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A lot of people say steinvord is him, also. https://myspace.com/steinvord/music/song/untitled-36582500-38463397 https://myspace.com/steinvord/music/song/untitled-9-36582744-38463701 TRAMAMPOLINE fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Jul 24, 2013 |
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Jul 24, 2013 06:41
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Aye, that sure does sound like an extension of Tuss.
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Jul 24, 2013 08:22
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Mutation posted:It's a good track, but man, sampling thunder? Natural samples in techno, especially ambient techno was the thing in the 90's, it's an inherent part of the sound. Black Dog, FSOL, The Orb, Global Communication, Boards Of Canada, 808 State, you name it. Your sentence reads like "This is good jazz, but man, sax?  ".
o.m. 94 fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Jul 24, 2013 |
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Jul 24, 2013 09:11
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Drukqs is one of my favorite things ever; I think I heard it before any of his other work (other than Windowlicker and Come to Daddy) so that's probably why. (Even had Avril 14th and I think Jynwythek as the processional/recessional at my wedding, though that owes more to one of those tracks appearing on some movie soundtrack that my wife likes.) Vordhosbn kind of defines what I personally like about Aphex: crazy fast/complex with enough hookiness to be utterly memorable. Hangable Auto Bulb is probably my second-favorite. Going to make a point of listening to RDJ and ICBYD some more because of this thread, though!
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Jul 24, 2013 13:46
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oiseaux morts 1994 posted:Natural samples in techno, especially ambient techno was the thing in the 90's, it's an inherent part of the sound. Black Dog, FSOL, The Orb, Global Communication, Boards Of Canada, 808 State, you name it. Your sentence reads like "This is good jazz, but man, sax?
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Jul 24, 2013 16:41
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Great thread. Also surprised it didn't exist sooner. Avril 14th live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdWc1yggN08
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Jul 25, 2013 00:19
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Great thread and a lot of good reads. My personal experience with aphex twin started with SAW2 when i was a teenager and it really blew me away at the time. Since then I've always had aphex twin "episodes" where I go back and listen to his catalog. Personally I feel he has been unfairly squared into the techno genre (or EDM/IDM whatever you want to call it). His early releases might fit the description, but even tracks like digeridoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5UBYOv1G9A and isopropophlex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiWfA_ZMfuQ that would be considered techno tracks later were really far ahead at the time. Even his his labelmates at warp who were considered to be pushing the envelope of modern electronic music at the time didn't catch up until years later. My own way of describing him and his work would be that he is a composer of music, whereas the rest of the techno scene is made up of producers. To me there is a reference to Kraftwerk in that they too could arrange really impressive soundscapes and rythms that were way ahead of their time, and then use simple yet genial melodies to make it more approachable to listeners.
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Jul 25, 2013 08:15
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uno.mannschaft posted:Personally I feel he has been unfairly squared into the techno genre (or EDM/IDM whatever you want to call it). His early releases might fit the description, but even tracks like digeridoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5UBYOv1G9A and isopropophlex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiWfA_ZMfuQ that would be considered techno tracks later were really far ahead at the time. Even his his labelmates at warp who were considered to be pushing the envelope of modern electronic music at the time didn't catch up until years later. I love R.D.J. and have been an avid follower of his music for about 20 years-- I believe he is pretty much a genius and one of the masters, but I just have to disagree that it's somehow unfair for him to be squared into the genre of techno. That's the idiom he has operated in, and the guy obviously has respect for the innovators that came before him. It doesn't denigrate his work to call it techno. I also think that stuff like "Digeridoo" and the first Analogue Bubblebath, Polygon Window, etc. are really quite in line with his contemporaries at the time. For me, he didn't really start to pull ahead of the pack until SAW 2 and the singles leading up to I Care Because You Do. Of course, at that time Autechre were making, like, Amber, and working toward Tri Repetae, so maybe it's not fair to even say he pulled ahead of the pack.
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Jul 25, 2013 16:14
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I've been a fan for a couple decades, and I feel like his work is really hit or miss. He has beautiful songs, and then he's got poo poo that seems to be intentionally irritating. I see the value in both types of music, but I just don't enjoy some of his harsh and irritating stuff. I personally feel he peaked around ICBYD and the RDJ album. DRUKQS (drug use, right?) had some good tracks, but didn't seem as solid and there were a lot of "filler" tracks. Anybody else hear that the two discs are supposed to be played simultaneously? I never tried it, but I read about it before.
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Jul 25, 2013 20:57
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Stravinsky posted:Anyone have any idea if it was ever clarified if The Tuss was actually him or not? Lately it seems a lot of people are pretty adament that its actually a couple who live near him, but prior to that everyone was claiming that it was just a cover. Yes. Its public record. The the songs of the Tuss are trade mark copyrighted to Richard James.
