Music Is Rotted One Note

Music Is Rotted One Note
Studio album by Squarepusher
Released	12 October 1998 (1998-10-12)
Genre	IDM [1] jazz fusion [2] post-rock [3]
Length	48:28
Label	Warp
Producer	Tom Jenkinson
Squarepusher chronology
Remixes 12" (1998) Music Is Rotted One Note (1998) Budakhan Mindphone (1999)

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.

Background and composition

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, played 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

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
NME	8/10 [6]
Pitchfork	9.8/10 [7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[8]
Spin	7/10 [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

All tracks are written by Tom Jenkinson.

No.	Title	Length
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

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

References

1. "Squarepusher studies Cryptic Motion for Ed Banger". Fact . 9 August 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
2. Prato, Greg. "Music Is Rotted One Note – Squarepusher". AllMusic . Retrieved 11 September 2019.
3. "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s". Pitchfork . 17 November 2003. p. 2. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
4. "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.

External links

• Music Is Rotted One Note at Warp
• Music Is Rotted One Note at Discogs (list of releases)
• Music Is Rotted One Note at MusicBrainz (list of releases)