From abenn Sent Tue, Sep 29th 1998, 10:48
oh, ohhh, ohhhhh! I'm totallyotallyOTALLY in love with Squarepusher! Aphex can go jump, there just aint nobody out there to touch him, to even come close! It's rather strange getting used to an Anokha at the End, da vibe just aint the same as back at our beloved Blue Note, where it was much more chilled, where we had the Indian cafe lads servin up deeelicious Chai in the chillin zone and the crowd was a culturally mixed lot of trendies, crusties, yer 'just returned from Goa students sporting Bindis, saris & tinkly bells everywhere' and just bigfunparty people ... at the End, must be cos of the location, it seems to attract a lot of the 'West End' crowd, 'London Fashion Week' media lot, who have probbly never heard of Anokha but just want somewhere to go, and are not quite so up for it ... didn't recognise any of the old crowd cept for the Anokha lads. So anyways, there we all were, chillin in the bar room, where one of the Anokha lads was djing, and then I saw da big man Squarepusher lope in, (lookin flippin full-on gorgeous phwooooar, I might add, no wonder all those Sheffield lasses are going mad for him! still got da short hair but the beardie action is back in bizness again, hurrrah!), and he went and chatted with the dj and suddenly it felt like ol times again, he was always down the Blue Note, if he wasn't playin, he'd be going mental, dancin and leapin around everywhere in the crowd ... and I got quite a lump in my throat, was quite choked seein him again, cos its sooooooo blinkin long since he's played in London and we've missed him soooo soooooo much, more than anyone else I can think of ... just wanted to run up & hug him. Talvin and Lelonek were djing in the other room, all da classic Anokha soundz with a few worrying ones in there, Talvin, you're not going all 'Big Beat' on us are you??? I had thought that Talvin and Lelonek would have been doing live sets, specially with Talvin's new album out but no, just djing and no sign of Cleveland Watkiss either. We weren't sure which room Squarepusher was gonna play in so we were hoppin from room to room all night to check, didn't want to miss one minute of him ... then we saw him heave his big haversack on and take his bass thru to t'other room and so we dived thru, right to the front, where Lelonek was still djing whilst Squarepusher was gettin sorted. He started off his set by playing all the slower, exploratory jazz tracks from the new album, on one track, he played a riff on his bass, sampled it straightaways, made a loop of it, had this playing whilst he was jammin along with it, improvising it live! Twas magic, totally fluid and elastic! I can't name any of these tracks for you as I haven't got the album yet ... but on reading some people's reviews of the album, where Can kept on being touched on as a possible reference point ... I would disagree and say nahh, if you have to make any kind of aural reference pointer, then I'd say Herbie Hancock circa 1972. He was using dubplates, not dats, with some top mixin action going on, he even threw one out to the crowd but this lad just along from me got it, Humph! :( The set was like this long crescendo, starting off slow and loose, totally chilled explorations on a jazz tip building up and up to the mental, fucked up beats and stretchy, streeeetchy elastic runs he takes us on, runnin helter skelter at break-neck speed. Totally exhilerating, totally mad, TOTALLY Squarepusher! One thing I always notice bout Squarepusher's music is that STRAIGHTAWAYS, it sorts out the lightweights from the hardcore on the dancefloor, with the lightweights limpin off in a sort of stunned 'rabbit caught in the headlights' bedazzled and terrified stupor, unable to get their heads and feet around the deft intracies and complexities, the totally unexpected hecticness of it all careering off at breakneck tangents ... which for the rest of us, make his music the most exciting stuff in the world to dance to! Towards the end, he was playin all da ol faves in along with the new stuff, everyone cheering & going mental when 'Journey to Reedham' came on and me going totally loopy when 'Bubble' off Bubble & Squeak came on, with Tom jammin along, givin it some welly! More than anything that night, you came away with the feeling that here is a TRUE musician, you see it in his face, in his total 'deep in' focus, in his total control & mastery of his music and bass playin (which judgin by last night, he must have been doing some serious practise on, ohhh man those fingers were flyin!) he has that rarest of gifts, the true sign of a real musician to me ... the ability to keep it sooooo tight, stretchin it to the utmost stretch ... yet looose too, all fluid and bendy & seemingly effortless ... (the true signs of a real dancer too) ...and altho, he's often pigeonholed in with all the other bedroom boffins doing their electronic tings, he's reeeeally out there on his own in my opinion, breakin new grounds ... this is a man whose music could NEVER sound cold or clinical, as if a computer had been programmed to make it ... for Squarepusher's got jazz deep in his veins, rushin rushin helter skelter thru ... he's got da funk and he's got da grooove and he's got the most Mental of Mental, electrical brainstorm of a mind that just sears you with the fruits of its energy ... you just feel the heat of his hunger and uncontrolable enthusiasm burning out of him and all his music ... aint nobody else out there to touch him, to even come close ... Huuuuuuuge Respect to Tom, Aless