Line #55 Music/Squarepusher


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/squarepusher_pic_1a.jpg]]
2
3	Tom Jenkinson (better known as Squarepusher) is an English electronic music artist and co-founder of the Spymania label (currently on indefinite hiatus).
4
5	The trait that sets him apart from many other electronic musicians is his use of non-electronic instruments in his music alongside electronic ones, most notably the bass guitar.
6
7	One of his main musical influences is electronic contemporary Music/AphexTwin, who directly inspired some of his earliest tracks and with whom he later struck a friendship that resulted in the release of Tom's first album ''Feed Me Weird Things'' on James' label Rephlex.
8
9	Ever since then, he has continued releasing records on the Warp label that experiment with and mix together multiple musical genres to create new and intriguing compositions. From 2010 onward he has also been working with his own band, Shobaleader One.
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11	His younger brother Andy Jenkinson is also a musician, better known as Ceephax Acid Crew.
12	----
13
14	!!Discography:
15
16	[[AC:Studio Albums]]
17	* ''Feed Me Weird Things'' (1996)
18	* ''Hard Normal Daddy'' (1997)
19	* ''Buzz Caner'' (1998; as Chaos A.D.)
20	* ''Music Is Rotted One Note'' (1998)
21	* ''Budakhan Mindphone'' (1999; usually classified as an EP but described as a "mini-album")
22	* ''Selection Sixteen'' (1999)
23	* ''Go Plastic'' (2001)
24	* ''Do You Know Squarepusher'' (2002)
25	* ''Ultravisitor'' (2004)
26	* ''Hello Everything'' (2006)
27	* ''Just a Souvenir'' (2008)
28	* ''Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator'' (2010; with Shobaleader One)
29	* ''Ufabulum'' (2012)
30	* ''Damogen Furies'' (2015)
31	* ''All Night Chroma'' (2019; as Tom Jenkinson with James [=McVinnie=])
32	* ''Be Up A Hello'' (2020)
33
34	[[AC:[=EPs=]]]
35	* ''Crot EP'' (1994; as Tom Jenkinson)
36	* ''Stereotype EP'' (1994; as Tom Jenkinson)
37	* ''Conumber EP'' (1995)
38	* ''Alroy Road Tracks'' (1995; as The Duke of Harringay)
39	* ''Bubble and Squeak'' (1996; as Tom Jenkinson)
40	* ''Squarepusher Plays...'' (1996)
41	* ''Port Rhombus EP'' (1996)
42	* ''Big Loada'' (1997)
43	* ''Remixes 12"'' (1998; as Chaos A.D.)
44	* ''Maximum Priest EP'' (1999)
45	* ''Anti-Greylord Protection Scheme Prelude'' (1999; included with most copies of ''Selection Sixteen'')
46	* ''Square Window'' (2004; included with online pre-orders of ''Ultravisitor'')
47	* ''Venus No. 17'' (2004)
48	* ''Vacuum Tracks'' (2006; included with some editions of ''Hello Everything'')
49	* ''Numbers Lucent'' (2009)
50	* ''Enstrobia'' (2013; included with ''Ufabulum'' special edition)
51	* ''Music for Robots'' (2014; with the Z-Machines)
52	* ''NTS Mix 22-06-19'' (streamed 2019; included with online pre-orders of ''Be Up A Hello'')
53
54	[[AC:Live Albums]]
55	* ''Solo Electric Bass 1'' (2009)
56	* ''Elektrac'' (2017; with Shobaleader One)
57
58	[[AC:Compilation]]
59	* ''Burningn'n Tree'' (1997; contains tracks from ''Conumber EP'' and ''Alroy Road Tracks'')
60
61	----
62	!!''Feed me weird tropes'':
63	* AmenBreak: Sampled in at least ''27'' tracks, including "Come On My Selector" and "My Red Hot Car".
64	* AnonymousBand: Aside from Squarepusher himself, the real identities of the other Shobaleader One members are unknown.
65	* AugmentedReality: In the "Terminal Slam" music video a woman puts on glasses, and info text boxes appear next to all the people, cars, and advertisements around her. Then they visually glitch and distort in time with the music, growing more intense as the song picks up. At the end, the woman takes off the AR glasses--but the glitches remain, and spread to her as well.
66	* BadassBoast: "Do You Know Squarepusher" is more or less an entire track dedicated to boasting about how he "makes all the different styles of drum and bass".
67	* {{Bowdlerise}}: "My Red Hot Car" is a NonAppearingTitle; it's actually a bowdlerised version of an actual line from the song, "My red hot ''cock''".
68	* ColorCodedCharacters: The members of Shobaleader One wear helmets that display different colours and shapes:
69	** Squarepusher: red square
70	** Strobe Nazard: blue circle
71	** Company Laser: green triangle
72	** Arg Nution: yellow rectangle
73	* CoolHelmet: He wore a functional LED helmet in concert during the ''Ufabulum'' era. He continues to wear it during performances with Shobaleader One, who wear similar helmets.
74	* CoverVersion: ''Do You Know Squarepusher'' ends with a - surprisingly faithful - cover of Music/JoyDivision's "Love Will Tear Us Apart".
75	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The covers of ''Alroy Road Tracks'', ''Feed Me Weird Things'', ''Big Loada'', ''Remixes 12"'', ''Music Is Rotted One Note'', ''Budakhan Mindphone'', ''Go Plastic'', ''Do You Know Squarepusher'', ''Ufabulum'', and ''Damogen Furies''.
