Feed Me Weird Things
Feed Me Weird Things is the debut studio album by English electronic musician Tom Jenkinson under the alias Squarepusher. It was released on 3 June 1996 by Rephlex Records.[1]
Feed Me Weird Things | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 3 June 1996 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 66:38 | |||
Label | Rephlex | |||
Producer | Tom Jenkinson | |||
Squarepusher chronology | ||||
|
The album received positive reviews from critics and has been retrospectively cited as a landmark release in the drill 'n' bass subgenre.
Artwork
Jenkinson collaborated on the visuals for Feed Me Weird Things with Johnny Clayton. Clayton suggested that Jenkinson take inspiration from Jenkinson's hometown of Chelmsford. The packaging contains various photographs, taken by Jenkinson and edited by Clayton, of different locations in Chelmsford and London.[2]
Reception
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Muzik | 5/5[3] |
NME | 8/10[4] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide |
Critical response
Muzik magazine's Calvin Bush praised Feed Me Weird Things as "the kind of album Miles Davis might have made if he had been wired into breakbeats, Aphex Twin and Ninja Tune".[3] Ben Willmott of NME hailed it as Jenkinson's "most consistently varied, bedazzling and rounded deposit to date".[4] Retrospectively, AllMusic editor John Bush wrote that its incorporation of "dense jungle percussion" makes for "a difficult, yet ultimately rewarding album."[1]
The Wire listed Feed Me Weird Things as one of the 50 best records of 1996.[6] In 2007, The Guardian listed it as one of "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die".[7]
Influence
Writing for American music magazine Spin, jazz writer Ken Micallef noted Feed Me Weird Things for its influence on the drill 'n' bass subgenre and stated that, with Feed Me Weird Things and its follow-up Hard Normal Daddy, Jenkinson "did to jungle what Frank Zappa did to rock—satirized its excesses with a maze of neurotic, scurrying notes, while adding a nerdy musicality that practically invented a new genre."[8] AllMusic credited the 1996 releases of Feed Me Weird Things and Plug's Drum 'n' Bass for Papa as significant in breaking drill 'n' bass to a larger audience.[9] In 2003, San Diego Union-Tribune critic AnnaMaria Stephens cited Feed Me Weird Things among the most important intelligent dance music albums.[10]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Tom Jenkinson.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Squarepusher Theme" | 6:20 |
2. | "Tundra" | 7:55 |
3. | "The Swifty" | 5:20 |
4. | "Dimotane Co." | 4:54 |
5. | "Smedley's Melody" | 2:33 |
6. | "Windscale 2" | 6:35 |
7. | "North Circular" | 6:08 |
8. | "Goodnight Jade" | 2:45 |
9. | "Theme from Ernest Borgnine" | 7:55 |
10. | "U.F.O.'s over Leytonstone" | 6:39 |
11. | "Kodack" | 7:14 |
12. | "Future Gibbon" | 2:18 |
Total length: | 66:38 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
13. | "Theme from Goodbye Renaldo" | 6:01 |
14. | "Deep Fried Pizza" | 3:49 |
Total length: | 9:50 |
References
- Bush, John. "Feed Me Weird Things – Squarepusher". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
- Montesinos-Donaghy, Daniel (24 July 2014). "We Spoke to Johnny Clayton, the Guy Who Made Aphex Twin Creep Us Out". Vice. Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- Bush, Calvin (July 1996). "Squarepusher: Feed Me Weird Things (Rephlex)". Muzik. No. 14. p. 142.
- Willmott, Ben (20 April 1996). "Squarepusher – Feed Me Weird Things". NME. Archived from the original on 17 August 2000. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
- Wolk, Douglas (2004). "Squarepusher". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 773. ISBN 0743201698.
- "1996 Rewind: 50 Records Of The Year". The Wire. No. 155. January 1997. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
- "1000 albums to hear before you die: Artists beginning with S (part 2)". The Guardian. 22 November 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
- Micallef, Ken (January 1999). "Squarepusher: Music Is Rotted One Note". Spin. Vol. 15 no. 1. p. 122. Retrieved 12 April 2020 – via Google Books.
- "Drill'n'bass". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
- Stephens, AnnaMaria (26 June 2003). "In Celebration of Electro-Whatever". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on 5 February 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- "Feed Me Weird Things". Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
External links
- Feed Me Weird Things at Discogs (list of releases)
- Feed Me Weird Things at MusicBrainz (list of releases)