Squarepusher trivia

pizza · May 15, 2014

- bit of info on each track on HE:

Tracks will stand out for me for reasons to do with what occurred

during their construction as much as their musical content. In addition to that, as I intend to make comparison difficult through introducing a lot of variation between the pieces, it is hard for me to say which I prefer. Here are the first things that spring to mind:-

"Hello Meow" - uses the same xylophone as "Iambic 5 Poetry".

"Theme from Sprite" - first track on which I used my new home made spring reverb.

"Bubble Life" - last track I made using my customized space echo before it blew up.

"Planetarium" - might be my favourite.

"Vacuum Garden" - first track I made when I moved back to the countryside.

"Circlewave 2" - no sequencers at all.

"Kronecker King" - all edits done on a 1/4" 8 track tape machine.

"Rotate Electrolyte" - reminds me of David Voorhaus.

"Welcome to Europe" - made on speakers with no tweeters.

"Plotinus" - chronologically the most recent piece to be made on the album.

"The Modern Bass Guitar" - doesn't have a bass guitar on it (or does it?)

"Orient Orange" - melodies made using eventide DSP4000 home made self -configuring synth patch.

- gear used on 'Hello Everything' and 'Just a Souvenir' as mentioned in several interviews:

Bass guitars: Music Man / Rickenbacker 4001 / Custom built 6 string.

Guitars: Classical and Baritone classical / custom electric guitar.

Software: Reaktor using only home made algorithms.

Electronic Hardware: Eventide "Orville" + "DSP4000" using only home made algorithms/ Yamaha sequencer / 16 track tape machine / Mackie Desk / Sine wave generator / Roland SH101 / Octave "Cat" synth / AKG 414 mics / Home made + AKG analogue reverb units / DAT recorder

Percussion: Ludwig drum kit / Balinese percussion / xylophone

Other: some wires, mains leads, a room to put it all in, cooperative neighbours etc

- gear used on 'go plastic':

First of all, I didn't use a computer on "Go Plastic". It was made with a Yamaha QY700, TX81 and FS1R, an Eventide DSP4000 and Orville, an Akai S6000 and a Mackie 16 channel desk.

- "breakthroughs" on each of his released albums:

As far as breakthroughs go, I would say that I try to make every phase of my work incorporate some sort of breakthrough. Breakthrough sounds a little extravagant for what I am thinking, but anyway here is list of what I consider to be the associated milestones with each of my albums:-

1) Feed me weird things - a first album is a milestone regardless of content.

2) Hard normal daddy - first album using Roland tape sync to make the pieces layer by layer.

3) Big loada - recorded live to DAT using only Boss DR660, Akai S950 and Roland SH101.

4) Burning'n tree - (inverse milestone) first and last compilation album I was forced to make.

5) Music is rotted one note - first album to represent material recorded using only live instrumentation and no sequencers.

6) Budakhan mindphone - first album to use bass >midi converter.

7) Selection sixteen - first album to incoporate analogue tape editing.

8) Go plastic - first album to use home programmed DSP algorithms doing live sound processing controlled over midi.

9) Do you know squarepusher - first album to use a PC.

10) Ultravisitor - first album to use music recorded at live shows, recorded in US and UK 2003.

11) Hello everything - first album that doesn't require the listener to be a total boffin.

Edited May 15, 2014 by pizza

**peace 7** · May 15, 2014

Thanks. This is really good.

phudoshin · May 15, 2014

These words: Best interview ever by Tom Jenkinson

**modey** · May 15, 2014

Man, I'd love to see a Squarepusher AMA session here; he seems pretty open.

**MadameChaos** · May 15, 2014

On 5/15/2014 at 11:42 AM, modey said:
Man, I'd love to see a Squarepusher AMA session here; he seems pretty open.

me too

YangYing · May 15, 2014

On 5/15/2014 at 12:34 PM, MadameChaos said:

On 5/15/2014 at 11:42 AM, modey said:
Man, I'd love to see a Squarepusher AMA session here; he seems pretty open.
me too

me three

phudoshin · May 15, 2014

Ok what would you ask?

One question each!

Me:

I find Go Plastic to be a very unique take on jungleism and noise music but with a hard-to-image coherent and emotional strengths, given its apparent abrasivness. Can you tell us more about your feelings and drives around the time of making it and how you enjoyed the live-shows at the time?

Lucas · May 15, 2014

No computer used on Go Plastic.

what?

I learned to make music with Renoise and I've to say hardware sequencers are a big mystery to me...

**modey** · May 15, 2014

It's definitely possible.. but it's also probably the most ridiculous electronic album made without a computer. I can't imagine it would have been very fun to make!

May 15, 2014

On 5/15/2014 at 9:19 AM, pizza said:

3) Big loada - recorded live to DAT using only Boss DR660, Akai S950 and Roland SH101.

May 15, 2014

Where is this from? Thanks, btw!

pizza · May 15, 2014

they are from various interviews, around the hello everything-era he had a lot of interviews up on his ol' pink website. some are from newer interviews.

