Customer Reviews

Hello Everything

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For just about every artist who has a signature style, and makes more than a few albums, a bit of repetition is inevitable. Sooner or later, they will return to familiar territory. That's the case in Squarepusher's latest, "Hello Everything," which sounds a lot like his earlier work from the late 1990s.

But surprisingly, it doesn't feel like he's been here before. Instead it feels like a nostalgic mishmash of sampling and bass, but with an exuberant feeling that wasn't there in his previous few albums. This is Tom Jenkinson in a fun mood, settling back into familiar beats.

It opens with the slightly wobbly, energetic beats of "Hello Meow," and meanders down a string of more upbeat melodies, using all sorts of weird samples and beats -- the sounds of buzzes, bubbles, sharp drum machines and woozy jazzy downtempo, all sounding very catchy in an offbeat way.

Things change dramatically in the middle -- there are a pair of unabashedly spacey songs, which sound a lot like the background music for a sci-fi film. Then Squarepusher reluctantly switches to a more grounded sound, with swooshy synth, sharp beats, and fast-paced electronic soundscapes, before endin with the weirdly soothing ten-minute "Orient Orange."

Anyone expecting "Hello Everything" to build on the sound of "Ultravisitor" is going to be VERY disappointed -- only one song on here, "The Modern Bass Guitar," sounds even vaguely like it. Instead, the music sounds much more like his earlier work like "Music is Rotted One Note" and "Selection Sixteen."

It may not be a new sound, but it fits Squarepusher like a comfortable old sweater. He seems to be dabbling in various styles that he enjoys, just because he enjoys them. "Hello Everything" shoots from from sleepy downtempo to ambient to razor-edged techno, and it fits together like a slightly disjointed, but colourful puzzle.

In fact, it's actually kind of fun -- it sounds lighthearted in some of the early tracks, although he noodles a bit too much in the middle. Songs like the effervescent, fizzing "Bubble Life" make a sharp contrast to the rat-a-tat of "Planetarium," but Squarepusher wrings complex melodies out of the simplest samples and rhythms, wrapping them in layer of colourful sound.

Squarepusher backslides in a good way in "Hello Everything," revisiting his older sounds with enjoyable results. It's not exactly new, but it's certainly enjoyable.

I just wanted to say that the idea of this record sounding "unmastered" to people is an unjust accusation. I believe Squarepusher is just consciously utilizing the full dynamic range of his music---the tracks are NOT unpolished and unmixed, but rather crescendoing, decrescendoing, etc. much like that of classical music.

This was also the case in Ultravisitor and perhaps others I haven't heard yet. I'll bet it just seems unmastered to a lot of people because there's hardly any electronic music like this where songs would go from a pianissimo to a triple forte and other such dynamic ranges. In lots of electronic music (excluding early academic stuff), especially ones with club-oriented roots, things stay at about the same volume level, or at least you never have to strain to hear the music.

So as a result, because of the range of volumes on this disc, it pretty much restricts you to a marginal volume setting. Otherwise some parts would be barely audible or others might be way too loud. Therefore, using this as background music is pretty much not an option. I can't play it in the car with my girlfriend because she gets frustrated that she can't talk to me during the loud parts. But then again when did anyone ever expect Squarepusher to function as background music? He always demands our full attention!

I love Squarepusher, and I've been anticipating this release for some time now. The good news is this is a great Squarepusher album. He seems to be back in late 90s form for the majority of the album. Several of the songs remind me of songs from Hard Normal Daddy, based more around jazz and early 90s techno than some of the later releases. Chances are that if your interested in Squarepusher already, you'll like this album.

The bonus cd was a disappointment for me. It's a 3 inch cd, with tracks Melt 1, Melt 3, Melt 4, Melt 5 and Melt 6. These appear to be variations of the song Vacuum Garden from the main disc. Normally I'm all for remixes, but these tracks bored me. The original is very spacy, with a slow build over the course of the song that never really goes anywhere. On the album it serves as a transition and doesn't feel out of place. On the bonue disc, however, this slow build only leads into another slow build with the slightest of variations. Maybe the differences would stand out a little more with repeated listens, but I don't foresee a time that I'll have the desire to play that disc again.

Unless you're a completist that just has to own the bonus disc, I'd advise to skip the limited edition and go for the standard version.

For a man who has been doing this for over a decade (and a very strong decade too), Tom Jenkinson a.k.a Squarepusher shows no signs of tiring out, evidenced by both "Hello Everything" and the new EP "Welcome to Europe." He seems to still have quite a few new ideas and each one is blended very seamlessly with the old.

If you're a fan already, then you probably love solid jungle sounds and he really does a fantastic job with that sound here. Tracks like 'Hello Meow,' 'Planetarium,' and 'Rotate Electrolyte' all feature some light jungle, though also showcasing some pretty ear-bending synth conjunctions. No track is solely dedicated to jungle beats--most tracks feature a nice blend of acid and jungle (not a bad idea at all).

