Squarepusher

SNFU, “Reality Is A Ride On The Bus”

SNFU’s 1993 album, Something Green and Leafy This Way Comes, came out on Epitaph and marked a turn more towards pop punk as opposed to their earlier hardcore. And, honestly, it doesn’t suit them. This song, for instance, is really only good when it’s galloping.

Squarepusher, “Tomorrow World”

Having taken drum and bass to the pinnacle with Hard Normal Daddy, Squarepusher decided to head straight into jazz fusion with Music Is Rotted One Note. It’s a brilliant record, and a serious break with his past. On his next record, Selection Sixteen, he charted a middle course between the two previous albums, featuring some of the fusion as well as some of the drum and bass, albeit in a little less frantic form. It’s a tweener record - good, but not as good as his more focused albums.

L’Orange & Mr. Lif, “A World Without Music”

As is his penchant, Mr. Lif’s 2016 album was a concept record, this one based around the idea of a society that had stamped out culture completely. As with his other concept albums, it connects better on some tracks than others, but I appreciate the ambition. Meanwhile, the collab with L’Orange on the beats is all great, so overall, it’s another great record.

Squarepusher, “Come On My Selector”

Early Squarepusher is very much drum ’n’ bass, albeit pretty frantic even for a genre known for punishing tempos. Squarepusher is still primarily cutting up the Amen break for the drums, for instance. You can hear his bass playing front and center here, of course, and it’s great despite being firmly in a genre. This EP, Big Loada, would kind of mark the last of the pure drum ’n’ bass, as the next album found him heading in a much more marked fusion direciton.

The Presidents of the United States of America, “We Are Not Going To Make It”

The Presidents were viewed as a novelty act, which is kind of inescapable when your hits are things like “Lump” and “Peaches”. And, yeah, there’s a lot of breezy nonesense in Ballew’s lyrics. But there’s some genuinely charming stuff in there, some real wit, and of course, some self-deprecation like in this tune. But, more importantly, the songs themselves were crisp, memorable, and catchy, and that means that their rock/pop/punk melange is just plain fun.

Gorillaz, “New Genious (Brother)”

Gorillaz, the band featuring Damon Albarn (Blur) and Dan “The Automator” Nakamura (Dr. Octagon, Deltron 3030, others), is one of the weirder success stories in popular music. The icy, detached compositions don’t scream out “radio success”, and the big radio hit of “Clint Eastwood” was a particularly strange song to get huge. This song is a typical example of what you find on the record, which is interesting primarily by managing to not really sound like anything else.

It’s a new thing / check out this I bring

Mix Master Mike, “Now You’re Mine”

One of my real weaknesses is horns, as faithful listener/readers of Five Songs know. Prominent horns in a hip-hop track? That is, in fact, my jam.

The Postal Service, “Brand New Colony”

A danger in having written 470-whatever of these things is that it has legitimately reached the point where I have trouble remembering what I’ve said before. And, honestly, I have managed to bork my indexing system, so it’s not easy for me to look things up. So until I unbork my indexing system, you’re at risk of repeat stories. This is relevant, because I have basically two things to say about the Postal Service, and I cannot shake the feeling that I’ve said one or both of them before. So, instead, I’ll just drop this FASCINATING meta-note here. Nothin’ but fuckin’ professionalism on this here blog, my friends!

Today!

Sam & Dave, “A Place Nobody Can Find”

Early stars on Stax, Sam & Dave are always super enjoyable to listen to, and this song is of course no exception.

Knxwledge, “Bodies[Totw]”

Knxwledge’s solo album, Hud Dreems, is all instrumental and most of the tracks are on the short side. In a lot of ways, it sounds like a portfolio rather than a proper album, with Knxwledge presenting his skill in making beats as an audition. It’s perfectly pleasant, but as with most abstract hip-hop, not super memorable.

Today!

Gaza, “Skull Trophy”

Gaza, out of Salt Lake City, played a brand of metal that crossed a bunch of arbitrary genre boundaries, usually a combination of sludge and doom. I recognize that these kinds of categorizations are deeply unhelpful for folks unfamiliar with metal, and yet I provide them anyway. It’s loud and angry! It sometimes slows down to a drag along ala doom, and is often centered around big riffs, like sludge. And has a lot of shouting.

Today!

The Beautiful South, “Song For Whoever”

Finally, we get some peak Beautiful South! This is the first song from their debut album, and my god, it’s such a good song. Paul Heaton’s sardonic lyrics are delivered so perfectly, the piano is gorgeous, I just adore it. This was a regular part of my high school rotation, and it just made perfect sense to play this right after the Dead Kennedys.

Nice set today!

James Brown, “The Payback”

Sometimes on this blog, I talk about things that are cool. It’s hard to put your finger on what cool is. It’s the kind of thing that you can’t really define, but can only find the outlines of by looking at examples. Look at enough cool things, and you will finally get a sense of what’s cool. It also helps to have something to center things, a north star of cool to find your bearings.