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Jul 26, 2013 00:05
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I always had a fondness for Richard's releases that were exercises in a genre or style. Namely AFX, and the AFX: Hangable Auto Bulb releases. The former were analog acid techno songs, the latter were his first forays into "Drill and Bass" and some the earliest releases of that sub-genre. AFX 3 - Track 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6QpZMx7M5g Hangable Auto Bulb 2 - Every Day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARLNNY0Wl3w The last AFX release were two remixes of classic acid techno tracks, gone up to 11, with the craziness, variation, and audio editing of the Aphex Twin releases. He seems to have landed on this style, and content with this style, and has released nothing but in the past 12 years, under various aliases. AFX - Flow Coma remix. (808 State) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6QpZMx7M5g Though I must say, as a long time fan, one of the best aspects of Richard's techno was that he was all over the place in terms of style and experimentation. I hope he gets inspired to start throwing us curve-balls again.
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Jul 26, 2013 00:23
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uno.mannschaft posted:
I like this way of putting it. However, my kneejerk reaction is if other people would just substitute "composer" for "I like this band more than the others". Staying away from just a matter of opinion, though, I think that RDJ does clearly have a more trained musician's ear and style vs. someone that knows how to make a snare roll and arpeggiated synths in Fruity Loops, so I agree.
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Jul 26, 2013 03:43
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Thanks to those of you saying cool insightful things. I'll just leave this Stockhausen quote that makes me laugh:quote:I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James carefully: I think it would be very helpful if he listens to my work Song Of The Youth, which is electronic music, and a young boy's voice singing with himself. Because he would then immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions, and he would look for changing tempi and changing rhythms, and he would not allow to repeat any rhythm if it were varied to some extent and if it did not have a direction in its sequence of variations.
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Jul 27, 2013 12:57
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BKPR posted:Thanks to those of you saying cool insightful things. I'll just leave this Stockhausen quote that makes me laugh: I love that interview because Stockhausen, one of the most influential and daring composers in history, just simply could never comprehend Aphex Twin's music, and can only offer the advice 'be less repetitive'. Meanwhile Aphex totally gets Stockhausen and has incorporated manipulated children's voices, a feature of Stockhausen's Gesang into his works from the very start, probably before he even heard of the aforementioned composer. I mean the guy allegedly rediscovered Cage's prepared piano techniques as a preteen on the family piano, and won a computer music competition by changing video modes on his ZX Spectrum and turning the TV volume high enough to hear the frequency changes from the display. His precociousness is staggering. o.m. 94 fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Jul 27, 2013 |
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Jul 27, 2013 13:42
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Ypu can't just post the Stockhousen quote without the response from AFX:quote:"I thought he should listen to a couple of tracks of mine: "Digeridoo", then he'd stop making abstract, random patterns you can't dance to".
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Jul 27, 2013 16:21
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Also, this interview is gold. He's hilarious, and kudos to the interviewer having to engage someone with the mind of a genius and the personality of a child. "Yeah, might do some more stuff with my voice. Got into that last week." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rndV_5q8Tkc
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Jul 27, 2013 17:09
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There are rumours that he's releasing something new Autumn-Winter time. Based on what I can't remember, but mostly they were flying around as the BoC album was preparing to be released.
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Jul 28, 2013 15:13
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i heard he died irl
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Jul 28, 2013 23:01
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I'd love to see some new Aphex material. 
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Jul 29, 2013 02:50
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numbs posted:I'd love to see some new Aphex material. I'm pretty sure I remember he said in an interview that he had like six albums' worth of unreleased tracks and that he was going to release a remake of Melodies From Mars sometime in the future, but that was two or three years ago. I assume he's just busy loving around with his other aliases at the moment.
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Jul 29, 2013 17:10
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peskyplumber posted:I'm pretty sure I remember he said in an interview that he had like six albums' worth of unreleased tracks and that he was going to release a remake of Melodies From Mars sometime in the future, but that was two or three years ago. I assume he's just busy loving around with his other aliases at the moment. That's this interview, which is a good read. In this later interview he mentions 10 or 11. some unreleased stuff: singapore wobbly chords track manchester track metz track barbican piano pendulum piece TRAMAMPOLINE fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Aug 5, 2013 |
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Aug 5, 2013 14:57
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Man this track is gorgeous, thanks a ton for sharing it! Aphex Twin has been my favorite artists for years now, and has been a huge influence on my own music too. I think my all time favorite song from him is Pancake Lizard, but then again there are so many great ones it's hard to choose.
