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Squarepusher - Just A Souvenir (Review and download)
September 16th, 2008
Some people are too lazy to read the whole review or too stupid to understand the essence of it. If you feel that you are one of them, all you need to know is that this is a great album and that you should buy it.
I repeat: Don’t read this review unless you do it properly.
In case it interests someone reading this post, I’ve now purchased the vinyl version of Just A Souvenir. Read more…
So, I’ve gotten hold of SPusher’s latest album, Just A Souvenir. And I must say that, in a way, I’m disappointed. It’s not that the album doesn’t sound good, or isn’t well produced. No, quite the opposite. It’s too well produced. It’s perfect down to the smallest detail, to the point that it becomes boring. It’s aesthetically pleasing, it’s an instant classic, but there’s nothing innovative about it.
In that way the name is very fitting. This album is truly just a souvenir. An item that you bring to your loved ones, not because you think it’s overly beautiful or because you think your friends will like it. But because after a long journey it’s customary that you bring home an item representing your journey. The kind of item you give away while timidly uttering the phrase “Oh, it’s nothing expensive, it’s just a souvenir”. (Even if you got ripped off by the guy at the bazaar) The kind of item you receive from a friend, say thank you, smile a little and put in the closet. It’s an item you’d bring out decades after you got it, to reminisce about those old times while having a glass of Scotch on the rocks and smoking a fine Cuban cigar.
JAS sums up Squarepusher well; it is everything he is as an artist. You can instantly tell it’s an SP album by the style of the album and the characteristic editing. But in the same time it’s the least innovative album he has done in quite a while. Viewed from another angle, it’s simply jazz, just played in another way than jazz is traditionally played. Indeed, that can be said about many of his tunes up to this date, but IMO Just A Souvenir is the first album where jazz hasn’t been only a method, but a goal. The sounds are more acoustic than ever, and the glitches and edits are more subtle, and more refined. Out with brutal, in with the elegant. It’s been listed as drum & bass, breakcore, IDM and electronic in various places. No, this is a jazz album, stupid. This is a concept album of the genre jazz.
To sum it up: Brilliant but boring. This is not a milestone of creativity for Tom Jenkinson, but a milestone that will serve to be a kind of reference work. Just A Souvenir will become a classic; indeed, it was designed for that purpose. But at the core, it is in fact just a souvenir, collecting influences from a 100 year journey of jazz history and the 10 year journey of SPusher history.
So, if you’d like to check it out, you may use these links that I’ve found elsewhere on the internetz
Download Squarepusher - Just A Souvenir from Rapidshare
Download Squarepusher - Just A Souvenir from Megaupload
As always, if you like it, buy it. Your options are: ordering MP3’s from Bleep or pre-ordering the physical release from Warpmart. (Where, BTW, you can buy an Autechre T-shirt for more than the cost of SPusher’s vinyl! 
)
Myself, I’ll ditch JAS for a while and focus on IDMf001 (InDepthMelodics) which is a free netlabel release made by the members of IDMForums.com. Slightly less sophisticated than Just A Souvenir, but slightly more interesting IMO.
As a side note, I’ve submitted a track to “The What CD Volume 2″, a collection of tracks by musicians active on the what.cd forums. (If you know, you know) Also check out the dub techno track Retrospective by my friend and colleague Veqtor, which will also be on The What CD Volume 2. And if there’ll be an IDMf002 I’ll try to submit a track there too.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I’ve never heard any SP stuff. Thanks for the post.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
You “got hold of”. Politics of “getting hold” of stuff aside how about you wait at least until it’s released before writing your review? People’s careers hinge on such things. So writing a review slating an album, giving links to illegal downloads to get it, and then saying in bold it will become a classic maybe isn’t the coolest thing to do.
By the way it’s not jazz. Jazz is about improvisation. This has a jazz influence, just like any other Squarepusher records, but people are far from stupid for not thinking it’s a jazz album.
If you think file sharing is OK that’s one thing, but spreading leaked albums in a damning review is harsh.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:46 am
1) It’s not a leaked album. Warp actually started selling the MP3 release two days ago, (Through Bleep) and that has spread to various places from there. In other words, since September 15, you have been able to buy the album legally as MP3’s by following the link posted above. Myself I’ll go for the physical release, the vinyl no less.
Honestly I think they pre-released the MP3’s as a tactical move because they know people are curious, and would jump on the train, even if they planned to buy the CD or vinyl. Even if they’re not saying it out loud I’m pretty sure they knew the MP3’s would end up on various sites, and are using that to create a buzz around the album.File sharing is a reality that record companies have to live with it. It can’t be exterminated. Some record companies like Warp are smart enough to use file sharing to their benefit, while the big ones just keep whining and suing people.
