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Squarepusher returns – ‘Be Up A Hello’, out 31 January 2020 on Warp + new single & world tour dates

November 21, 2019
Donald Milne

Squarepusher

12” vinyl single: Vortrack and Vortrack – Fracture Remix, out December 6th

New album: Be Up A Hello, out January 31st

World tour dates listed below

After a 5 year hiatus that has seen him delve into a range of diverse musical projects, Squarepusher will return with a long awaited album Be Up A Hello, out 31st January. Fans can enjoy a taster as the double-A side 12” Vortrack will be released 6th December, featuring Squarepusher’s own Fracture Remix which already caused a stir when dropped into his brain-melting breakbeat and jungle set for Warp’s 30th anniversary NTS takeover in June.

With this new album, Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher) has returned to using a bewildering array of vintage analogue and digital hardware, the same equipment that first helped him develop his sound in the early ’90s. Something of a 180 degree turn, these synths, effects units and even a Commodore Vic20 are in complete contrast to the tools he used to create 2015’s Damogen Furies – cutting edge software that Tom developed over the course of 15 years. The result is Be Up A Hello, an album that’s celebratory with rinsing breakbeat tracks such as Nervelevers and Terminal Slam – classic floor fillers – as well pieces loaded with visceral atmosphere and melody in Squarepusher’s inimitable style. Darker moments such as Vortrack and Mekrev Bass illustrate Tom’s continuing fascination with finely balanced psychological overload. As such, Be Up A Hello gives a nod to the mayhem, joyousness and abandon of the DIY Essex rave scene that was a strong determinant in Tom’s work. 

Like the mood of the record, the approach to making the album was fast moving and spontaneous; the nature of the analogue equipment requires many parameters to be finely tuned to generate a given set of sounds, making it difficult to revisit tracks to improve mixes and adjust timbres. Consequently, the music was written in the mode of a diary – pieces were finalised and recorded in a single take, after which Tom moved straight onto the next piece. This attitude to music making was also influenced by the scene the album celebrates – a straightforwardness to music making and putting on gigs.

In stepping away from the Squarepusher moniker these last few years and exploring new territory (such as forming the band Shobaleader One to reinterpret an array of classic Squarepusher tracks, scoring music for a 1 hour CBeebies show and making the album All Night Chroma – a series of compositions recorded on the Royal Festival Hall organ), a renewed perspective emerged, which was applied when reconsidering this old equipment. Therefore, despite returning to hardware he used 25 years ago, Tom is still innovatively exploring new sounds and textures within it. As he himself commented “whilst analogue sounds can be cliched, if you look at the processes that generate them analytically, there are still ways you can create new sonic palates.”

Squarepusher

Be Up A Hello

WARP309 Tracklist:

A1. Oberlove

A2. Hitsonu

A3. Nervelevers

A4. Speedcrank

A5. Detroit People Mover

B1. Vortrack

B2. Terminal Slam

B3. Mekrev Bass

B4. 80 Ondula 

Available as First Edition vinyl, CD and digital formats

World tour dates: 

31st Jan – CTM Festival, Berlin – Germany

14th March – Bangface Weekender, Southport – UK

Thu 9th April – Royale, Boston – USA                         

Sat 11th April – Brooklyn Steel, NYC – USA              

Tue 14th April – SAT, Montreal – USA                       

Wed 15th April – Danforth, Toronto- USA                 

Thu 16th April – St. Andrews, Detroit – USA              

Fri 17th April – Metro, Chicago – USA

Sun 19th April – Bluebird Theater, Denver – USA                 

Wed 22nd April – Neumos, Seattle – USA                 

Thu 23rd April – Wonder Ballroom, Portland  – USA

Fri 24th April – The Midway, SF  – USA

Sat 25th April – 1720, LA  – USA

1st May – LEV Festival, Gijon – Spain

8th May – Les Nuits Botanique, Brussels – Belgium

9th May – Melkweg, Amsterdam – Netherlands

13th May – Brudenell, Leeds – UK

14th May – Concorde2, Brighton – UK

15th May – Roundhouse, London – UK

 Tickets

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