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Aug 5, 2013 17:18
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peskyplumber posted:I'm pretty sure I remember he said in an interview that he had like six albums' worth of unreleased tracks and that he was going to release a remake of Melodies From Mars sometime in the future, but that was two or three years ago. I assume he's just busy loving around with his other aliases at the moment. I remember an interview once from 1999-2000 where he apparently has rooms full of hard drives and unreleased materials. Aside from everything mentioned thus far, this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Pkx37kYf4 Aphex Twin was core in my coming-of-age. The breadth his released work spanned defined a huge portion of my sonic palette growing up. DJing made me realize how alien most of his work still sounds. I aspire to program drums because of him.
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Aug 5, 2013 17:28
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TRAMAMPOLINE posted:That's this interview, which is a good read. In this later interview he mentions 10 or 11. drat thanks dude
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Aug 6, 2013 02:02
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peskyplumber posted:I'm pretty sure I remember he said in an interview that he had like six albums' worth of unreleased tracks and that he was going to release a remake of Melodies From Mars sometime in the future, but that was two or three years ago. I assume he's just busy loving around with his other aliases at the moment. I remember he also said he had a whole album on his answering machine or some poo poo like that, he lies a lot as well though, wasnt an album or something going to come out last year? either way heres a great track, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwuaDkjjQps i haven't heard much that sounds like that from anyone else
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Aug 7, 2013 03:16
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Haven't seen it mentioned yet that Aphex was (is?) 1/2 of Universal Indicator (the other half being Mike Dred), and was responsible for the Universal Indicator Green and Red albums. Green: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG79-fbN1Rg Red: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGIQcnrEqLQ What I really appreciate about the Universal Indicator series is how it really was and still is 'innovations in the dynamics of Acid'. I mean, I love me some Acid, I've listened to thousands of hours of 101/202/303 on top of a 606/707/808/909, but somehow, this is still some of the most fresh sounding stuff out there. The timbre's he gets out of the 606 with some distortion are incredible, and absolutely perfectly compliment the sparse arrangements. Speaking of AFX's more sparse and minimal moments, let's review GAK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1_7yfDzTOQ I always felt like this also had echoes of 'Mike & Rich' to it, although much less tongue in cheek .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ercHzfvT6qY And also, why does everyone always forget Bradley Strider? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Ae8CQgodc
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Aug 7, 2013 12:00
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toadee posted:Haven't seen it mentioned yet that Aphex was (is?) 1/2 of Universal Indicator (the other half being Mike Dred), and was responsible for the Universal Indicator Green and Red albums. Thanks, hadn't got around to hearing the UI stuff yet. Mike & Rich is my favorite album in a way, it's more stylistically consistent than most of his other albums, which will be all over the place, commonly. Also, RJ said it was made under the influence of a lot of booze and LSD, and it definitely conveys an interesting mind state. I like making playlists of similar types of RJ material, like aphex acid, aphex jazz, and relaxing aphex. Shuffling through a playlist of 50 aphex jazz tunes is a very different experience than playing through a few of the albums. TRAMAMPOLINE fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Aug 12, 2013 |
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Aug 12, 2013 15:07
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I've seemed to have forgotten about this musical genius. Does he ever do tours? What are his concerts like?
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Oct 21, 2013 16:47
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numbs posted:I've seemed to have forgotten about this musical genius. Does he ever do tours? What are his concerts like? I saw him last year, it was loving amazing, I was front row and he played sicks beats as the sun went down. If you get a chance, see him live.
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Oct 21, 2013 17:18
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Quantum of Phallus posted:I saw him last year, it was loving amazing, I was front row and he played sicks beats as the sun went down. If you get a chance, see him live. Do any drukqs beforehand? I can't possibly imagine an Aphex concert while trippin' on the shroomies.
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Oct 22, 2013 04:11
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numbs posted:I've seemed to have forgotten about this musical genius. Does he ever do tours? What are his concerts like? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU9PJqQZzjA That description is pretty accurate: quote:His set was very uplifting, starting from classic acid-house to techno/jungle, finishing with noise. PS: It was amazing.
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Oct 23, 2013 19:11
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numbs posted:Do any drukqs beforehand? I can't possibly imagine an Aphex concert while trippin' on the shroomies. Nope, sober as the Pope and I was still tripping balls from the sound and visuals. It was really cool because later on in the set, everyone just started dancing and it was a really beautiful moment. The start of the set was still during daylight, then it gradually got darker and the music got heavier. It was Forbidden Fruit Dublin 2011 if you want to look up the set, he didn't play any of the big hits as far as I could tell which was fine, you could kinda hear snippets of Windowlicker and stuff being hosed up with though.
