Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator
- Squarepusher
- Band Name: Squarepusher
- Record Label: Warp
- Release Date: Oct 19, 2010
- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
Jan 11, 201180By the time that the closing track has concluded its schizophrenic barrage of drumming, the album has exhausted and enthralled its listeners, who will be ready to press rewind and live through it again.
-
Dec 22, 201080The result is an improbably appealing melange of hyperslick R&B and musoid avant-Metal, where mid-1080s Radio Top Shop melodies nestle in the artful embrace of surgically enhanced riffola and soaring, pitchwheel punishing minimoog solos. [Nov 2010, p.65]
-
Dec 14, 201080This new project--fronting a five-piece band made up of mystery members who apparently contacted him on spec--has reined in his more wayward tendencies with positive results. [Dec 2010, p.105]
-
Dec 14, 201080What Shobaleader One does is strike a finer balance between the accessible and the surreal than pretty much all of Jenkinson's previous releases. It retains all the elements that are recognisably Squarepusher but manages to filter them through this newly polished lens and thrusts it into a new, invigorating stream of light.
-
Dec 14, 201070All this adds up to a qualified success, but it will certainly split opinion among his fans.
-
Dec 14, 201060While fans of rebooted electro-boogie are probably better off seeking out Dam-Funk's excellent Toeachizown from last year, Shobaleader certainly has its endearingly eccentric moments.
-
Dec 14, 201060It's an excellent way for Jenkinson to branch out and try something different--his playing and programming is definitely up to his high standard--but aside from the sweet retro vibes, it's hardly a classic.
-
Dec 20, 201040Not for the first time, you find yourself wondering whether Squarepusher is taking the piss. [Dec 2010, p.113]
-
Dec 14, 201040Shobaleader One's not tuneful enough to pass for pop, not funky enough to satisfy a club, and lacks the wildstyle (if sometimes infuriating) excess of Squarepusher's other records. Whether hard or soft, there's nothing here that you can't hear executed with more joie de vivre by a half-dozen Frenchmen.
-
Dec 14, 201030I wasn't fond of the Shobaleader One EP. It wasn't good. Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator is no better.