76	* DiegeticSwitch: Invoked by ''Ultravisitor'', which incorporates a mix of live and studio recordings such that it's less obvious which is which.
77	* EpicRocking: Almost all of his releases feature at least one song over 5 minutes in length, with the longest track on a studio album being "Orient Orange" (10:54) from ''Hello Everything''.
78	* FaceOnTheCover: ''Ultravisitor'' features his face on the cover.
79	** ''Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator'' and ''Ufabulum'' (regular edition) would also be examples, except both feature Jenkinson wearing a face-concealing LED helmet.
80	* HiddenTrack:
81	** Several editions of ''Selection Sixteen'' include an entire hidden EP: all four tracks from ''Anti-Greylord Protection Scheme Prelude'' are tacked on the end, but not listed anywhere in the liner notes.
82	** The "My Red Hot Car" single ends with two different hidden tracks depending on the format. On CD, its final track contains an ambient piece after 23 minutes of silence. On vinyl, a percussion-less version of the last song "I Wish You Obelisk" is behind a silent, locked groove.
83	* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: ''Hard Normal Daddy'' will definitely give any reader reason to do a DoubleTake.[[note]]One possible explanation for the title is that "daddy mode" means "[[DifficultyLevels easy mode]]," making the title equivalent to "Hard Normal Easy."[[/note]]
84	* IntercourseWithYou: "My Red Hot Car". Sung by a robotic vocoder, no less.
85	-->''You scream out for more\
86	Let me tell you, girl, that's for sure\
87	I'm gonna give you all I've got\
88	I'm gonna fuck you with my red hot cock''
89	* LeadBassist: Types A and C — his bass playing is as well-known as his electronic work, and he is easily the most well-known member of Shobaleader One.
90	* MinimalisticCoverArt:
91	** The cover of ''Do You Know Squarepusher'' consists solely of a black and white visual of a white square spouting from the corner of another square with the album title in the bottom right corner.
92	** The ''Ufabulum'' (special edition) cover is just white circles arranged in a grid on a pure black background.
93	* MinisculeRocking: While there aren't as many as his EpicRocking tracks, there are quite a few songs on the shorter side, most notably the 20 second "Tesko" from ''Selection Sixteen''.
94	* OutOfGenreExperience: He's known for blurring the lines between electronic and acoustic music, but ''Music Is Rotted One Note'' crosses over completely into {{jazz}}, and ''Solo Electric Bass 1'' is an album of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin nothing but bass solos]].
95	** ''All Night Chroma'' is an album of pipe organ compositions (performed by James [=McVinnie=]), and so far outside his usual that it was released under Tom Jenkinson's real name rather than the Squarepusher moniker.
96	* PachelbelsCanonProgression: "Oberlove" is just a straightforward drum-n-bass interpretation of the ''Canon in D'' chord progression.
97	* {{Portmantitle}}: Squarepusher itself.
98	* RearrangeTheSong: "My Red Hot Car" was released alongside a more radio-friendly version called "My Red Hot Car (Girl)", with notably less complex percussion and vocal chopping.
99	* ScaryMusicianHarmlessMusic: Inverted: he looks pretty unassuming, but his music can get downright [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tIwD_ZYiNg cacophonous]].
100	* SensoryAbuse: "Steinbolt" from ''Ultravisitor'' contains harsh synths and rapid, blistering beats, making it a contender for the heaviest song Jenkinson has ever produced.
101	* SplashOfColor:
102	** The cover of ''Buzz Caner'' is predominantly monochrome with the exception of a red stripe near the top and a few red details on the cassettes.
103	** The cover and all the liner notes of ''Damogen Furies'' are in black-and-white, except for a single page of the liner notes which is completely yellow, front and back.
104	* SpokenWordInMusic: "Come On My Selector" has two famous examples: the song's frantic drum-and-bass solo [[StopAndGo grinding]] to a halt for a man to say '''"[[PrecisionFStrike I'M THE FUCKING DADDY!]]"''', and the song's ending with a sample of someone saying "Yeah, yeah, it's alright, mate, yeah, sounds a bit like Music/{{Goldie}}."
105	* SurrealMusicVideo: The music video for "Come On My Selector", directed by Creator/ChrisCunningham. Pretty much every sound in the song is [[MickeyMousing synchronised to the video]], and the video itself is about a Japanese girl who escapes an asylum by [[AndIMustScream swapping her dog's brain into one of the guards trying to chase her.]]
106	* SymbolFace: Live band Shobaleader One all wear helmets with LED faceplates displaying different shapes [[ColorCodedCharacters and colors]]. Squarepusher himself has a red square, Strobe Nazard has a blue circle, Company Laser has a green triangle, and Arg Nution has a yellow rectangle.
107	* TextlessAlbumCover: ''Bubble and Squeak'', ''Hello Everything'', ''Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator'', ''Ufabulum'', and ''Be Up A Hello''.
108	* {{Title 1}}: ''Solo Electric Bass 1''.
109	* WordSaladTitle: Some song titles are real words in seemingly nonsensical arrangements, like "Chin Hippy" or "Mind Rubbers". Other song titles seem to be in a made-up alien language, like "Anirog D9", "Drax 2", or any of the songs from ''Damogen Furies'' ("Baltang Ort"? "D Frozent Aac"?).
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Context Music / Squarepusher