headlock. Suddenly everyone in the room was incredibly happy. Riffs of medieval joy bloomed about the small man as he struggled to fight back tears of elation. They were happy because they were real. They were smoking because they were real. The coat hanger winked out, they thanked me and left forthwith leaving no trace save a small dent where a pantechnicon lorry had smashed through the back wall of the stage to deliver a replacement snare drum.
What to do after an experience of that order? As the room around me regained its familiar shape, I was left with an urgent sense of responsibility that I do honour to this vision of a remarkable ensemble. My memory of it was the only souvenir, and I feared its vulnerability with only a skull to protect it. I ventured forth to the studio shortly after the New Year. I emerged on July 15th. This is the result. I hope you enjoy it. ”
squarepusher ist gott!
hello everything ist genial, da freue ich mich doch aufs neue album!
das erinnert mich daran, dass ich mich mal mehr mit diesem Künstler befassen sollte, kenne nur "Sqaurepusher Theme"
.
Das solltest du auf jesen Fall.
Ich würde ja Hard Normal Daddy oder Go Plastic empfehlen.
Für Empfehlungen bin ich immer offen!
Danke diesbezüglich.
Sqaurepusher steht schon auf meiner ToDo-List
Man kanns übrigens schon bei bleep.com kaufen
und delta-v beim Myspace von Warprecords hören
http://www.myspace.com/warprecords
+ Tour
Wed 19th - Trabendo, Paris
Frid 21st - Non Stop Cinema, Graz
Sat 22nd - Diesel, Budapest
Wed 26th - Volksbuhne Theatre, Berlin
Fri 28th - Melkweg, Amsterdam
Sun 30 - Vooruit, Ghent
December
Fri 5th - Sun 7th - Nightmare before Christmas - Butlin’s, Minehead
Thurs 11th - Numbers @ ABC, Glasgow
Fri 12th - The Warehouse Project Manchester