Music Is Rotted One Note by Squarepusher

Music Is Rotted One Note is Squarepusher's third LP, released on Oct. 12 1998 by both Nothing and Warp Records. It is an avant-garde, highly experimental album full of contemporary techniques for sound production, with its songs leaning more toward jams and improvisational playing rather than "track" style dance arrangements; as such, some listeners call this Squarepusher's "jazz" or "fusion" album. On its face, the album could be labeled that so-called jazz way in part, but ultimately it's better described as a great presentation of the effect of contemporary production techniques on the outcome of recorded music. Tom Jenkinson, the man behind the moniker, presents his obvious musical prowess on this record, as he played all the instruments himself. He cooks up some grooves that are at points definitely reminiscent of the Miles Davis sound around "In A Silent Way" - which is probably the reason this album gets lumped into a fusion category so often - but in classic IDM fashion a la contemporaries like Aphex Twin, he'll cut the phrases around almost without warning before the groove sets in by the usual manner. But he doesn't just break listener's expectations of grooves - random pitches will shift, timbres will bend in unconventional ways, samples will pan in and out of the mix at random. These elements give the jazz base that is occasionally there a more random, pastiche feel that keeps this music from being easily contained by pigeonholing attempts and labels. It also gives the album huge replay value; new corners of sound reveal themselves after repeated listens. This is arguably the most well-received of Squarepusher's records in terms of critical response. ℗ 1998 Warp Records Limited