squarepusher New Album called "Ufabulum"

  On 4/29/2012 at 10:10 PM, YO303 said:

First 5 tracks are Celine Dion covers, everything after Red in Blue is awesome.

 

First half - 6.5/10

Second half - 9/10

 

spot on review. especially the Celine Dion comparison

i can't believe it's leaked

ok

don't hate me for saying this-just a few thoughts upon 2 listens

 

it's really "dry" and "samey"

like he did all of it in a few sessions with mostly the same sounds

i a missing the drums-but there are some cool drum moments

the bass is sick

it's weird how it sounds "contemporary"

as if he is acknowledging"dubstep" in any way at all

also-[don't cringe]-it reminds me of flying lotus cosmogramma in spots-this is the only flying lotus cd i own so i'm not sure if all of his other stuff sounds like that.

it's a bit "sterile" and there are no vocal samples save for maybe some formant sounding things from synths?

overall I like it but it seems like he bashed it out quickly and it's not as deep as say -go plastic

there are no what the fuck is that -how did he do that moments

and finally -it's not very funky-rather -it's robotic

 

i know- a shitty haphazard review

but that is what i gathered from spinning it twice in the whip in the last 24 hrs

it's great to drive to

and like everyone else i love drax the most

my favorite track on the live recording is the 303 track towards the end, hoping it is good in real life.

  On 4/29/2012 at 10:04 PM, StephenG said:

I'm not sure the leak is album quality, is it? I mean the sound quality?

 

 

my leak is flac

Hmm, what happened to the intro track that was in the beginning of the live set?

He should release the soundboard recording from the NYC show instead of the studio version.

  On 4/29/2012 at 11:17 PM, yikes said:

it's really "dry" and "samey"

like he did all of it in a few sessions with mostly the same sounds

i a missing the drums-but there are some cool drum moments

the bass is sick

it's weird how it sounds "contemporary"

as if he is acknowledging"dubstep" in any way at all

also-[don't cringe]-it reminds me of flying lotus cosmogramma in spots-this is the only flying lotus cd i own so i'm not sure if all of his other stuff sounds like that.

it's a bit "sterile" and there are no vocal samples save for maybe some formant sounding things from synths?

overall I like it but it seems like he bashed it out quickly and it's not as deep as say -go plastic

 

it definitely seems as if there is a small palate for the synths used from song to song, but there's seems to be a fairly strong sense of coherence between the songs. like many of the songs seem like deifferent explorations from the same starting points. personally, i really like the composite experience of the album as a whole and can't really see myself listening to many of the songs outside of playing the album from beginning to end.

 

i somewhat disagree with the album being quite as "deep" as go plastic. listening to the compression effects and sound placement through the stereo field, i can definitely see where these songs have a strong visual/spatial sense, as if it's really hard to envision this album without the accompanying visual show.

 

actually i am less put off by the drums as i thought i would be, but that's probably b/c i really love the synth work on this album. i still stand by my assessment of "dark steering" being the worst track on this one. i don't care too much for some elements to "unreal square" but it seems more like a complete song idea than "dark steering".

For those that want to hear but don't have the means:

 

 

  On 4/29/2012 at 9:36 PM, Gocab said:

red in blue is really terrible, sounds like the soundtrack to a cd-rom fmv adventure game.

I thought it was pretty awesome, more like 70s synth music. Might have to track down a vinyl copy.

 

I laughed at Unreal Square at first (the intro!), then I started to enjoy it more and more as the track progressed.

 

Like I said in the other thread though, it'll probably take a while to grow on me but I'm loving the occasional trance synths!

  On 4/29/2012 at 11:59 PM, Bubba69 said:

Hmm, what happened to the intro track that was in the beginning of the live set?

It is one of the tracks on the ep accompanying the album.

  On 4/29/2012 at 2:03 PM, vasio said:

  On 4/29/2012 at 1:38 PM, Kavinsky said:

unreal square must be a joke , at the beginning dubstep than it goes 90´s mainstream drum and bass

 

I think he has done too much acid for his own good. The drums are even worse than on the distorted recordings WTF.

Where do you hear mainstream drum and bass? I agree it may be a bit dry but it is a lot more interesting than the looped dnb by say Pendulum or alike. Its sad that we may never have another Journey to Reedham, but I am still really enjoying this album. Man, that crazy drum programming just takes too fucking long. Who has that kinda time

I already pre-ordered this and the EP, so fuck you all, I'm not listening to it.