Where "Ultravisitor" faultered was maybe in its overabundance of seemingly wandering and unfocused spells. "Hello Everything" wanders perfectly within tracks like 'The Modern Bass Guitar', which is also a perfect example of Jenkinson's masterful knowledge of the modern bass style, something that (one might think) he may have had a hand in inventing. The bass tracks on this album certainly show the artist's advancement in skill and creativity. Some of the bass stylings hark back to "Music Is Rotted One Note", where Jenkinson plays with a slower, more deliberately funky texture. My absolute favorite track on the album is one like this called "Theme From Sprite," which sounds like an off-kilter jazz band trying to play an uppity tune, but still coming off with an ominous overtone--masterfully done!

He puts just enough textural ambience on the record, with only one track having absolutely no drums at all. The final track, 'Orient Orange,' features some very rich night ambience fronted by large cymbals, which at times mock the sound of swords clashing.

Overall, I can't give this anything fewer than 5 stars. Performance, composition and orchestration are all pushing listeners ahead into the future of music--don't be left behind!

Yeah!!! Tommy J. is back and in full throttle effect with "hello Everything". Some have accused the pusher for retreading old ground and not breaking any new ground on this release. I say so what. This stuff is still fresh and a very welcome return--exiting as can be.

"Hello" can be viewed as Tommy's showcase album, much like the cover that adorns this release, the music is a display of the versatility and ability of one of the most amazing musicians of our time. This is his most accessable and highly listenable release, not to say that it's watered down in any way whatsoever. It's experimental in places but not as extreme as the awesome noise fest that was "Ultravisitor". The melodies are bright and popping here too, which is funny coming from a guy who, maybe five or so years ago said he was through with melody altogether in a magazine interview. Well, I'm sure glad that he changed his mind.

This album is a fine mix of the electonic and organic and proves that at Tommy J. is still a force to be dealt with, with over a decade of excellent releases (and lots of 'em) under his belt. So don't sleep on this fine and fantastic audio delight.

Great material this time as usual. What an interesting artist. Every record is a new surprise. This guy is so much fun to listen to. But unfortunately like Go Plastic, Do You Know Squarepusher, & Ultravisitor, this album does not appear to be MASTERED! His earlier stuff from the 90's all sounded great. But it seems like after the new millennium he stopped using a mastering engineer. While not nearly as troubling as Ultravisitor was, Hello Everything still suffers from many of the classic symptoms of an unmastered album. Some tracks are quiet, some are loud, some sound tiny and weak, and others are too full and heavy. Some tracks are weak in midrange, often times the drums get buried. It's frustrating because again the material is great but the audio problems constantly take you out of the album. I'm tired of riding the volume control and the eq when listening to Squarepusher. Tom we love you, give Frank Arkwright a call again! The bonus disc is an ep called "Vacuum Tracks". It features five pieces that appear to be different variations of the method used to create "Vacuum Garden". While not enormously interesting, I can certainly see myself using "4026 Melt 6" in an ambient mix sometime in the future. Would work well on a cold but very sunny winter afternoon spent indoors.

I decided to review the work of Squarepusher. The English musician, Tom Jenkinson, specializes in electronic-acoustic music with drum and bass, and is influenced by jazz and Musique Concrete. One of Squarepusher's more recent albums, Hello Everything, is influenced heavily by Musique Concrete. Hello Everything really encompasses all of the past work that Squarepusher has put out. This variety is both good and bad, and while a good amount of the songs I really enjoy, one of the songs "Vacuum Garden" is just six minutes of noise. If you're into that sort of stuff too, then this album certainly has it all. It is a type of music that once you turn it on, everything else in the world sort of fades away and you are immerged into one of electronic musicality and melody.
Like I mentioned earlier, this album is influenced by Musique Concrete. This method towards creating electronic music emphasizes the use of samples to compose music. It is a popular method dating back to Pierre Schaeffer, a radio engineer, who was the first to record music by a tape player. Squarepusher makes use of a 16 track tape player and a DAT recorder throughout the album. One of my favorite tracks on the album, "Hello Meow", uses countless samples to create an upbeat background beat with varying tones coming in and out of the music. It is so upbeat in fact that it is used for Adult Swim's "Next Sunday on Adult Swim" commercials. He also makes use of his excellent bass playing skills throughout the song to coincide with the electronic music he created. While his playing isn't ground breaking in itself, as in something new and different, the speeds at which he is playing is impressive. For the most part this track reminds me of the background music that would be used in an old school Atari video game; it would be a perfect match with a space invader type game. Around a little less than two minutes into the song the pace of the music really picks up a bit, and is becomes a real go getter type song until a minute later when it drops off a bit and mellows out. I feel like "Hello Meow" does a really great job as an introductory song in familiarizing the listener with the type of musician Squarepusher is, and how the rest of the album will progress.
All in all, Hello Everything is a great album even for the electronic music amateur. Even though I have just started appreciating all the cool things this genre of music has to offer, I really enjoyed listening to this album. What makes it even more enjoyable is being able to relate my knowledge of the history of electronic music with what is being put out today. Just to think that a minuscule fraction of human's time on earth ago, Andre Marie Ampere discovered transduction which allows for microphones and speakers; and today sophisticated albums like Hello Everything are being put out regularly.

