Customer Reviews

Burningn'n Tree

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After the release of Squarepusher's sucessful and ambitous full length debut, Warp records decided it would be okay to raid his backcatalog and let him release as much music as he wanted for the time being. In that span of time it produced to albums: Big Loada (a collection of hard to find singles) and Burning'n' Treee; a collection of the some of the earliest works from the musical prodigy. While the collection contains some of his least impressive work, it shows the groundwork of what he would later produce and ultimately transend.

Largely, B'n'T is a collection of straightforward drum n' bass tracks with heavy emphasis on hyper-knetic drum programing and spastic bass playing. What certainly seperates his tracks from the rest of the drum n' bass gang is that he uses his formula largely to create more free form jazz tracks rather than leaning towards typical drum n' bass conventions. His songs evolve as if they are being improvised rather than being programmed. Sure, typical drum n' bass burner appears from time to time (the eleven minute Conumber is the definite highlight) and he certainly does it better than most.

What the album lacks is a good jaw-dropping track. All of them are good, quality tracks but there isn't a huge stand out beyond Conumber (mostly because its so long). Big Loada had Come On My Selector. Go Plastic had its Red Hot Car. Feed Me Weird Things had Tundra. Even his tiny Buddakon Mindphone had Iambic 5 Poetry. But nothing on Burning'n Tree is comes close to rivaling that material. But then again, its not meant to be. If you're looking for a Squarepusher history lesson, Burning'n Tree will do you no wrong. If you're looking for solid drum n' bass with a twist, it should satisfy. Just don't expect to be knocked out of your seat.

As far as drill and bass goes, there's a lot of extremely annoying material out there. Fortunately, this cd is not one of those releases. No warbling melodies here, Jenkinson shows off his real talent: the drums. Everything else falls into the background. Minimalistic basslines and the odd muted effect pops in and out, but generally the listener is treated to a skittery collection of breaks. Ah, and what a collection! Former fans of drum and bas need look no further than this album for refreshment. Be warned though, if you're doing other things, the intricacy may slip you by. It doesn't reach out and box your ears, chooses instead to slip into your subconscious and slowly work it's way up. When the album starts to peak, around track ten, it hits you. What hits you, I can't really say. But what hit me was, well, it was rather personal. But something will hit you...

Upon purchasing Burningn'n Tree earlier this year, I couldn't wait to pop it in my CD player. I already had about 85% of the Squarepusher catalogue (including vinyls), so thought I knew what to expect. The beats are brilliant, although at times rather harsh, and some of the melodies are near-ambience. Perhaps if this were the first title by Tom Jenkinson I had heard, I would have been more impressed, but with records like "Budakhan Mindphone" and "Hard Normal Daddy" out there, this one just doesn't seem quite as complete. Throughout the record, evidence of his developing electronic sound are certainly a many, and the new tracks, although short, are very good. Favorite track: Sarcacid part 1

This is some of Squarepusher's best work. Sacacid part 1 is worth buying the CD alone.

At the heart of everything that Squarepusher is about, you have Burningn'n Tree. Take away all of the noise, the convoluted sounds, the spastic relations of samples from his later work, and this is what you'll have. Drum and bass with a heavy influence of jazz.

Before I looked further into what this album was, I thought it was exactly that, an album, and was later suriprised to find out that it is actually a collection of previous EP's he made. All of the songs form very well together to create a solid album, they all have nice jazzy melodies among his characteristic spastic drum loops. The complexities are a bit buried at first but with a few solid listens it becomes clear what Squarepusher is all about.

It is, as someone said, in a sense a Squarepusher history lesson, but as this was one of my very first Squarepusher albums to really enjoy it's a great place to start, especially for those not used to the Drill'n Bass genre just yet. Burningn'n Tree will kind of coast you on into the rest of his later work and you'll be able to accept it for exactly what it is. I give this a 5 as it is one of my favorites of his work and really got me into the rest of it. Progression is always an amazing thing to watch or listen to.

Let me explain... I bought this CD several years ago after getting turned on to Tom with Music Is The Rotted One. Quite honestly, I did not like this CD at first but I have since changed my mind.
Tom J is a very talented guy and these tracks really represent him "streching and Jamming in a structured way. Granted the songs themselves are not quite a neatly crafted as what he has done since on later releases, but in a sense, this release shows you raw Squarepusher. It is for this reason I find I listen to the CD often.
Excellent spin!

I'm not trying to throw big words - Burning'n Tree is definitely my favorite, out of all my jazz, electronic, classical and blues CDs. This is primarily because I love jungle, but also because everyone who hates electronic will sit and enjoy this (and so I get to listen to my fav. much more often!) It's a pleasure to be able to share the brilliance of excellent jungle with the unconverted - you should try!

At a time when drum 'n' bass and jungle threaten to collapse in on themselves ('Saturnzreturn' anyone?), Squarepusher continues to broaden the limits of sound and challenge our notions of most all things musical. 'Burning 'n Tree' is the artist's sketchbook as a youth: at once methodically dogmatic and at the same time wildly radical. Of course, the dogma depends on whose twistedly warped mind you've accessed. 'Burning 'n Tree' sometimes feels like the bastard offspring that never quite made it to fruition (Frankenstein 0.5 Beta01), but in each track, the seeds of Squarepusher's mastery of breakbeat and texture can be seen.

Oh, man...this is a work of genius in progress. I have never in my life heard of "Acid Jazz" or "Drill n' Bass", but when I bought this CD, I found a part of me that was undiscovered here in these desperate days of 2000 music, [sighs] y'know?. This has alot of very musical moments if you ignore the fact that the music is electronic. Give it a listen sometime, and maybe you'll understand why all of Squarepusher's fans are going absolute nuts for more. His own new creation of music is quite a hell of a trip into weird and creative beats. The originality of music is now at it's peak this new generation, Squarepusher...definately.

I LOVE IT! :D
HIGH RECOMMENDATION TO DNB FANS!!!

One of the First albums I heard of Squarepusher definetly worth listening to.