i think most of you are missing the point that tom jenkinson is and has always been making, which is to pull complex and emotionally driven music from both man and machine by pushing both to extremes. to say it's "soulless" is to wear your confirmation bias and ignorance on your sleeve.

acoustic squarepusher:
http://youtu.be/xTDe5i6JA6g

Your video, Squarepusher - 1000 + BPM robotic guitarist, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Squarepusher is anything but new.

He was pioneering what would soon become "electronica" when Trent was still pushing his hot-topic centric electronic angst rock.

Tom Jenkinson (aka Squarepusher) along with Aphex and Autechre, basically created IDM (which turned into "electronica" once stupid marketing losers in the US got hold of it) back in the early 90's. He's got a shitload of releases and is one of the most influential electronic musicians of all time.

And dont get me started on the shitstorm that is Daft Punk. First of all, they came well after underground electronic music was already a global phenomenon, and second, their special blend of stealing other ppls music and putting a weak house beat underneath is pure garbage by most music snobs standards. To even mention them in a thread about Squarepusher is sacrilege.

>> ^kceaton1:

It reminds me of when people in the past used to ask me for good examples of electronic type music. I used to use The Fragile (two-disc album by NiN, if you don't have it do yourself a favor and get it) as an example for it (at the time Massive Attack was great as was Sneaker Pimps, but I was aiming for something U.S. centric), though I had to remind them that "The Fragile" was really a mix of rock and electronic. But, there are some tracks on "The Fragile" that ARE electronic(a). The track used for the very popular 300 trailer (you could say due to that track--if you haven't heard the song do yourself a favor and go listen now), "Just Like You Imagined" really helped showcase Trent Reznor's ability in electronic(a).
This was again proved when he won (with the great Atticus Ross as well) best musical score for The Social Network, which was essentially an entirely electronic album (Tron:Legacy of the same year included a soundtrack that was also electronic by the ever popular Daft Punk).
It's some of these past masters in this music category that you find this new generation of GOOD musical artists.

>> ^shagen454:

Fuck yeah! Autechre is great too! My favorite electronic records are probably by Boards of Canada and a couple of records by Oval and probably more obviously, Kraftwerk and more recently Flying Lotus. Man, Flying Lotus is unbelievable.


I love Boards. New album plz!!!!

>> ^ForgedReality:

>> ^Opus_Moderandi:
>> ^ForgedReality:
Ooh that gives me an idea: Why doesn't someone take Hawking's voice engine, and autotune it, and create the next big music fad?

Are you being facetious?

I'm being half-facetious. I think it could be interesting to see once. Auto-tune could make even Stephen Hawking seem talented (musically).


lol, well in that case, the 1st thing that came to my mind was Squarepusher's Red Hot Car. Maybe Aphex Twin's Windowlicker (if he was a pimp daddy)...

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

Height of music? I dunno... Bach? Stravinsky? Coltrane? The Beatles? Morricone? Certainly not Daft Punk. They are overrated to begin with -more notable for the videos they inspire than the music itself- but now that they have a job scoring a blockbuster movie, they seem to have abandoned whatever originality they once had in favor of creating extremely generic sounding Hollywood film music. No personality. It could have been written by anyone. Boring.
They should have gone with someone unambiguously badass, like Richard D. James of Aphex Twin, or Squarepusher. Hell, you could just license stuff from their back catalogs and it would be infinitely better than this dreck, and probably less expensive.
>> ^Mashiki:
Let me guess, you think dubstep is the height of music.


Exactly what I was thinking. Daft Punk has certainly had some catchy tracks over the years, but wow is this one boring. I haven't heard any of the rest of this supposed soundtrack, but if this is any indication...meh.

I've always wondered how a soundtrack from Ronald Jenkees would sound...especially if he could move a little away from the synth sounds he seems to favor. Most of his music would really overpower any scene, and soundtracks take a little more thought on how to finesse the music into people's ears along with what's on screen.

Height of music? I dunno... Bach? Stravinsky? Coltrane? The Beatles? Morricone? Certainly not Daft Punk. They are overrated to begin with -more notable for the videos they inspire than the music itself- but now that they have a job scoring a blockbuster movie, they seem to have abandoned whatever originality they once had in favor of creating extremely generic sounding Hollywood film music. No personality. It could have been written by anyone. Boring.

They should have gone with someone unambiguously badass, like Richard D. James of Aphex Twin, or Squarepusher. Hell, you could just license stuff from their back catalogs and it would be infinitely better than this dreck, and probably less expensive.

>> ^Mashiki:

Let me guess, you think dubstep is the height of music.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
'Electronica' is an antiquated 1990's marketing term for electronic music, much like 'Alternative' was a marketing term for rock, which has since been replaced by 'indie'. When I think of 'electronica', I think of more commercial electronic music. It just wouldn't feel right to invoke electronica on Aphex Twin or Squarepusher. 'Electronic music' is a timeless term that gives electronic musicians more respect and ties them to the larger history of electronic music, which dates back to the 1950's.

Electronic Music would also be more inclusive, because it would include early electronic music, like Stockhausen, Steve Reich, music concrete, the Theremin and other such awesomeness. Electro-Acoustic music (electronic music that uses live instruments) would also be covered by this term.