Stadium Ice reminds me of 70s jazz-fusion stuff, melodically anyway. Pretty amazing.

  On 4/30/2012 at 2:15 AM, modey said:

Stadium Ice reminds me of 70s jazz-fusion stuff, melodically anyway. Pretty amazing.

 

hard to pick a favorite on this album (definitely an album of two halves as someone mentioned), but this is my favorite of the 1st half.

Every song on here, even the most cheesy, has at least a few insanely badass moments of perfect gargling/grinding cacophony. I think that is why I like this album, my favorite moment in drukqs is the part in 54 cymru beats with the insane fucked up loud grinding breaks. This album is full of shit like that. Awesome filters and digital distortions and a dirty dsp squarepusher style.

  On 4/29/2012 at 10:01 PM, vasio said:

  On 4/29/2012 at 9:36 PM, Gocab said:

red in blue is really terrible, sounds like the soundtrack to a cd-rom fmv adventure game.

 

Sounds like a Carpenter theme to me.

 

Sounds like an early 1980s King Crimson intermezzo to me.

  On 4/30/2012 at 8:55 AM, Bubba69 said:

Every song on here, even the most cheesy, has at least a few insanely badass moments of perfect gargling/grinding cacophony. I think that is why I like this album, my favorite moment in drukqs is the part in 54 cymru beats with the insane fucked up loud grinding breaks. This album is full of shit like that. Awesome filters and digital distortions and a dirty dsp squarepusher style.

Yeah! That part hasn't quite clicked for me just yet but there are some pretty abrasive freakout moments. I fucking love the first half of the album. When Unreal Square goes double-time it reminds me a lot of Orange Dust's style, ie. the melodies alternating between a few instruments, if that makes sense?

  On 4/30/2012 at 8:59 AM, psn said:

  On 4/29/2012 at 10:01 PM, vasio said:

  On 4/29/2012 at 9:36 PM, Gocab said:

red in blue is really terrible, sounds like the soundtrack to a cd-rom fmv adventure game.

 

Sounds like a Carpenter theme to me.

 

Sounds like an early 1980s King Crimson intermezzo to me.

It reminds me of a Zelda track... gives me the illusion of time standing still. It's interesting in that way, because it serves as a bridge into the more brutal half of the album. An appropriate break, If you ask me.

 

Also reminds me of Tool's track... Intermission :O

The opening of Drax 2 reminds me a lot of Scorn.

 

I really like 303 Scopem Hard, but it's no Venus No. 17.

Edited April 30, 2012 by Xyrofen

has anyone said 'squarepusher with a skrillex haircut' yet? because some of this really sounds like squarepusher with a skrillex haircut. it's not super severe tho, still really like this and it'll be the first album I buy since ultravisitor, and I even bought that one sided do you know squarepusher lp and still bought the dyks album. This probably says more about how I'm bad with money than anything else but I'd like to think that it at least somewhat communicates how this album is pretty great. even the parts with the skrillex haircut.

  On 4/30/2012 at 2:58 PM, taphead said:

has anyone said 'squarepusher with a skrillex haircut' yet? because some of this really sounds like squarepusher with a skrillex haircut. it's not super severe tho, still really like this and it'll be the first album I buy since ultravisitor, and I even bought that one sided do you know squarepusher lp and still bought the dyks album. This probably says more about how I'm bad with money than anything else but I'd like to think that it at least somewhat communicates how this album is pretty great. even the parts with the skrillex haircut.

 

In my world its skrillex that tries sometimes to pull from squarepusher in a bad way not otherwise

oh I don't mean that to say that he's ripping off skrillex or anything, just that there's a certain flavor of electronic music that skrillex and his like play with, and that squarepusher seems to be playing with the same flavor at times. it's probably more a consequence of the time we live in and the technology that's available more than anything else. I mean, it's not like he's never dabbled with the sounds of what's contemporary in electronic music, it's pretty much acknowledged with the "sounds a bit like goldie" bit of audio in come on my selector. the problem really is just for me, and I guess anyone who feels the same way about hating the absolute shit out of what's happening with this particular contemporary aesthetic of electronic music. I will say tho that the more I listen to the album the more I'm able to get past my biases and blame the other musicians more than the technology.

Edited April 30, 2012 by taphead

anyone else notice the run-dmc samples is 4001? awesome.

just saw a new interview pop up on the interwebs

 

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/dreams-recurring-squarepusher

Some tracks here are ridiculous :(