squarepusher Squarepusher - Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator

Totally awesome.

Q & A with Squarepusher:

1. What is Shobaleader One?

Shobaleader One is my band. Last summer a bunch of kids got in contact with me. They were talking about forming an ensemble, which I thought was a ridiculous idea but I was impressed by their perseverance so we met up. Their idea was that they wanted the 'fantasy group' I had written about in connection with 'Just A Souvenir' to become a real entity that would record and tour. So we had a go at doing some recording and the story so far is documented on this record.

2. Who is in the band?

Basically a bunch of people who you may or may not have heard of from other bands and projects. Part of their idea is that this music is a completely clean break with whatever they've done in the past so I'm not allowed to mention any names. I can tell you that they are pretty frightening players.

3. What are the aims of Shobaleader One?

The overall aim is to articulate my music through the medium of a band. I always thought that a band would be a limiting thing. I've got very used to being able to make music by programming or playing without having to explain anything to anyone, and I assumed it would slow everything down if I had to. Actually it has made it quicker because I'm not trying to be four people simultaneously any more. I'm not over-explaining anything to them as they've got strong ideas of their own and I want to hear that in the final results.

4. Do you have live plans?

At the moment the plan is to tour next year after we have recorded more material. Playing live is part of the focus of this music. I'm really excited about playing live as this group of musicians is an extremely potent mixture. I've no idea what it's going to be like touring with them as not one of us is what you'd call easy going. Every member of this band is a high-tension freak so who knows what'll end up happening!

5. How did the Mr Oizo remix come about?

That was Pedro's idea from Ed Banger. I've always had respect for that bunch. I thought it would be great because Oizo is on quite a different tip to Shobaleader One.

6. What's next?

I'm writing more material for the band to record. It's an ongoing experiment. Each one of us is trying to develop the sound of their instrument. It's really exciting to be involved with instrumental players who are as into sonic experimentation as much as the actual music. I've also been in contact with Andre from Outkast recently.

7. How would you describe the sound of Shobaleader One and are there any

specific sounds, artists or albums that have influenced this new

direction?

We are playing my compositions, so in that respect it relates quite clearly to what I've done before, but as I'm not doing much playing or programming it is sonically quite different. It sounds more focused. Lots of musos end up just making their music a platform to display their skill. The great thing about this lot is that although they are great players they keep 99% of that hidden and just use it to give a very acute delivery of the songs.

Musically speaking these kids come from a metal background but they're all bang into really slick R&B which I found quite funny at first but it's making more sense as we go on. The basic premise at the outset was 'space pop' -a utopian pop music hallucination. It's a stand against the affectation of knowing indifference in urban life and its corollary in music. I've always wanted to sabotage coolness as for me music is about laughing and crying, not about standing around smoking cigarettes.

d'Demonstrator tracklisting:

1. Plug Me In

2. Laser Rock

3. Into The Blue

4. Frisco Wave

5. Megazine

6. Abstract Lover

7. Endless Night

8. Cryptic Motion

9. Maximum Planck

Shobaleader One members:

Squarepusher: Bass/vocals

Strobe Nazard: Keyboards

Sten t'Mech: Guitar

Arg Nution: Guitar

Company Laser: Drums

The 909 really doesn't work well in that track.

  On 9/9/2010 at 3:07 PM, impakt said:

The 909 really doesn't work well in that track.

it's just samples. i can tell, because i've heard a lot of samples in my time, and i used to have a 909.

and i can rhyme.

Well, it doesn't matter if it's just samples or if it was made with the real deal - the point is still that the 909 sound doesn't work well with the rest of the track. Good rhyme though!

This sounds awesome, I really like the new video

  On 9/7/2010 at 4:23 PM, chassis said:

  On 9/7/2010 at 3:43 PM, Backson said:

  On 9/7/2010 at 3:37 PM, chassis said:

  On 9/5/2010 at 1:10 PM, Backson said:

i am probably the guy that Squarepusher fans hate right now, because I'm young, unaware of anything prior to JAS, and am pretty fucking excited for this album.