I'm not a purist or an overly protective electronic music fanboy, I'm just particular about music terminology. Don't even get me started on 'Classical Music'. (Classical music is a sub genre of concert music that ceased to exist hundred of years ago - think Mozart and Haydn.) Concert music, not classical. Electronic music, not electronica.

2 cents from a musician.

remind me to never argue music history with you..........ever.

'Electronica' is an antiquated 1990's marketing term for electronic music, much like 'Alternative' was a marketing term for rock, which has since been replaced by 'indie'. When I think of 'electronica', I think of more commercial electronic music. It just wouldn't feel right to invoke electronica on Aphex Twin or Squarepusher. 'Electronic music' is a timeless term that gives electronic musicians more respect and ties them to the larger history of electronic music, which dates back to the 1950's.

Electronic Music would also be more inclusive, because it would include early electronic music, like Stockhausen, Steve Reich, music concrete, the Theremin and other such awesomeness. Electro-Acoustic music (electronic music that uses live instruments) would also be covered by this term.

I'm not a purist or an overly protective electronic music fanboy, I'm just particular about music terminology. Don't even get me started on 'Classical Music'. (Classical music is a sub genre of concert music that ceased to exist hundred of years ago - think Mozart and Haydn.) Concert music, not classical. Electronic music, not electronica.

2 cents from a musician.

squarepusher..great embryonic funk.

Squarepusher == Instant upvote

An overview of various clips ("categorized" by genre) from last year I liked because of the clip and the accompanying music:

Indie pop
http://www.videosift.com/video/Eccentric-night-out-Risn-Murphy-Movie-Star-2008

Indie rock
*http://www.videosift.com/video/MGMT-Electric-Feel-2008DancingDrinking-from-the-Moon
http://www.videosift.com/video/Fleet-Foxes-White-Winter-Hymnal
http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Notwist-Where-In-This-World-2008
http://www.videosift.com/video/A-Picture-Of-Our-Torn-Up-Praise-2008-by-Phosphorescent

Electro
http://www.videosift.com/video/Le-le-Breakfast-video-by-Parra
http://www.videosift.com/video/Le-Le-Ich-Clacque-dich
http://www.videosift.com/video/Slagsm-lsklubben-Sponsored-By-Destiny
http://www.videosift.com/video/Dim-Chris-No-Sucker-Official-Tecktonik-anthem
http://www.videosift.com/video/Necro-Stallar-Only-Moon-2008

Disco
http://www.videosift.com/video/Hercules-Love-Affair-Time-Will-2008
http://www.videosift.com/video/Geneva-Jacuzzi-Love-Caboose-2008
http://www.videosift.com/video/Rubies-I-Feel-Electric-2008
http://www.videosift.com/video/Moby-Disco-Lies
http://www.videosift.com/video/Cutting-edge-monster-party-Denki-Groove-Mononoke-Dance

Hiphop/rnb
*http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Tongue-feat-Dudley-Perkins-Animal-Crackers
http://www.videosift.com/video/Rapping-former-warchild-Emmanuel-Jal-Warchild-2008
http://www.videosift.com/video/T-Pain-Ft-Ludacris-Chopped-N-Skrewed-2008
http://www.videosift.com/video/Kanye-West-Love-Lockdown

Drum'n bass
*http://www.videosift.com/video/Pendulum-Propane-Nightmares-2008
http://www.videosift.com/video/Squarepusher-Planet-Gear-2008

Various electronica/rock
http://www.videosift.com/video/Bomb-the-Bass-Fuzzbox-2008
*http://www.videosift.com/video/Moby-feat-Aynzil-and-the-419-Squad-Alice-2008
http://www.videosift.com/video/Pivot-In-The-Blood-2008
http://www.videosift.com/video/Portishead-Machine-Gun

Linked my selflinks, i swear it was random

Jeff Metal: Spooky
Squarepusher: Ultravisitor
Daft Punk: Alive
The Specials: Monkey Man
Yasson, Keith and Alex: Submersive Didj
Benny Page: Indian Drums (the tabla sample from Sneaker Pimp on Cutterz Choice)
Some unlabelled dubstep mp3
Mikee Liks: Loving You
Mikee Liks: Soul Deep
DJ Shadow and Automator: My Guru

I'm quite pleased how that worked out. Funny thing is i play so much Mikee Liks on the radio it became a running joke, and now even my iTunes is in on the joke.

I love the groovy dancing girl, and you guys should be nice, I think she reads here.
Oh wait, she definitely reads the stuff on YouTube, which is like 1000000 times worse. Never mind.

Anyway, *obscure for the squarepusher in this one.

This game had an amazing soundtrack:

CD1
* 1: Game CDROM track.
* 2: Black Dog - Raxmus (Spanners)
* 3: Black Dog - Chase The Manhattan (Spanners)
* 4: LFO - Tied Up (Advance)
* 5: LFO - Shut Down (Advance)
* 6: Autechre - Second Bad Vilbel (Anvil Vapre)
CD2
* 1: Game CDROM track.
* 2: RAC - Nine (Double Jointed)
* 3: Autechre - Second Scepe (Anvil Vapre)
* 4: Autechre - Clipper (Tri Repetae)
* 5: Squarepusher - Chin Hippy (Hard Normal Daddy)
* 6: LFO - Tied Up (Advance)