Squarepusher

Squarepusher, the performing pseudonym of Thomas (or Tom) Jenkinson, is an English electronic music artist signed to Warp Records. He specialises in the electronic music genres of drum and bass, musique concrète (sampled digitally rather than by tape), and acid, albeit with a significant jazz influence.

Jenkinson was born in Chelmsford, Essex, and educated at King Edward VI Grammar School. A self-taught expert-level bass guitar player and drummer, his style of extremely fast, cut-up beats mixed with fusion jazz and interlaced with synth lines and samples has gained him a cult following. He is friends with Richard D. James (Aphex Twin), and his albums have been critically acclaimed for their forward-thinking approach to electronic music.

Jenkinson performs live, playing with a fretless or fretted bass guitar, a laptop, and other hardware. He appeared twice on BBC Radio 1's The Breezeblock show.

On 26 June 2005, Squarepusher played at London's Royal Festival Hall as part of the Show "Songs of Experience" a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. His 12 minute performance was built up of a medley of Hendrix tracks played solely on the bass guitar with the use of effects.

One of his brothers, Andy Jenkinson, is also a respected recording artist, under the name Ceephax Acid Crew. A third brother, Jonny Jenkinson, also performs and occasionally supports his siblings on tour as a drum and bass DJ.

Warp Records has announced that Squarepusher's next full-length album, titled "Hello Everything", will be released on October 16th.

Equipment

Squarepusher sequenced his pre-2000 work on a Boss DR-660 drum machine, which wasn't designed to sequence entire songs. He uses hardware for his electronic music such as King Tubby-style spring reverbs and Akai samplers (S950 for early work, S6000 for later work). Around the year 2000, Squarepusher bought a computer with Reaktor and an Eventide Orville for digital processing. He has been known to play Fender and Warwick basses. Squarepusher claims to know more about his music equipment than the manufacturers of the products themselves.

Philosophy

Squarepusher holds the belief that the machines used to make music hold just as much influence on the users as the users do themselves, and that humans do not control these machines independently; we hold the same mutual creative capacity as they do. He says that the restraints musical instruments held in the past were quintessential to music composition and that the insignificance of modern classical music, as a result of new technology, exposes this point. This, he says, is why machines themselves now contribute so much influence to musical composition.

In his view, our common delusion that only we humans are the sole cause of the creative process resulting with the machine resisting the composer's will, hindering the process of creation. When the machine is unable to collaborate, it works against its user. In his view, the violent domination of machines produce "artifacts of human stupidity, not art." He says this originates from our inherent desire to control everything, even the prevention of death. This desire to be "controllers" works against us in every instance it can be found. The artists become frustrated that their machine will not cooperate, and this, as Squarepusher claims, is the reason why so many artists have died young, gone insane or committed suicide.

Artists try to represent themselves in their music in an attempt to live after death. As modern music incorporates technology more and more, Jenkinson observes that musicians are the first group of creative society to represent themselves with machines. Our desire to be superior to machines, combined with the reality that we are not, creates human jealousy of machines; thus they become the greatest object of human desire.

Jenkinson's view is that the commercialization of machines is merely an attempt to dominate them, by possessing them as mere fashion accessories.

Discography

Albums:

• Alroy Road Tracks [as Duke of Harringay] (1995) — Spymania
• Feed Me Weird Things (1996) — Rephlex
• Hard Normal Daddy (1997) — Warp
• Big Loada (1997) — Warp/Nothing
• Burningn'n Tree (1997) — Warp
• Music Is Rotted One Note (1998) — Warp/Nothing
• Budakhan Mindphone (1999) — Warp/Nothing
• Selection Sixteen (1999) — Warp/Nothing
• Go Plastic (2001)
• Do You Know Squarepusher (2002) — Warp
  • Alive in Japan (2002) — Warp
• Ultravisitor (2004) — Warp
• Hello Everything (2006) — Warp (to be released on October 16th)

EPs and Singles:

• Crot [as Tom Jenkinson] (1994) — Rumble Tum Jum
• Stereotype [as Tom Jenkinson] (1994) — Nothings Clear
• Conumber (1995) — Spymania
• Squarepusher Plays... (1996) — Rephlex
• Bubble & Squeak [as Tom Jenkinson] (1996) — Worm Interface
• Port Rhombus EP (1996) — Warp
• Vic Acid (1997) — Warp
• Maximum Priest E.P. (1999) — Warp
• My Red Hot Car (2001) — Warp
• Untitled (2001) — Warp
• Square Window [Ultravisitor Promo] (2004) — Warp
• Venus No. 17 (2004) — Warp

Remixes:

• DJ Food — Scratch Yer Hed (Squarepusher Mix) (1996) (Appears on Refried Food and various Ninja Tune compilations) — Ninja Tune
• Funki Porcini — Carwreck (Squarepusher Mix) (1996) (Appears on Carwreck EP) — Ninja Tune
• East Flatbush Project — Tried By 12 (Squarepusher Mx) (1998) (Appears on Tried by 12 Remixes) — Ninja Tune
• Psultan (Squarepusher Mix) (1999) (On "Braindance" compilation) — Rephlex

As Chaos A.D.:

• Buzz Caner (1998) — Rephlex

External links

• Complete Squarepusher/Tom Jenkinson discography
• WATMM fansite free downloads of live Squarepusher/Tom Jenkinson performances, interviews, and radio appearances
• Warp: Squarepusher
• Interview (2004)
• Interview (2001)
• Interview (01/1999)
• Article (05/1999)
• Squarepusher discography at MusicBrainz