Somewhere along the line after the release of his Music Is Rotted One Note album, Tom Jenkinson lost me a bit. In the time since then, he's released a whole shedload of music, and while he's certainly put out a fair amount of great work, he's also seemingly not a very good editor of his own material, bogging down albums with too many filler tracks and needless diversions. Part of the problem could possibly simply be that the market is a lot more crowded than when he started, but with recent releases it seems that Jenkinson has largely been going through the motions.

Although it's just as scattered sounding as several of his past albums, Hello Everything seems to be cut from a slightly different cloth. Perhaps it's the more playful album artwork throwing off my perception, but it really does seem like Jenkinson is simply allowing himself to have a bit more fun on his newest effort. His insane bass playing is back and prominent on most tracks, and in addition to slamming several tracks with completely wicked beats, he manages to throw a few curves out that work as well. "Hello Meow" opens the album with some seriously infectious melodies (dueled-up on vibes and synths) some chopped-up Amen breaks, and some of the best bass work from Jenkinson in a long time.

From there, the album is all over the map. "Theme From Sprite" goes downright lounge as slappy bass and guitar mingle with chimes and live drumming while "Bubble Life" is some sly mixture of past tracks, throwing together squealing analogue synths, tinny beats, and more funky as hell bass. "Vacuum Garden" arrives about halfway through the disc and veers into complete left field as layers of manipulated sine waves make for a six minute slice of eerie drone. "Circlewave 2" is one of the bigger surprises, as Jenkinson mixes heavily-reverbed live drums and keyboard drones with super expressive bass and guitar playing that sounds almost Morricone-inspired.

A large part of the rest of the effort is Jenkinson working the drill and bass angle to varying degree. "Planetarium" is dark as heck and howls with a deep analogue bass and squiggling melodies over the top that keep the mood slightly lighter while "Plotinus" builds into one of the more trippy and dense things that he's ever done, with layers of cascading synths and bass work spilling all over one another while rapid-fire beats shell the surroundings. The eleven-minute closing track of "Orient Orange" is sort of a good summary of the album as a whole, even though the more experimental piece doesn't really have much in common with the rest of the album, as it has its moments, but could have used a touch of editing. That said, despite the inconsistencies, Hello Everything is one of the best things that Jenkinson has done in some time. If you're a fan of his work, it's well worth seeking out.

(from almost cool music reviews)

Tom Jenkinson has been making music constantly since the early-mid 90s. Sometimes he will sleep or eat or go out in public, but to date, he has made over 3500 songs. Of course he has only released roughly 5% of those songs to the public, because some of them are no doubt derrivative. Which leads us to Hello Everything...

This album sounds like a bunch of B-sides (well, *squarepusher* B-sides) which have been polished up and sent off with very little love. The only exceptions being Planetarium which is magnificantly constructed (i mean mindblowingly great,) Rotate Electrolyte which would have fit lovingly in any number of albums to date, and Plotinus, with its wonderful exercise in tension and release. Three amazing songs all of which are similar in tone and feeling. If he could have released an album based more solidly around these songs it would have made much more sense. He has enough truely strong material to make it work, but instead he peppered the album with some out of place songs which simply feature his world-class bass playing as the central element. We know you play bass Tom, but you used to release amazing compositions as well. Don't get me wrong. This is great material, but the presentation just leaves me yawning and disappointed.

3.5 / 5

Great material this time as usual. What an interesting artist. Every record is a new surprise. This guy is so much fun to listen to. But unfortunately like Go Plastic, Do You Know Squarepusher, & Ultravisitor, this album does not appear to be MASTERED! His earlier stuff from the 90's all sounded great. But it seems like after the new millennium he stopped using a mastering engineer. While not nearly as troubling as Ultravisitor was, Hello Everything still suffers from many of the classic symptoms of an unmastered album. Some tracks are quiet, some are loud, some sound tiny and weak, and others are too full and heavy. Some tracks are weak in midrange, often times the drums get buried. It's frustrating because again the material is great but the audio problems constantly take you out of the album. I'm tired riding the volume control and the eq when listening to Squarepusher. Tom we love you, give Frank Arkwright a call again!