 

 

I just feel sorry for you. You have no idea what you're missing out on.

 

PS: Youth is no excuse, as I recall you're about my age.

out of curiosity, what age do you think I am?

 

I will only answer "no" or "close"

19 or 20?

damn, well done

i mean, close.

the word "d'Demonstrator" is so annoyingly stuck in my head!

ive been thinking about this and listening again and again but every time it sounds like;

squarepusher imitating daft punk and a bass imatating a cheesy electric guitar sound

honestly how can people think this isnt totally boring?

im not the type to want big loada or go plastic or even feed me weird things again and again

i dig his changing style, argued for JAS (even though I stopped listening to the damn thing), and even occasionally enjoy a full run-through of hello everything

but sometimes the man needs to know when to quit

like making a band/album where the closet tie stylistically to anything else he's ever done is a real woman...

and the man needs to come off the whole crossover genius thing with this proto-fiction blurbs

"they were smoking because they were real"...wow that's a doozy

how bout a vocoder cover of a passage from eat pray and love

i bet it would top the charts

I don't have anything good to say about the music.

But i think i get it, this is a concept band. if this was another universe maybe if we lived in some japanese animation this band could very well be the best band on the planet, if we were to watch a bit of that universe, maybe through watching some anime, this is what we would hear. however on that other reality that band is ace and has everybody dancing to it, it is quite simply the coolest and most exciting band in another universe.

but we don't live in that universe, this music is shit to my ears.

  On 9/10/2010 at 6:53 PM, Scrambled Ears said:

ive been thinking about this and listening again and again but every time it sounds like;

squarepusher imitating daft punk and a bass imatating a cheesy electric guitar sound

 

honestly how can people think this isnt totally boring?

 

im not the type to want big loada or go plastic or even feed me weird things again and again

i dig his changing style, argued for JAS (even though I stopped listening to the damn thing), and even occasionally enjoy a full run-through of hello everything

 

but sometimes the man needs to know when to quit

like making a band/album where the closet tie stylistically to anything else he's ever done is a real woman...

 

and the man needs to come off the whole crossover genius thing with this proto-fiction blurbs

"they were smoking because they were real"...wow that's a doozy

 

how bout a vocoder cover of a passage from eat pray and love

i bet it would top the charts

I like that you've made up your mind that its going to shit. Nice open mind there.

  On 9/10/2010 at 8:01 PM, xxx said:

Honestly, I feel like the "band" is a conceptual ruse. Count up the number of times Tom has been involved with other musicians versus logging long bedroom hours. I think it's a continuing theme from the JAS "backstory". Until I see non-LED disguised faces OR members all playing together--not edited cutaways like the video, I'm callin' all hands belonging to Tom. A trap kit can never sound like a 909 through overdrive/compression no matter how organically you program it or even trigger the beat with your fingers on pads/keyboard.

i totally agree. if it indeed is a collaborative work, it's possibly one of the most single-minded and somewhat muted collaborations i can think of. everything in each of the songs we've heard sounds totally like tom's stuff alone. but either way, i personally don't care if it's solo vs. group if the entire release sounds as cool as the past 2 songs.

i love it. fuck yall haters

  On 9/10/2010 at 7:34 PM, chassis said:

  On 9/10/2010 at 6:53 PM, Scrambled Ears said:

ive been thinking about this and listening again and again but every time it sounds like;

squarepusher imitating daft punk and a bass imatating a cheesy electric guitar sound

 

honestly how can people think this isnt totally boring?

 

im not the type to want big loada or go plastic or even feed me weird things again and again

i dig his changing style, argued for JAS (even though I stopped listening to the damn thing), and even occasionally enjoy a full run-through of hello everything

 

but sometimes the man needs to know when to quit

like making a band/album where the closet tie stylistically to anything else he's ever done is a real woman...

