Squarepusher - Hello Everything

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Warp Records, 2006



UK based artist Tom Jenkinson broadcasts out of the endless possibilities of experimental sound warfare since his 1997 debut, an era in which he establishes his musical significance under the curios nickname of - > Squarepusher. Turns out pushing squares in the company of Jenkinson truly never gets eventless or predictable, therefore a nice occasion and an excessive amount of reasons we have here to ear the content out of his latest studio release to date: Hello Everything.

The record runs a little more than 60 minutes, though the Japan release has three bonus tracks and a Katana included. OK, I was lying - only two bonus tracks. And no Katana, either. Tom Jenkinson needs not be concerned for if and when the presence of bass guitars is evident in his surroundings, he himself being a very skillful player of the instrument in question. A quite delightful stance we shall witness in his musical approach though, in which Jenkinson's knowledge of the instrument is "but" a background element, coloring and muscling out the layered soundfabrics of clever electronics running atop each other, always holding hands.

This 2-in-1 structure seems to be an essential keypoint in Squarepusher's musical thoughts an directions as a composer, as the majority of the pieces here are relying on a strong electronic background foundation to sell the pieces off on their own merits right away, though the various solo instruments are taking their turns to offer key melodies with either the constantly returning agendas, or they also might choose to take a crazy-ass solo and never bear knowledge of where it will lead them to - as long as we decide to join them and find out with them.

The electronic backgrounds also have this nice tendency to exhibit varying moods and interchanging atmospheres, ranging from nice, tender musical spaces through "funny gloom" to naked menace, therefore one of the most significant compositions here is definitely The Modern Bass Guitar. A story of a cute, clueless, effectless bass synth signal we hear, an audible entity finding itself on the fields of modern electronic soundwarfare, encountering musical assault on the very planes of aggressive electricity - suffice to say that the aforementioned cute, clueless, effectless bass synth protagonist takes part in pretty much all the audible transformations a sane (huh?) person could ever came up with to this day, Squarepusher though, being one in evident determination to shatter sluggish audio-preconceptions, offers quite a few musical black holes to peek through.

As of this here new millennium, we should always be aware and conscious of these precious moments and curious holes, moments and holes that are yet hard to find and witness, and might also feel like hard to approach. Just might, we should emphasize here, as in my opinion, this is but a lazyness of an ear conditioned to hear and appreciate what it already have absorbed and had relied on, in fact, the presence of extreme audible stimuli Squarepusher delivers is strong enough to entertain the opened up ears in ways never heard before, and the extremities pictured in The Modern Bassguitar are quite qualified to drive the bearers of a somewhat lazy ears well beyond madness, too. Either way, not a musical statement you likely get away from without forming a radical opinion on it. Me: totally digs it.

I find the track called Planetarium to be another peek segment of the record, a journey in unknown space with an elegant musical layer that which is cunningly and effectively lovecraftian in my consideration. Man beholds it's own, possible insignificance in this here current form when confronting the infinity of space-time, so ultimately you either go hypernuts and H. P. Lovecraft will be more than happy to greet you in the Halls of Cosmic Horror where he, I imagine, is not an inmate but an ever curious Professor, or you might also decide to be simple baffled by the nature, the complexity and beauty God came up with to entertain all, including the Great Cthulhu.

Squarepusher asks you the same pair of questions in Planetarium via the channels of music, are you afraid of your condition and it's very position in the Universe, or you think you are ready to find out more about it? You are most certainly welcome to interpret the question and articulate your answer both ways. To me it is a clear musical display of how small and smaller a planet or a galaxy let alone human can get when a curious observer grows bigger and bigger with tools of imagination, though the Universe being capable, no doubt, to offer endless space-time to the operations of such an imagination, better yet, by the sheer beauty the Universe provokes both imagination and common sense - do they differ ultimately, one wonders? - to try solve it's mysteries.

One finds himself in a hard position if to point out tracks that are lacking evident thought and raw musical power on this record, yet I have a feeling that the song called Bubblelife could easily tolerate an increased length, one of the rare occasions when Squarepusher decides to throw away a very nice buildup, as if a bubble would pop. Maybe this metaphoric intention is the cause of this somewhat ruthless act, nevertheless one still is free to loop the track and enjoy until a blackout pops the bubble out eventually.

The opening track Hello Meow is also of note here, glorifying the supermassive retro-videogame musical language with the creative audio tools of recent days, resulting in a smart emotional mix of cheerful (!) nostalgia and a meta-message of not being afraid of where music has already been and where it might still carry us to.

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