Drill N Bass大师Squarepusher,他在2004年3月发表了一张向自由爵士致敬的专辑《Ultravisitor》,并且这张专辑一经推出便被评论界一致热捧,也许是Squarepusher的&改良&措施实有成效,又也许是因为他是2004年惟一发表新作的 IDM前辈,这种被一致追捧为2004最佳唱片的局面还是出乎大多数人预料的。
不管从哪个方面来说,squarepusher都是一位神奇而疯狂的音乐人。他是drum n bass界的巨头,却无时无刻不在破坏着drum n bass的传统规范。他始终在电子音乐界扬名立万,却总是喜欢采样自己弹bass和打鼓的片段。当评论家们对此大加吹捧时,他又告诉记者他这么做的原因其实是玩不转音序器和采样机。他拥有销量和名声,同时又在地下音乐圈广受尊敬。他的音乐疯狂而又巧妙地融合着jungle、breakbeat、techno、甚至post-bop,不断地延续着在他年轻时对他影响巨大的前卫爵士和aphex twin的血脉,同时又在技术和力度上将前人踩在脚下。他超高速而又变化多端的节奏让后辈既崇拜又感到无从超越,而对此他的说法竟然是:我的节奏并没有太快,只是自然而清晰地反映出我的想法而已。那这个家伙长着一个怎样的大脑?不知道,反正他说&i've always been into the head-[内容被过滤,请注意论坛文明]&。ok,可以认定这个老酒鬼在接受采访的时候已经喝糊涂了。看看他演出时手边常备的烈酒,大概就可以知道那些疯狂而又异常刺激的灵感究竟从何而来。这位大师虽然曾在97年专集hard normal daddy中一度显得乾净而脉络清晰(其中一些曲子甚至拿来chill-out也不会嫌过火),但在大部分的时候,他一向是以他自己所说的“head-[内容被过滤,请注意论坛文明]”氛围把他的追随者们砸晕。在他的现场,我们总能看到大群的青年们伴随着乱七八糟的节拍胡乱地扭动着身体,身体被节奏忽悠得已经变了形,可表情还是high得没边——没办法,能把这种混乱而神经质的style传播给人民,只有天才才做得到。
回首大师的音乐之路,可以说正如他少年时热爱的前卫爵士一般,自由自在,随机应变,无章法可言。生于chelmsford的squarepusher真名为tom jenkinson(詹金森,狂土的愤青小说主角名字啊),父亲是爵士乐手,儿子从小就跟着父亲玩bass和drum(敢情人家从小就是玩drum n bass的:)),听着mils davis、charlie parker等人的音乐长大,在高中里组团玩音乐,终于因为找不到合适的人陪他玩而开始跟音序器较劲(能合适跟他组团的人恐怕也是一样的怪胎)。恰逢此时,青年詹金森大师听到了一些实验性质的techno音乐(例如他总在采访中提到的lfo),于是开始做出他的第一批让人眼皮狂跳的作品。早期的ep没有在jungle圈内得到肯定,却因为其中的jazz内核在,使他在一些house的听众中间得到了尊敬。1996年,未来的大师在aphex twin的公司rephlex旗下发行了第一张大碟feed me weird things,旋律诡异莫名,节奏乱七八糟,深得aphex twin之精髓(他在许多场合都会提到aphex twin对他的巨大影响。之后第二张专集hard normal daddy做得过于清爽,虽然非常动听,但在大师的作品里恐怕只能算是不过不失之作。大概是认识到了这条路不太适合自己,squarepusher在他98年的专集中充分地秀了一把他的jazz素养和自由精神,并得到了评论界的一直喝彩,这就是老人家的经典专集music is rotted one note。
评论家们提到music is rotted one note总会提到miles davis,有的甚至会激动地大喊davis二世,让看评论的人怀疑他们是不是和squarepusher喝得一样多。但听过之后就会感到这张碟中的bop色彩极其浓厚,特别是miles davis式的老辣自由简直是squarepusher原封盗版。这张旗帜性的专集更多的是源自大师对其第二张专集的反省。“我受不了音序了,我受不了预先就设计好的旋律和情绪了……当我听jazz的时候,我会反映出更多的旋律……我怀念真的乐器和真的演奏。”在这样的想法下,他负责了鼓、bass和keyboards,并把碟中的作品变成了一个“一人乐队”的演奏。就这样,这张诡异而又处处充满神奇想法的专集诞生了。当然它不会是真正的be-bop,而是一个拥有jazz感强烈的节奏和自由奇异的旋律的idm专集。squarepusher准确地抓住了他的jazz根源,但仍然是用电子的形式把它表现得更为震撼人心。
之后的squarepusher在音乐上越来越有成熟,但却也越来越多地学会了作秀。他做出了ultravisitor这样的伟大专集,但也开始对love will tear us apart这样的大俗歌作毫无新意的re-mix,而且明白了该对媒体作“我对音乐只有一个想法,那就是做我真正的自己”这类的谢霆锋对付八卦周刊的口号式回答。但他的专集的水平却没有因此而下降,而且我们也越来越多地感受到他在节奏和技法上所作的超越自我的冲刺,像他和aphex twin合作的come on my selector,每一个细节都堪称完美,比起他在music is rotted one note中充满灵气的横冲直撞,近年来的squarepusher越发地做到在各种场景里都无懈可击。
说了这么多话,相信大家对squarepusher已经有一个基本的了解了。但squarepusher音乐的多变、猛烈和刺激是很难用语言表达清楚的。还是插上耳塞,去真正地感受天才的魅力吧……