2) If you think the review is just “slating” and “damning” you clearly didn’t get the point. It’s a good album, it really is. But it is boring in the same way as a cocktail party might be. But still you attend the party because the people there are your closest friends. the review I gave is my honest opinion, but you have to read it carefully to actually understand what it says. To put it anpther way. I don’t think he decided to call it “just a souvenir” for no reason. I’ve tried to analyze the connection between the album name and the musical content.
3) About jazz. Of course people will take this album, and as stated in the text other of his albums, for jazz. No doubt. But my (Possibly controversial) idea here is that JAS doesn’t belong in any electronic genre to begin with. Yes, it’s made with the help of electronic software and hardware, and tweaked to perfection. but in the core it’s jazz. Keep in mind that Tom is a wicked bass player, and I believe a lot of the creation of this album consisted of simply jamming bass and other instruments to have a source material (The improvisation aspect of it) and then processed it. IMHO, it is jazz music with electronic influences, not the other way around.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Fair enough with the MP3 release, I didn’t realize they had put it on Bleep a month earlier.
I still find the idea of putting an a link to an entire album in a review pretty hard to deal with. I realize you ‘balanced’ it out by putting a link to commerical ones as well, but it is taking the law into your own hands. Squarepusher has put a 1:30 preview of every track on his website; is that not enough? Do people think because technology allows it they are entitled to listen to every second of every album before they buy it?
I understand the world has changed, and I’m not saying nobody should download anything off P2Ps ever, or even that that would be good, but I do think things have swung too far in the consumer’s favour and there needs to be another rebalance.
As for the name of the album you could be correct to an extent, but I think the name is due to what sounds like a drug trip he had. An account of it is up on his website, it’s quite an amusing read. And, yes, I can’t help but feel that although Squarepusher’s music has become more elegant and simple for the best, post Ultravisator it has also lost it’s edge, creativity, and above all else the sense that he is putting real effort into what he is doing.
I’d actually argue that Tom Jenkins is not a creative genius, but a master of combinations and complexity. He took elements of jazz, elements of Aphex Twin, and took DnB break cutting to a whole new level. He did this wonderfully, but I don’t feel he actually invented anything in the sense that Charlie Parker, The Beatles, or Miles Davis did, he just pushed things further. Since Ultravistor where he seemed to have pushed it to the limit it seems like he has nowhere else to go.
Great musicians don’t get me wrong.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
i have to disagree a bit..
what i don´t like about this album is that it is too intellectual…
if you read what squarepusher wrote about just a souvenir (i hate how he writes, but that´s not the issue) what he was trying to do was HUGE….
I mean, to give to every instrument it´s own music influences thhrough time, as if it was going back and forward…is just too much….
and of course he knows that…
he has “only one skull to protect it”
just a souvenir means that he couldn´t accomplish what he wanted….that´s all…
and i assume you´ve noticed how he went against noiselovingfans as if he was mocking them…
hello everything was so… (fuck, sorry english is not my mothertongue and i can´t really express myself this way)…you know what i mean (this sweetie electro-european mellowie feeling or something), but in a way a far more complicated album…
at least for me…
to envelope music with music (like in “the glass road”) or the climaxes of tensor in green…
are both ways of aproaching music that have just begun…
of course that it is innovative….but not in the way you understand the word innovative (you like IDM, which is kind of gross…illuministic prick…)
sorry, had to say something like that…. I hate when the first reviews of an album that , because of it being so new, hasn´t grown a bit…. are so…lukewarmish (does that word even exist?)….
And pleaseeee, this isn´t a jazz album….
September 18th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I am one of the many people who purchased the pre-release file version of the album from Bleep (judging by the network issues they had on the day of its release). I think it is very easy to assume music is intellectual because it is different or challenging. I am not sure his music is either. From having heard him in interviews, he does not seem to be an intellectual snob, but a down to earth person who is dedicated to making his own brand of music, at which he excels.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
This review is horrible. You need to learn to write. “Brilliant but boring”?
This is the weirdest and most interesting album he’s ever done. Maybe not his best but it’s still great.
September 20th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
The album is great stop your whining
September 20th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
the album is really great, stimulating and grows on every listen — buy it (as I have done) — quality music
September 20th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
whatever: Yet it is. I’m sorry that you failed to read the review properly.
kpanic: Same goes for you. I’m sorry that you failed to read the review properly. If you had read I added that I am buying the vinyl. D’uh!
September 20th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Dom wrote: “Jazz is about improvisation”
Now there’s a statement if ever I heard one. Thats like saying driving is all about changing gears.
