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MAKING SQUAREPUSHER'S 'MUSIC FOR ROBOTS'

Watch the film of the making of 'Sad Robots Go Funny'

Squarepusher has always tried to push the envelope with his musical compositions – and then some.

Starting off as a bass player in thrash metal bands, he became obsessed with the type of frenetic breakbeats found in jungle in the early '90s and produced the 'Conumber EP' on Spymania. It's Aphex Twin-style obsession with bonkers beats and assassinating Amens led to him signing a record deal with Warp — where he remains to this day.

His many releases have taken him through bonkers breakbeat, jazz fusion, experimental bass guitar music and assorted electronic experimentation.

From UK garage piss-take 'My Red Hot Car'... 

...to dark breakbeat noir episodes such as 'Come On My Selector', with its dark Chris Cunningham-directed video...  

His latest project involved working with Japanese roboticists to make tracks — culminating in the 'Music For Robots EP', released at the end of last year.

“People have often assumed that for music to be emotionally powerful, it has to come directly from a human hand,” Squarepusher says. “I disagree with that, and enjoy proving these people wrong.”

Watch the final creation of ‘Sad Robots Go Funny’ here:  

“Each of the robotic devices involved in the performance of this music has its own specification which permits certain possibilities and excludes others,” Squarepusher continues. “The robot guitar player, for example, can play much faster than a human ever could, but there is no amplitude control. In the same way that you do when you write music for a human performer, these attributes have to be borne in mind — and a particular range of musical possibilities corresponds to those attributes. Consequently, in this project familiar instruments are used in ways which till now have been impossible.”

Watch the making of 'Music For Robots' here: