Squarepusher – Do You Know Squarepusher

I wish there was a version of this album with live video version of the title track attached. It's insane, classic, awesome. Classic Squarepusher positive musical madness. And the coolest Japanese crowd vivid reactions.

Not the best of his catalogue, but I still really love a few songs. Title track is a classic, groovy with a cool melody. Kill Robok slowly picks up momentum before becoming a glitch head trip. Several filler tracks that go nowhere though. And then the live performance with a largely annoying "wooo" crowd ed by clanging electronics that sound like they were recorded in mono.

i have a bit of a bad habit where i listen to cover versions before the originals, but i still feel squarepusher's version of "love will tear us apart" is really lovely! i might get the cd just because of that... Anstromm-Feck 4 is also great

What's to say? Definitely not an easy record to dive into.

The title track, like the others here have said, is the definite stand-out; playful craziness. "F-Train" is just strange; but it is entertaining to hear Tom rapping what sounds like a physics textbook. "Anstromm-Feck 4" is another highlight; but the rest of the tracks just kind of leave me cold. "Kill Robok" just sounds like glitchy confusion to me; "Mutilation Colony" is a piece of dark ambience that could have been so much more. His cover of "Love will tear us apart" is so low-key it frankly makes Ian Curtis sound like Ian Astbury in comparison.

It might grow on you; but after 11 years, this one still has a position in the bottom of his catalogue, in my opinion.

This is quite an interesting release from Tom Jenkinson. When I first listened to this, I hated it. It sounded very uninteresting to me at first, but then, it started to grow on me. Now, I'm okay with it. I find the lack of melody in most of the songs made up for in the complexity of the beats mixed and mashed up into each other to create something unique.

Do You Know Squarepusher - Of course it's the best song; immediate hook, with melodies zooming in and out, beats popping out from nowhere and such.

F-Train - You can barely understand the lyrics. It's a very dark song; don't listen to it at night. The rapper's voice is highly modulated and warped into these whooshing, beeping sounds.

Kill Robok - Sounds like an prehistoric computer having a very hard time being booted up. Very spamatic; always has the listener not knowing what to expect.

Anstromm-Feck 4 - Just... plain messed up with beats.

Conc 2 Symmetriac - Eh... just a filler. Too short of a song for me to go over.

Mutilation Colony - A rare look at Tom Jenkinson's dark, ominous take on music. I would put this piece of music in the dark ambient genre. This song somewhat sounds like a twisted church song, with it's funeral organ tone quietly wavering into to different chords, becoming darker and darker until all you're left with is a whooshing sound and a continuous deep, ringing note. And then, the song goes into majorly spasmatic noise.

Love Will Tear Us Apart - Just a cover of the original song by Joy Division -- it's decent. A bit bland at times, but not bad.

The second disc is basically a live recording of his previous album "Go Plastic" and a few other songs from the first disc. The recording's a bit muddled, but still a bit listenable.

F-Train is brilliant, I just listened to it like 4 times, it is making me feel ill... or something, I'm not really sure. Further the "Love Will Tear Us Apart" remix is very good, as well, it is much more dreamlike than the original version.

This is massively under-rated. Here's why:
Firstly, the production quality on this release is excellent - as an example, listen to Kill Robok on a good sound system. This is Squarepusher playing with psychoacoustics I think; you can hear the sounds move around in front of you, bouncing from left to right, near and further etc. Only Autechre or Richard James ever come close to this level of control. (IMO)
Secondly, the title track is unsured. Nothing comes close to this - a perfect blend of styles with spot-on production and emotionally powerful too.
Thirdly, before this release, Squarepusher had released Go Plastic! which was so good nobody could really see how he could equal it. So he didn't, he did something totally different. Hence this album.
I get the impression most people never gave this record a proper chance. It's a shame because it's a very deep release.

I gave this a 4 rating for the live CD alone. I feel that the album proper is very weak though. The title track is the definite highlight on this release, but the remainder of the album is definitely below standard for Jenkinson. He doesn't appear to have ventured into new territories sonically, and composition-wise the structure of the tunes remains predictably spasticated, but lacking any signs of a new or different formula.
On the other hand the live CD is an absolute belter. Yeh, the recording is shit, but so was the 'Jeff Mills live at the Liquid Rooms' and this doesn't detract from the performance whatsoever (it reminds me a little of listening to bootleg copies of raves when I was younger, shit quality but full on). 'My Fucking Sound' and 'Do You Know...' get your hairs on end, whilst the opener ('Conc 2 Symmetriac') to the set is a wash of abstraction needed before the onslaught (and this is certainly recognised by the very vocal crowd).
Studio = Shit - Live = Shit Hot

This album, in my opinion, isn't weak at all. But it's not exactly that good either. This is really just showcasing some of the new idea's from Mr.Jenkinson. It's somewhat starting from where Go Plastic left off, in the way the sound vastly differs. It was a pleasant surprise to hear Jenkinson rap, sounds like The Streets. those vice kids probably jizzed in their pants when they heard this. Anywho, the next Squarepusher release should be brilliant from what I have heard.

There are some great tracks on here, Anstromm feck-4 being the best imo.
But the live disc?!
It may be the only live recording of him available but you would have the same effect sticking go plastic in a PS1 and setting it to hall reverb.
this is warp scraping the bottom of the barrell while tom holds back tracks for his and richards MEN label.