What makes Herbie Hancock’s “Future Shock” a jazz album and this one not? And JAS is arguably even more jazz orientated than Hancock’s effort.
I’ve listened to the album a few times and I think its fabulous. This is definitely one I’ll be buying when it’s released on CD. It’s a perfect progression from Hello Everything, another album which I bought after obtaining a pirated version first.
September 21st, 2008 at 3:14 pm
It’s funny how I bought a ticket to his upcoming show here and afterward someone played a pirated version of this album at his place on the same day… I must admit I… I dont know if I would’ve bought the ticket to his show if I heard this stuff before because to me it sounds just Awful. I was shocked the rest of the day… Most tracks come across as very uninspiring ‘IDM’ whatever genre u want to put it in (hey, another 1 minute track with randomness.. how c0ol). Then there are tracks like “The Coathanger” and “A Real Woman” which kinda remind me of Daft Punk, but more like a terrible attempt to this. But the more heavy tracks on this album just killed it for me. Tracks like “Delta-V” might not be that bad, but knowing from who’s it coming from.. there’s a dozen real bands out there delivering the same attempt of style so much better!!!
The only good sound on this album I could discover is mr. sp his bass… but hell thats just about it and surely. I wonder what he’s going to do at his show in november…
So.. I shouldnt be judging an artist his attempt of progressing in music over time, but this sounds more like taking 10 steps back to me. I hate the album and I’m glad I heard the pirated copy before going to the show.. I might have ended up with a heart attack there in the crowd.
September 26th, 2008 at 6:51 am
You failed to WRITE a review properly. You come off as a total douche who holds himself in way higher regard than is justified. You do a disservice to the musician you review. Douche.
September 28th, 2008 at 1:12 am
i agree the reivew is lame, sounds more like a fanboy who is afraid to hate on a SP album… i listened to the samples at bleep and will not be buying this album, a big disapointment, i am a pretty big squarepusher fan, and i enjoy jazz quite a bit, but this comes off as uninspired and boring. ive heard alot better from lesser known artists. i was excited to see a new SP album on the horizon, but now im whatever about it, some people will ejoy this, im not one of them, theirs to much good music out there to waste my time with this…
September 29th, 2008 at 6:47 am
you´re kidding me, right???
c´mon this is the best stuff i´ve heard in my life….
September 29th, 2008 at 6:55 am
best drummer ever WUUUUUUUUU
September 29th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Oh man yet another idiot. I placed that warning at the top for a reason, you know. Clearly you didn’t fully read or understand the review. I think that he’s a great drummer too, and otherwise a skilled musician, that’s not what my review is about.
September 29th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
i really don´t know who´s the idiot right now…
i mean, c´mon can´t you detect fucking irony???
PLEAAASEEEEEEEEEE
And to say: he´s a skilled musician….is one of the worse arguments ever, you stop listening and just say…
yes i knew he was great…
do you fucking understand the coathanger lyrics…have you fucking heard the percussion in that track??
and that “jazz” topic…what do I care if it´s jazz oriented…
What do you gain by having a skill to detect a genre?!?!??!??!
you have stopped enjoying music by being a smartass..
I doubt you ever enjoyed music beyond an intellectual level..
September 29th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Good! I’m not gonna try to take away that feeling from you. I’m not claiming that my review is some sort of objective truth. It is my highly personal opinion and analysis.
I will try once again to explain the problem I have with this album. It’s not that this is a bad album. But somehow he has lost that edge, that creative spark, that feeling that he’s a genius who is just playing around.
Rather, it feels like he sat down one day and decided to try to produce his best album ever, which he did, but at the expense of the playfullness.
It didn’t happen like that. I listened to the whole album obviously, but it hasn’t been one of my most frequently listened albums since.
I believe (after having read the accompanying text) that this album is that it is a drug trip report. My understanding of The Coathanger is that it is the story of how interesting an everyday object can become under the influence of psychoactive substances. I also believe that there’s not one single correct interpretation of the album.
I’ll make sure to check with you so you can approve any eventual possible reviews, so I don’t include anything that you might find unecessary.
Now that’s something I can actually agree with. I enjoy music on an intellectual level. Or more specifically, I enjoy music for the sake of iself (”La musique pour la musique” to paraphrase the slogan “L’art pour l’art”) I usually find music which is not created for the sake of just being good music, to be uninteresting. Ie, music that was made primarily to be party music to drink and have fun when listening to it, that usually doesn’t interest me. (Just to clarify: That’s not what I think about this album.)
This is not a conscious choice, but a rather a consequence of things that has happened to me during the last few years. Sometimes I regret this, but that’s just the way I am. I listen to music in a different way compared to most people. This won’t change just by pretending it’s not that way.
