Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator

I expected something more fresh and new than this. Squarepusher is great but the last 2 releases have annoyed me. The only good songs are Frisco Wave and Maximum Planck. The rest range from okay (Abstract Lover) to vocoderish metallic pop abominations (Megazine). I would look forward to seeing something more experimental, and with more of Tom's jazz influence if the band has a second album.

This album was intended not to be the departure from Tom's drum n bass songs, but rather that he wanted to create an album that used a full band so as you can see he isn't using any breaks or anything just sort of a more streamlined regular full band thing.

Wha? Huh? I guess I am just a slight bit confused by Tom these days. I still listen to Big Loada at least once a week, and honestly I feel like I just crawled out from under a rock. I had not had the slightest inclination to check to see what Tom has put out in the last four years or so, and I was pretty happy not knowing. I wish I had never checked on him, and I'm going to try to forget that I did. I'm not trying to be snobby or anything, it's just.... like.... WHY?! Why this? Ok. I get the whole, "I've never been in a band" thing, and "I want to experiment with that", but what the hell is this? YOU ARE TOM F*ING JENKINSON, MAN! You could play with probably anyone you want... but you put this out there....???? I have thought a minute and here is my theory. It's got to be either one of two answers. 1:He has become completely disgusted with the direction most popular music has taken and is just mocking the industry, or 2:He has become less of an eccentrically awesome weirdo. Maybe he felt like his compositions weren't reaching a wide enough audience??? I don't know?! I always loved Squarepusher for the ultra creative, not from this planet, madness..... but.... well.... this sounds like what most people like these days.... easy 4/4 with vocoder and/or auto-tune.... I love Squarepusher and will always have a place for Tom's compositions in my heart, but I will stick with my idm era Squarepusher.

people that are dissing this album need to F**CK OFF.Not every artist is gonna keep making the same stuff over and over.People progress.This album is different but its still good.Better than the main stream B.S. that keeps coming out.

This is the best album of 2010 hands down. Squarepusher has pushed boundaries in more genres than any single musician since Zappa. He is fearless, and this album is dope.

Squarepusher knows how to use auto-tune correctly. Rather than using the device to cover up short-comings in a voice, Squarepusher takes it to the next melodic level. This is an incredible album filled with brilliant musicianship. Since the beginning Squarepusher has been reinventing himself and his sound, but all the while sticking to a level of musical craftsmanship unbeknownst to most. Shobaleader One is another chapter in the Squarepusher cannon that is worth every minute of listening. At once jazzy, poppy, and electro, Shobaleader One has crafted an album that blows through any modern genre of music we're accustomed to today. Naysayers armed with comparisons to Daft Punk obviously have a very limited knowledge of Daft Punk's overall sound. You guys need to relisten to Daft Punk's catalogue. Shobaleader One is entirely different and original. I love this album.

I was REAllY excited for a new Squarepusher album. His last one, "Just a Souvenir", I didn't really like. I mean some tracks were pretty good but I hated the vocoder in songs like "The Coathanger". So, whats does he do now? He makes even more of it! And it's UNBEARABLE! I mean AT LEAST if he's going to use a vocoder again make it the least bit listenable. It's ridiculous. Does he not know that it sounds like crap? I can't even listen to half the songs. And don't even get me there about how you cant hear the lyrics. And as much as I hate Owl City I have to agree with Awful News, is he just being lazy? He must be because if he just changed the sound of the vocoder so that it actually sounds bearable the whole album might be good. And as for the people who actually like this, I have a feeling they probably dont actually, and they are just saying that because they refuse to believe squarepusher has made a bad record. Oh and the Daft Punk thing, I'm a pretty big of daft myself but I dont actually mind Jenkinson's new get up, it's just the terrible music i dont like.

seriously, why is he trying to be daft punk? everyone seems to think that just because daft punk used samples and this is live makes him immune to any comparison. I mean have you seen some of his new videos! hes got a robotic lightup helmet that just screams daft. this is no improvement over his previous sound and isn't anything new, infact its back a few years. I can almost hear what hes trying to do, bring some warmth to his music,infact when I first heard a song off here I thought "finally tom! you took Electronic music and gave it a new dimension." for once I could see a S.P. album making it big. then I thought "wait, is the whole song like this? is the whole ALBUM like this?". the vocals are almost very enjoyable to listen to and I would actually really like to hear more of this but as it's been said, too fuzzy and uncomprihensible. almost an improvement, but falls quite short of squarepusher quality.

This album is outstanding. I love the direction Squarepusher has been going in recently, and hope to hear more stuff like this. As far as the Daft Punk comments go... those comparisons are made by people who don't know enough about music. Basically anyone who uses a vocoder or puts lights on their outfit is going to be compared to Daft Punk because they are the only reference point most people have for electronic music. There was a french disco group called Space in the 70s that dressed in space suits... that doesn't make Daft Punk less genuine or creative. But enough about the French... this album is fantastic. A new favorite in fact! Buy it.

tom jenkinson has been one of the most dynamic, evolving figures in electronic music for the past 15 or so years. this is a natural progression from the direction he's been heading for the past few releases - in fact the biggest difference is mostly that he's working with a live band now, which influences the sound in a big way. i, for one, admire his courage to make head in the musical direction he wants to, even when it means possibly alienating some of his less open-minded fans. he's doing something truly original here, and he's doing it for the right reasons. "I've always wanted to sabotage coolness as for me music is about laughing and crying, not about standing around smoking cigarettes." - tom jenkinson, 2010. i'd probably only rate this album 4 stars, but i'm giving it 5 on principle. gee, sorry he's not making exactly the same music he started out making. to those saying he's selling out: wouldn't it be more of a sellout if he just put out another album exactly like big loada? it would break absolutely no new ground, but it'd certainly sell well... also, for the record, i'm really not getting the daft punk thing. the music bears virtually no resemblance to french electro/house whatsoever (yeah, they use vocoders... so does everyone... else...) and the LED facemasks are a far cry from the robot bodysuits that daft punk used. i really fail to see how this constitutes "knocking off" daft punk. come on.