Smedleys Melody – Feed Me Weird Things – Squarepusher

Presentation

I choose Smedleys Melody by Squarepusher, Part of the Big 3 in Electronica: Autechre, Squarepusher,
and Aphex Twin.

Produced by Tom Jenkinson

Chosen Chapter: 5.

Duke Ellington
• Unique blend of sounds and timbre's
• Choice of instruments compliments songs
• Highly composed form of Jazz
• Unique usage of instrumentation
• Imparted a sense of structure
• Alteration of rhythm
• Created a pushing beat

Wikipedia on Duke Ellington:

“A prominent figure in the history of jazz, Ellington's music stretched into various other genres,
including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical. His career spanned more than 50 years and
included leading his orchestra, composing an inexhaustible songbook, scoring for movies, composing
stage musicals, and world tours. Several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became
standards. Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and
extraordinary charisma, he is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form
on a par with other traditional genres of music. His reputation increased after his death, the Pulitzer
Prize Board bestowing a special posthumous honor in 1999.”

Squarepusher's Smedleys Melody owes an unmistakable debt to Duke Ellington. The Swing
rhythm maintains less of a thump and more of a drive in melody and the song has an important
structure. Half-improvised by Tom Jenkinson's bass playing, half-composed on an Akai MPC.

Important to note is his usage of a drum sample called the Amen Break, and his usage of a Casio
sampler.

The song takes drumming to a whole new level by upping the speed, using drums more as sound than
beat. This is called Drum and Bass, but it bears Squarepusher's unique sense of glitch and cd skip
sounds. It draws the line between danceable and non-danceable.

The “Eehhh” produced by the drums are the drums played in super-rapid 128th beats.
Notable musical events:

• Drums enter, they begin first with a swing pattern on a ride, then elope into bongo's
accompanied with characteristic sampled beat slice. The beats sound like they are cut and
muted. The drum track goes far beyond what a drummer would be capable of.
• Drums are sped up to impossible speeds and elopes into a break down. They sound glitched and
broken. The odd “Eerr” sounds are produced by the drum track as well.
• Odd noises enter at the last moments after the drums stop. They are sampled using a child's toy.