Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy

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Warp Records, 1997

The debut record of Tom "Squarepusher" Jenkinson remains as fresh and solid of an experimental audio effort as it was by the day it hit the market more than ten years ago. Grooves and licks of this series of statements approach ears both on the positive emotional registers, and via the darker side of Squarepusher's trademark elements, the latter ones are usually involve either a sensation of inventive, mild secrecy, or massively, though sanely presented cybernetic assault. Jenkinson is pretty good both at generating playful and happy moods, and being welcomely, radically psychotic if to invoke languages music is capable to reveal, if keenly and skillfully asked for.

As a debut record, it is understandable that Squarepusher chose to rely mainly on clear, friendly musical ideas to start off the effort, yet the sections in which he elaborates on the further pathways he is keen to take remain a significant flavoring element to a first release that seems quite easy to timelessly appreciate.

The opening track Cooper's World delivers the welcomed sensation similar to what you would anticipate from a theme song for a TV series concerning shifty affairs, cars, and missions impossible. I tend to see The Hoff Thing! revealed with his magnificent hair, giving instructions to K.I.T.T. on his special wrist-instrument whenever Cooper's World starts off. Well, this is just one particular option of course, but the feeling seems quite intentional to me, summoning the spirit of vintage, popular action-drama. Some definite emotional tribute to the late '70s and early '80s is quickly revealed herein, though Squarepusher conducts this modal hommage via very stable, fresh, interchanging musical ideas, adding and enriching the genre opposed to just serving a colorless copy of it. A constantly reoccuring, funky second theme fills spaces in between a cutely epic opening statement and a conclusion of plain fun and elegant ease. Also, portions where the rhythm section's instruments choose to melt into the background and offer free, whimsical glimpses of themselves are of special note. As decent of a debut track as any artist could possibly go and hope for.

The follow up track, Beep Street is the song to outline Squarepusher's trademark approach of generally avoiding aggressive, intimidating audio arrangements. He utilizes quite intense drum loops here, yet wisely leads them to go manic in the dimmest, safest regions of the background, and fills the remaining space with an inventive fairy tale melody of tender secrecy. Ignoring the musical sensation summoned ends up as an act virtually impossible to commit, and that, we conclude with but the greatest of delights.

The Jenkinson Thing had his sense of humor right from the start though, as the consecutive track Rustic Raver demands way more out of the lazy ear. A decent bass line is presented to sell out the quite rampant, stable rhythm loops, all these two to meet with a crazy-ass synth shape of pure psychotic power and a quite decent, improbable melody to entertain the rhythm section. A glimpse into the darker side of Squarepusher's musical vision is clearly and welcomely offered, in fact, as if he would have been frightened of being dismissed as creator of some seriously sick stuff, he chooses to follow Rustic Raver with a very brief chillout session, only to shatter our initial, evidently false concept of him being an evader.

Chin Hippy is probably the most radical delivery on the album, basically a Toccata and Fugue for Monster Drummachine and Manic Voice thy shall behold. The frantic rhythm patters are the main appeals here, one can evidently hear that the author put quite some work into this strict, radical, yet very effective musical assault - or he happened to invent a damn smart algorithm to harass those drums and effects.

A massive chillout session then follows up with the track called Papalon, forged though by quite tasteful, gloomy grooves and a willingness to dictate more rigorous, yet sane type of a pace for brief periods of time. The follow-up track EZ Boogie is the perfect counterpoint to the previous statement, also I personally find this track to be one of the strongest on the record. This is science-and-detective-fiction music sanely rampant here with a focal section of powerful, chordbased theme-leading and a solo synth to offer elegant, haughty licks on the blues register to spice this heavy duty installment up even more.

Fat Controller introduces massive, stable 4/4 to present a cybernetic twistaround on the fields of electronic mayhem. The bass has a definitely strong, warped appeal to it, a nice musical sensation as if rendering the digital serpent you probably familiar with from the game where you go for the very next star to eat up, while the serpent is getting bigger and bigger, eating up the place with it's body while devouring the stars.

Vic Acid chooses to elaborate on the same field Fat Controller led us to, but saved for the decent base it presents us with, offers no particular surprises or peek moments to relate to. Normally, - now this is a funny word to come up with if to deal with the Jenkinson Thing - this song would be a stable middle section of a more sophisticated buildup. As if Squarepusher would have came to the exact same conclusion, he quickly disposes of this here defendable, yet somewhat underdeveloped statement.

Male Pill Part 13 is the piece to culture into your ear for the rest of your existence. An extremely catchy and clever groove reveals itself and commands all around it to conform, and that, they do, indeed. A crystal clear understanding of the sides of jazz that are very easy to relate to is firmly presented, with significant melodic middle sections you can spend waiting for the main theme to reoccur. Needles to say, Jenkinson is quite aware of your longing, and proves to be hell of an anticipator builder this time around, developing a secondary theme of essential significance even from the material that connects the focal theme back to itself. Nice one.

Rat-P's AND Q-'s is rather strange of a song in my opinion, I can hardly relate to it or find the will to do so. I got the impression that Squarepusher wanted to do something with an orchestral flavor to it, but I am far from being convinced that his effort was successful. It would be quite cool for an amateur horror movie though. A find it to be the only mistake on the record, and you can commit two of those prior to lose an onion on these pages.

Rebus is somewhat of a rebus as well, though a nice occasion to let saliva drop off from the corner of your mouth, if nothing else.

I think the title My Red Hot Car is probably not featured on the original release, as this seems to be a bonus track for the remastered version of the record that hit the market in 2004, though My Red Hot Car was also a single to the Go Plastic! album. Anyway, some cute, easy going pop composition with a synth singing in it, if I am not mistaken. Some catchy grooves and a nice, tender pace to sell out this chillout period.

Squarepusher Theme is yet another quite significant track on the record. The opening statement introduces a nice collision process of tasty jazz chords and the bass to excitingly relate to it, though a different take on the approach is quickly utilized, invoking a supporting background synth to spice the buildup with caressing, soft melodic power, originating from the base that is established and voiced already. The melody is heavily and welcomely chord related even on this track, at later points a fresh synth and a subtle guitar is invoked to conform with the buildup.

Lost in Space is the perfect choice to conclude the record, a keenful return to fluent, easygoing territories where drums though run manic, they run gently and friendly, and entertain the nice synth and effect flow with stable audible values. The bass is particularly clever here, simple, yet greatly original. I totally like the profound acoustic instruments that offer brief glimpses of themselves from time to time, elements like this include a Twin Peaks-ian electric guitar and a gentle, though similarly quite massive saxophone. A restless, yet strangely enough, a restlessly calm and tender piece to conclude a debut record of significant value.

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