Tom Squarepusher Jenkinson makes manic, schizoid experimental drumnbass with a heavy progressive jazz influence and a lean toward pushing the clichés of the genre out the proverbial window. Rising from near-total obscurity to drumnbass cause célèbre in the space of a couple of months, Jenkinson released only a pair of EPs and a DJ Food remix for the latters Refried Food series before securing EP and LP release plans with three different labels. His first full-length work, Feed Me Weird Things (on Richard Aphex Twin James Rephlex label), was a dizzying, quixotic blend of superfast jungle breaks with Aphex-style synth textures, goofy, offbeat melodies, and instrumental arrangments (Jenkinson samples his own playing for his tracks) that recall vaguely jazz fusion pioneers such as Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. A skilled bassist and multi-instrumentalist, Jenkinsons fretless accompaniment is a staple of his music and one of the more obvious affiliations with jazz (although his formal arrangements are often as jazz-derived as his playing).
Jenkinson grew up listening to jazz and dub greats like Miles Davis, Augustus Pablo, Charlie Parker, and Art Blakey. The son of a jazz drummer, Jenkinson followed in his fathers footsteps, playing bass and drums in high school. Introduced to electronic music through experimental electro-techno artists such as LFO and Carl Craig, Jenkinson soon began assembling the rolls of disparate influence into amalgams of breakbeat techno and post-bop avant-garde and progressive jazz. Claiming a closer affinity with jazz than jungle (although he draws from both equally in his music), Jenkinsons EPs as Squarepusher and the Duke of Harringay (Jenkinson moved to Harringay from his Chelmsford birthplace) were initially disregarded as misplaced perversions of jungles more obvious compositional principles, but found ready audience in fans of post-acid house experimental listening music. He inked a deal with Warp in 1995, releasing the Port Rhombus EP and three others through a variety of different labels. His full-length debut, Feed Me Weird Things, appeared in 1996, followed a year later by Hard Normal Daddy.
Critical acclaim for Jenkinsons work peaked with 1998s Music Is Rotted One Note, for which he became a one-man fusion group — multi-tracking himself playing drums, bass, and keyboards. The following year, he released two EPs (Budakhan Mindphone, Maximum Priest) and another full LP, Selection Sixteen. Go Plastic appeared in summer 2001, featuring the closest thing to a hit Squarepusher had ever seen, with the single My Red Hot Car. Subsequent releases such as 2003s Do You Know Squarepusher and 2004s Ultravisitor found him refining his fusion of composition, programming, and musicianship, characteristics that were also heard on 2006s Hello Everything.