October 1st, 2008 at 4:50 pm
ok, i´ll answer everything properly in a minute…
a way to prove my point ( i hate reading intellectual and long as hell posts, sorry, (for my english too))
the coathanger interpretation..
ok, you see the lyric as a repetition of a very cliched idea and contemporary idea…jia zhankeish if you want it that way…..
everyday life=hiperbeautiful
ok, but have you heard the percussion??
he does not say that…he takes that hiperbeautiful sound and uses it as the percussion for a song of that style…
isn´t that an enourmouss playfulness you get for growing??
my point..
you´r feelings feel like dusty gelatine…
October 1st, 2008 at 5:05 pm
you know what…
i hate discussing things like this…
i get all excited writing things as fast as I can just because….
Well, actually I wanted to write a review about this album in my blog, but I didn´t know how…
when you have an artist that pretends to be omnidirectional, comparing albums won´t take you anywhere…you´ll just make a fool of yourself, because this album is gonna grow like a tree…
don´t you think I feel totally ashamed of what i´ve written after i´ve written it??
October 8th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Any musician would KILL to have JAS be their best work.
Unfortunately, Squarepusher isn’t ‘any musician’. JAS is one of his worst albums. Granted, that’s still better than most musicians.
3 good songs. Coathanger is retardedly amazing!!
But seriously, have you guys heard ‘A Real Woman’? Crap of all that is crap.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
u nob- ur stupid souvenier metaphor is very drol and acts as the crux of your review. your obviously on another level-pretentiousness will get you everywhere on trhe internet. by the way nice idea with the illegal download links-wot a correy
November 7th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I don’t understand why you insist so much on the album being solely jazz.
It is true that this is not ambient, IDM, drum & bass or whatever. It clearly appears to me as a tribute to 70’s popular music. Hence a souvenir. You got disco, funk, new wave/krautrock, punk, proto, hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal, progressive, rock fusion. All done in a modern jazzy arrangement (sure) but drawing much much more from pop/rock/r&b influences than previously.
This is the fusion of fusion. Squarepusher still proves to me that he understands something about music that other composers don’t.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Wow I’m very bored now.
Why don’t you people just read the review and take what you want from it and leave what you don’t want. And if you cannot accepted that everybody has an opinion about everything, well dont read reviews. And, even if you are frustrated, try to stay polite, communication is WAY more effective that way.
November 15th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Dear Game Boy Genius,
Oh the shock and horror of the new squarepusher album being too perfect. What has the world come to where artists produce material that critcis claim to be perfect yet flawed. Does that even make any sense. Why don’t you grow some balls and have a decent swipe at the album, why not call it an over produced piece of shit that Mr.Jenkinson spent hours flogging his log over you half witted cunt of a man. If I ever saw you in a pub I would glass you out of of principal, this is ignoring the fact you are a cack eyed knob with delusions of signifigance like anyones 2 cents in cyber space is worth SHIT
Eat my ass
Sincerley Yours
Phil Anselmo
November 15th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Dear Philip W Anselmo,
What is a cunt.
Sincerley Yours
Game Boy Genius
November 16th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Holy shit! Some people have such little confidence in their own opinions that they need to attack others over theirs.
November 16th, 2008 at 1:59 am
To be fair, my review was pretty arrogant in ways.
Also, the sentence “What is a cunt.” is what a HAL-based chat bot spit out when I gave it Phil’s post.
November 16th, 2008 at 2:04 am
It seems ridiculous to abuse someone for having a low opinion of something you value.
I don’t see the point in abusing a reviewer, particularly and amateur one.
I have mixed feelings about the album. I’ve been following Jenkinson since Feed me Weird Things and have been impressed with the way he has evolved a richer, more powerful, more complex form of music in this time. All this talk of genres seems infantile. he has always been about fusion… the intial (successfully carried out) gimmick of Squarepusher was that he combined jazz with DNB…but his pallette has expanded so much since then, and in unexpected ways. (flamenco guitar, etc.) I thought he was going to fade out Aphex Twin, or degenerate into repetitive droning, like Autechre. The quality of albums will not always be consistent. This is not one of the best but it still has a lot of great moments. It starts bouncily and the last few tracks are exquisite.
I loved Hello Everything, it was better than JAS - more consistent in mood, catchier, and the esctatic 9th and 10th tracks have made it and Hard Normal Daddy my favourites. (Notice I don’t say ‘The Best’, I know that’s debatable).
It feels like the most conventional album he’s ever done -if you want retro synth ‘rock’, there is a lot of other music already mining the same retro hybrid mixtures. But he should be influencing the Daft Punks of the world, not the other way round.
If having a mixed response to the album makes me a cunt, then I’m a cunt.