May 15, 2014

Great load of trivia. Thanks for the info.

May 16, 2014

you can still check out the interviews on http://squarepusher.net/justasouvenir/

YangYing · May 16, 2014

On 5/15/2014 at 3:49 PM, paranerd said:

On 5/15/2014 at 9:19 AM, pizza said:

3) Big loada - recorded live to DAT using only Boss DR660, Akai S950 and Roland SH101.

That's insane.

respekt.

weakmassive · May 16, 2014

"The Roland DR-660 was always my choice of sequencer. I never went down the Atari/Cubase route. All of those early releases were nothing more than a straight pass of the DR-660 MIDI'd up to the 950 plus the [TR-]707, [TB-]303 and [sH-]101. Live stuff was done on a portastudio via MIDI and the tape sync facility."

"Hard Normal Daddy was certainly done on the DR-660. Come On My Selector was done on it. The 660 finally bit the dust in 2001… around the time of Go Plastic."

**beerwolf** · May 16, 2014

Well he's wrong about number 11 lol

I like Tom, and even though not all of his releases I'm a massive fan of, I sincerely respect all his twists and turns.

Because he's (and Autechre) aren't work shy, I can live with a few duds, as I know it won't be long before summat I like turns up. I think perhaps this was the downfall of Tomorrows Harvest with some of BOC's fanbase, too long a wait and with God knows what time span before something next. With Squarepusher, you just shrug it off and have a little patience.

goonstock · May 18, 2014

there is a great bit of a live interview of squarepusher being interviewed by Hrvatski where it is like

SP: "I didn't use a computer on the album"

H: "well, a dsp4000 is essentially a computer"

**vamos scorcho** · May 18, 2014

No computer on go plastic?

All right. How much adderall?

**mcbpete** · May 22, 2014

On 5/18/2014 at 2:53 AM, vamos scorcho said:

No computer on go plastic?

All right. How much adderall?

I looked up what kit he did used actually did (useless at hardware names) and I guess if you've got a good sequencer (Yamaha QY700), sampler (Akai S6000) and effects unit (Eventide DSP4000) then there probably isn't much need for a 'puter

MisterE · May 22, 2014

well, if you had those 3 things, you'd maybe have no need for a 4th computer

pizza · May 22, 2014

Quote
"]
In terms of instrumentation, I like to see what atypical methods of playing can be explored. (It is interesting to note here that sometimes, though a sound has been very torturous to generate, it may end up sounding entirely conventional. An example of this is "Square Rave" from "Selection Sixteen", where although it roughly speaking sounds as if it was sequenced using conventional methods, it was in fact all played at half speed from a bass guitar >midi converter and then the overall piece's structure was made by splicing sections of tape together. In this way many experimental methods are disguised from seeming as such.)

- Btw, where did you take the name Squarepusher from?

Squarepusher is mentioned in "Ulysees" by James Joyce, and is apparently an old -english term for an archer. I am always asked this question -I do not appreciate why a name has so much significance. As a pseudonym, I suppose people assume that it was chosen because of some resonance between its implied meaning and some principal attribute of the work presented under that name. My thoughts in this regard were always that a pseudonym, like any other name is a matter of convenience and has no inherent meaning whatsoever.

-------------------------------------

The basics:

Full name: Thomas Russell Jenkinson

Born in: Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Living in: Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Date/year of birth: January 1975

-------------------------------------

- There is a particular sound on »Hello Everything« you play many melodies with. It’s a sweet but also quite squeaky synth sound, sounding like an acid line but way more melodic. Since I don’t got a technical background would you please tell me what instrument this is (is it actually a 303?).

Typically the obviously "electronic" sounds in my current work are generated either on Reaktor or PD software, or on the Eventide DSP systems. I think the sounds you are referring to are generated using a home -programmed emulation of the TB303, with substantial modifications such as FM synthesis capability, two seperate filters running in series or parallel, several waveform sources and editable amplitude envelopes.

-------------------------------------

- You have track n your new album called 'the Modern bass Guitar' which has pretty much every instrument except a bass guitar - all synths I'm guessing. A humorous statement or something more? (it's funny!)

This track was made by tracking my bass playing using a Pitch to Midi converter. That means that the note to note data of the musical performance is encoded and resolved to a finite set of parameters which are then transmitted over a serial data connection. The typical parameters include the actual note, its volume and its length. Also transmissible are arbitrary parameters such as those controlled by foot pedals. All of this data can then be used to control and play any instrument with a Midi connection. In the instance of this track, the sounds being controlled by my bass playing are actually generated by computer programs. As such the title is an oblique joke about the character of the modern bass having nothing to do with it's inherent sound making capacity. Ha

ha.

Edited May 22, 2014 by pizza

ascdi · May 22, 2014

I've always wondered how the heck Go Plastic was made. I mean if you listen to the "Girl" version of My Red Hot Car, it seems much more plausible that it's just relatively few crispy sequences running together. But the mystery to me is what happens between the "Girl" version and the LP version. Obviously there's effects, but was it done like a crazy ultra-precise dub "jam" just hitting switches as the track was running, or was the "Girl" version recorded and then "edits" were made somehow, destructively or otherwise?

