Music Is Rotted One Note

Music Is Rotted One Note
Studio album by Squarepusher
Released 12 October 1998
Genre Experimental, electronica, jazz fusion
Length 48:28
Label Warp
Producer Tom Jenkinson
Squarepusher chronology

Burningn'n Tree
(1997)		 Music Is Rotted One Note
(1998)		 Budakhan Mindphone
(1999)

Music Is Rotted One Note is the third full-length album released by Squarepusher, on UK electronica label Warp.

Following the abrasive sounds of Hard Normal Daddy and the drum and bass feel of the Big Loada EP, Music Is Rotted One Note has a far more relaxed, abstract sound, owing much to both jazz and electroacoustic music.

Overview

The album production did not involve any sequencing or sampling equipment, which had featured heavily on Squarepusher's previous work.[1] Many of the tracks instead have a 'live' feel, featuring virtuoso playing by Squarepusher on the drums and bass guitar. His own comments on the album include:

“ One of the reasons that I headed in that direction as opposed to the more computer sequence-type stuff is because I was actually beginning to feel really limited using sequencers and samplers...I was really beginning to yearn for the sort of unpredictability of the randomness of improvising with live instruments. I was just starting to choke. The sequencer is too square, too digital. I just wanted to get really fucking loose and just start again somehow.[2] ”
“ There were also other principles at play at this time relating to harmonic content. One was that I was to abandon the overt usage of melody. This was because I had come to see it as a cheap way of getting people to like my music. It disgusted me that it was so easy to appeal to people and I thus introduced arbitrary rules to make it harder.[1] ”

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [3]
NME 8/10[4]
Almost Cool 7.5/10[5]
Pitchfork Media 9.8/10[6]

The album won critical praise, with notable inclusion in Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Albums of the 1990s.

Track listing

All tracks composed and instruments played by Tom Jenkinson.

  1. "Chunk-S" – 2:20
  2. "Don't Go Plastic" – 4:20
  3. "Dust Switch" – 4:28
  4. "Curve 1" – 2:06
  5. "137 (Rinse)" – 3:45
  6. "Parallelogram Bin" – 2:24
  7. "Circular Flexing" – 4:57
  8. "Ill Descent" – 2:37
  9. "My Sound" – 6:07
  10. "Drunken Style" – 0:45
  11. "Theme From Vertical Hold" – 4:25
  12. "Ruin" – 1:56
  13. "Shin Triad" – 2:26
  14. "Step 1" – 1:46
  15. "Last Ap Roach" – 4:00

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 BCC Collective interview 2008
  2. ↑ Perfect Sound Forever interview 1999
  3. ↑ Allmusic review
  4. ↑ NME review
  5. ↑ "Review: Squarepusher: Music Is Rotted One Note". Almost Cool. Retrieved 2013-03-04.
  6. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20030219110447/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/s/squarepusher/music-is-rotted-one-note.shtml

External links