Music Is Rotted One Note

Music Is Rotted One Note is the third studio album by English electronic musician Squarepusher, released on 12 October 1998 by Warp. The album is a departure for Squarepusher, with only elements of the familiar drum and bass style appearing in a largely jazz fusion production.

Music Is Rotted One Note
Studio album by
Released12 October 1998 (1998-10-12)
Genre
Length48:28
LabelWarp
ProducerTom Jenkinson
Squarepusher chronology
Remixes 12"
(1998)
Music Is Rotted One Note
(1998)
Budakhan Mindphone
(1999)

Background

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The production of Music Is Rotted One Note did not involve any sequencing or sampling equipment, which had featured heavily on Squarepusher's previous work.[4] 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.[5]

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.[4]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [2]
NME8/10[6]
Pitchfork9.8/10[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide     [8]
Spin7/10[9]

In 2003, Pitchfork placed Music Is Rotted One Note at number 89 on its list of the best albums of the 1990s.[3]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Tom Jenkinson

No.TitleLength
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

Charts

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Chart (1998) Peak
position
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[10] 40

References

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  1. ^ "Squarepusher studies Cryptic Motion for Ed Banger". Fact. 9 August 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  2. ^ a b Prato, Greg. "Music Is Rotted One Note – Squarepusher". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s". Pitchfork. 17 November 2003. p. 2. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  4. ^ a b "ask squarepusher! answers". Collective. Archived from the original on 8 December 2006. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  5. ^ Gross, Jason (January 1999). "Squarepusher interview". Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  6. ^ Martin, Piers (9 October 1998). "Squarepusher – Music Is Rotted One Note". NME. Archived from the original on 17 August 2000. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  7. ^ Schreiber, Ryan. "Squarepusher: Music Is Rotted One Note". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 19 February 2003. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  8. ^ Wolk, Douglas (2004). "Squarepusher". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 773. ISBN 0743201698.
  9. ^ Micallef, Ken (January 1999). "Squarepusher: Music Is Rotted One Note". Spin. Vol. 15, no. 1. p. 122. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  10. ^ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
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