I'd always assumed the latter, and I think that's how most people approach doing a lot of "DSP" on a track, but how do you do precise edits like that without a computer? Maybe it was in fact just "jammed" to "tape" with the sequence running live?

pizza · May 22, 2014

- How did you come up with "Vacuum Garden"? Have you used synthesizer on this song?

This piece is constructed using the additive synthesis method ie building a composite sound out of individual sine waves. The sound generating device is a vacuum tube signal generator from the '50s. The only parameters available are to change the frequency and the amplitude of the signal. Thus the appeal: I really liked the idea of working with such an inherently limited piece of equiment, as it presents a considerable challenge to make something credible as "music" from it.

The piece is made by layering the sine wave signals track by track. I set out on paper a list of modulations in frequency, such that a movement is made from one frequency to another, then back again. This is repeated three times; each movement takes a minute; thus the track last approximately six minutes. The pairs of frequencies to be moved between are different for each sine wave, but are mathematically related. The piece was recorded on a sixteen track tape machine, but overall I required sixty sine waves for the finished piece so I used track bouncing to achieve this. This lead to a fairly low signal to noise ratio, but it seems sympathetic to the piece.

-------------------------------------

- How did you come up with songs that are more experimental such as "Circlewave2" and "Orient Orange"? They reminded me of the songs on "ULTRAVISITOR".

I just sat in the studio and made them.

-------------------------------------

I like to try to continually develop my methods of composition. Nonetheless, there are a few definite approaches that I tend to re-use and come back to. Here are a couple of examples:-

1) I start with a recording of drumming, improvised or strictly composed and gradually build the instrumentation round it. If midi sequencing is required, I calculate the bpm of each bar and then set a varying bpm sequence component in the sequencer itself and run it in sync with the audio using midi timecode. "Theme From Sprite" is an example of this.

2) I start with sequenced information and build up live instrumentation on the top of it. Obviously this way round is a simpler way of working. An example of this is "Hello Meow".

I have given these examples just to suggest the basic approaches. Many more permutations of these ideas combined with others have been used; indeed some tracks seem to necessitate their own method of execution. For example, in "Circlewave 2", in which I use only live instrumentation, I recorded each part monitoring only the previous part that I had just played and never using the drums as a timing reference. This was in order to to create a loose and surreal rhythmic intonation between each instrument, which I saw as being a sympathetic rhythmic concept to the harmonic content.

-------------------------------------

- The front cover of your newest album also has a photo of an Octave Cat. Did you use this as well on the album? If so, can you please tell us a bit about how you use it? In Japan the CAT is a very rare item and hard to get hands on one. Have you been using this from the past? Also, please let us know if you have any other interesting or rare hardware and/or samplers that you used in this album.

I bought the CAT in 1992 for £40 and it manifests at various points throughout my recording career to date. I used it to generate quite a few of the synth sounds on "Big Loada", but I used it most extensively on "Music is rotted one note", particularly on the electroaccoustic pieces. The drum track on "Bubble Life" was constructed layer by layer using various sounds generated on the CAT. All these drum sounds were played manually via the keyboard. It does feature a CV/Gate input and output so sometimes I use it in conjunction with my SH101. Other than the 101, this is really the only vintage synth I own. The most interesting pieces of equipment I own are things that I have designed and built myself.

-------------------------------------

- Can you also tell us what sort of effectors and or constantly residing equipment you have at home? How do you prefer to use the effectors and what about them to you like? For example, the reverb used in both "Bubble Life" and "Circlewave 2" give a very warm feeling. What is used when you want to achieve these sort of warm sounds?

For these two tracks and others on "Hello Everything", I use a home constructed spring reverb device, which uses a total of eight separate spring units of the "Accutronics" variety. The eight springs can be connected up in various serial or parallel combinations and then mixed using various types of on -board eq. Other than that, I have the Eventide "Orville" and the "DSP4000" units which along with the AKG analogue reverb units constitute the sum of my signal processing hardware.Most of the signal processing I use is designed within the computer on either Reaktor or PD.

-------------------------------------

Although you may interpret a given track as being "live" or "accoustic", there may well be a high degree of programmed material in a "live" track. Also, there may be a high degree of "live" material in what sounds heavily oriented towards programming. For example, "square rave", "tomorrow world" and "mind rubbers" from "selection sixteen", although they might sound like it, have no programmed( i.e. sequenced) material in them at all. You might verify this by attempting to perform a BPM count on them - they do not at any point have a precise tempo. I played all the parts live from a bass guitar using a bass>midi converter (including drums). "Iambic 9 poetry" is all programmed apart from the drums, which I played in two parts, and then spliced together to form a continuous backbone.

Edited May 22, 2014 by pizza

**beerwolf** · May 22, 2014

Even though I love to chat music with most people, I think I'd run a mile from

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