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SquarePusher Tour

Last night my bro Jason took me down to campus to catch the Squarepusher Tour. Having never heard of squarepusher but being a fan of Trance, D&B and other like forms of Techno I was happy to go. Squarepusher (aka. Tom Jenkinson) is touring the U.S. with Cassetteboy, DJ Jonny J, and human beatbox Kenny Muhammad The Human Orchestra.

To open the show DJ Jonny J had a standard issue dual turntable setup. He played a varitey of tech from House to Breakbeats and his transitions were quite good. He also provided the music in between the other acts.

Cassetteboy on the other hand was funny and entertaining for about 30 seconds of their fifteen to twenty minute show. To describe their show would require a XXX rating. It was crude, obnoxious, highly sexual and generally in poor taste. The ONLY good thing about their act was it ended.

Kenny Muhammad The Human Orchestra came on stage next and immediately stole the show. His ability to duplicate Drum & Bass Techno with just his voice was insane. He takes beatbox to not only the next level but multiple levels up. He put on a fantastic show and by himself was worth the price of admission. I could have done without the "it's a cultural revolution, know what I'm saying?" in between his songs but it's all part of the culture. I thought if someone could put him and Michael Winslow (aka. Larvell Jones from Police Academy) together they could produce some mad tunes. Kenny's speed and accuracy was amazing, the amount of control he has over his diaphragm and lungs was quite impressive

The last act of the night was squarepusher himself. Since all I knew about squarepusher was that it was drum & bass I was pleasantly surprised to find he expanded with some experimental breakbeats as well. I noticed early on he had a bass guitar on state next to his multiple laptops and mixing equipment.
One thing that was missing that I fully expected was any form of a keyboard.
That slight shock not withstanding his show was excellent, he started off with some spacial trance that evolved into breakbeats. His minimal light show was used effectively as the timing of the strobes, smoke and blinding flood lights worked well with the music.
About thirty minutes into the show he picked up the bass and this is where it all came together. He plugged the bass into one of the laptops and used it to alter how it sounded. He produced some amazing sounds off the bass and blended it very smoothly with the beats. The light show was blinding, literally. By the time we left I had a nice headache going from the floodlights that beat my pupils into submission. I had noticed through squinting eyes that some around me had come prepared, sunglasses.
This mad Englishman gave a fantastic show, it was good to see innovation in music when so much of the "popular" garbage being pushed today is about as innovative as the current Bush/Kerry mud throwing.

Bottom line, Don't miss this show. (however if you show up late and miss Cassetteboy your better off)

Posted by Muddy at April 8, 2004 03:37 PM | TrackBack