 

and the man needs to come off the whole crossover genius thing with this proto-fiction blurbs

"they were smoking because they were real"...wow that's a doozy

 

how bout a vocoder cover of a passage from eat pray and love

i bet it would top the charts

 

 

I like that you've made up your mind that its going to shit. Nice open mind there.

yes well i do my best though I have to admit that the masks, fog machine photoshoot and gimmick galore only emphasizes the tack of the sound

edit: look i try to be reasonable and perhaps it's apples to oranges I love the campfire headphase and plenty of people felt similarly about that but you must believe that it hurts me to say that this is the first []pusher release i will not buy/download

megazine isn't what i normally expect/enjoy from squarepusher but there is some continuity with his earlier work, enough that makes me eagerly anticipate the lp

i dont see how pop bands with costumes and synth elements are the future though im sure theyll put on a good show and if thats what hes after so be it

  On 9/11/2010 at 12:14 AM, xxx said:

I look at this and see the future.

 

Comparisons to Daft Punk are easy at first but the depth and complexity exceeds anything they've ever done. Aside from some obscuring robot helmets and some talkbox work on a guitar, this is musically superior to Daft Punk--and I've been a big fan of Daft Punk since the 90's but there are so few musicians that you can "lump" into SP's domain. It's not a fair fight; Homem-Christo and Bangalter would probably be the first to say it.

 

It begs the question: what do you want out of Tom Jenkinson? Hyperedited breaks were so much fun but dead and deep in the ground for nearly 10 years now. Even though Drukqs came after, "Go Plastic" was the final gauntlet on any more DSP breaks as I see it. Shobaleader appears to be Just A Souvenir redemption. Souvenir is probably the weakest he's ever done and I still like it. If Megazine and Cryptic Motion portend the future, the album is going to have the teeth and grit that JAS kind of lost track of.

thank u xxx

I just had an apocalyptic vision, it was an enthusiastic gangbang involving Shobaleader, Daft Punk, Deadmau5 and Lady Gaga...

I'll listen the album when it's released but to be honest I have very low expectatives

  On 9/11/2010 at 12:14 AM, xxx said:

I look at this and see the future.

 

Comparisons to Daft Punk are easy at first but the depth and complexity exceeds anything they've ever done. Aside from some obscuring robot helmets and some talkbox work on a guitar, this is musically superior to Daft Punk--and I've been a big fan of Daft Punk since the 90's but there are so few musicians that you can "lump" into SP's domain. It's not a fair fight; Homem-Christo and Bangalter would probably be the first to say it.

 

It begs the question: what do you want out of Tom Jenkinson? Hyperedited breaks were so much fun but dead and deep in the ground for nearly 10 years now. Even though Drukqs came after, "Go Plastic" was the final gauntlet on any more DSP breaks as I see it. Shobaleader appears to be Just A Souvenir redemption. Souvenir is probably the weakest he's ever done and I still like it. If Megazine and Cryptic Motion portend the future, the album is going to have the teeth and grit that JAS kind of lost track of.

what depth and complexity? it has a funky bassline looping over and over, a (horribly mixed) vocoded voice looped over and over and some keyboard that sounds horrible.

please explain because i don't see anything that works toghether in this thing. daft punk could sample this and make a banging track.

sounds like a squarepusher album produced by daft punk to me. ah whatever. the references are way too obvious to be meaningless.

i hate to say it, but the new squarepusher mostly got me interested in a new daft punk album. :daft punk:

he has a band playing his compositions now ! Clear the path for the new Zappa

this is inane shit

  On 9/13/2010 at 1:01 AM, remy marathe said:

this is inane shit

i like it; what's inane is tom possibly collaborating with andre 3000... that guy has evolved in the gayest way possible for a rapper

  On 9/13/2010 at 12:13 AM, iep said:

he has a band playing his compositions now ! Clear the path for the new Zappa

We can only hope! Of course watmm would still hate it

JAZZBAND PLAYS SQUAREPUSHER!