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Oct 24, 2013 09:59
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I'd have to say "4" on his RDJ album would be my favorite song of his. It's out there, while not really being out there if that makes any sense. The whole RDJ album is gold in my opinion.
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Oct 26, 2013 15:03
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I have to admit that I don't find RDJ all that mindblowing. I got into "idm" via Squarepusher, BoC and Autechre, but AFX or any of his pseudonyms never blew me away. I've heard most of his stuff and own ICBYD, Drukqs, SAW85-92, SAWII and Classics plus some EPs, with Drukqs being the favourite. It is the best sounding of his records IMO. All others seem to have somewhat shoddy production values. SAWII is alright ambient, but nothing special either. His Analord stuff was OKish, but doubt it would have gotten the accolades if someone lesser known would have released it.
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Oct 27, 2013 14:36
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Druqks is a fantastic album - one of his bests in my opinion.
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Dec 20, 2013 01:15
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Emetic Hustler posted:I have to admit that I don't find RDJ all that mindblowing. I got into "idm" via Squarepusher, BoC and Autechre, but AFX or any of his pseudonyms never blew me away. I've heard most of his stuff and own ICBYD, Drukqs, SAW85-92, SAWII and Classics plus some EPs, with Drukqs being the favourite. It is the best sounding of his records IMO. All others seem to have somewhat shoddy production values. SAWII is alright ambient, but nothing special either. His Analord stuff was OKish, but doubt it would have gotten the accolades if someone lesser known would have released it. Most ppl have this odd, myopic view of production values where a clean, crisp sound with each element balanced nicely on the sonic palette is the ultimate endgame and all music should strive for this. Part of the charm of SAW 85 is the breathy, fuzzy tape transfer that lends it a peculiar sense of something older than techno being dragged out of the swamp. Both the SAW records just emanate a monolithic sense of timelessness that isn't contrived but totally natural and communicated through every fibre of their being be it the production, artwork, composition, etc. Like the SAW II logo was an ancient heirogylph found in a palaeolithic bog. This is a baton-pass from the original ambient masterpeice , Eno's "On Land", but filtered thru Aphexs worldview. In general, and in comparison to his labelmates, he was there doing this poo poo before everyone else in terms of inventing a new language and his strokes are so broad (compare SAWII to say, Windowlicker EP) that other artists have made careers off these single strokes. Sure there may be more 'mind blowing' and refined versions of his stuff, but if you want your mind blown constantly and are concerned purely with spectacle, then ofc RDJ isn't for you as his world lies more in the cracks and eddies and light and shade of a musical tradition that goes back to the dawn of the 20th century. Its hard to appreciate when there are much shinier things out there Re: saw ii, there is no ambient album like it of its time. It may seem average now (although for reasons above I disagree) but it influenced everyone ever with its charming autistic microworld of radiators, moss, lichen and twigs. Like beefheart, the sense of a child at play is evident in all his work o.m. 94 fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Dec 20, 2013 |
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Dec 20, 2013 07:18
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I like fuzz and "lo-fi" sound, but it just doesn't work for me in the case of RDJ's stuff. I guess it has its charm, but doesn't jostle my jimmies. I also like crisp, high production value music as well. But hey look, tastes are subjective!
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Dec 20, 2013 11:35
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oiseaux morts 1994 posted:Most ppl have this odd, myopic view of production values where a clean, crisp sound with each element balanced nicely on the sonic palette is the ultimate endgame and all music should strive for this. Part of the charm of SAW 85 is the breathy, fuzzy tape transfer that lends it a peculiar sense of something older than techno being dragged out of the swamp. Both the SAW records just emanate a monolithic sense of timelessness that isn't contrived but totally natural and communicated through every fibre of their being be it the production, artwork, composition, etc. Couldn't agree more. Hearing the beginning of Xtal still gives me goosebumps. I've not got time to properly express myself, but there are very few albums that are so self-encompassing and complete. It (and its successor) are albums that reference nothing but themselves. They're not 'about' anything except what they're actually doing. They're pure play, and they're as uncanny and deep and weirdly beautiful as really unself-conscious play can be. Barry Foster fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Dec 20, 2013 |
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Dec 20, 2013 20:49
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Here's a cool lineage I scoped this mornin. Basically Manuel Gottsching was about 10 years ahead of his time 1984 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvremVJ5XdA 1990 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaaIlC_MFL8 1992 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MhVvIT1cPU
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Dec 23, 2013 13:55
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Pulsewidth always reminds me of this Battle Garegga tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYbINBnYeFA I know this is more of a takeoff on an Underground Resistance track but whatever. The similarities in the delay use and the lead synths are undeniable to me. Re: the tape fuzz on SAW85-92, I seem to recall the original CD release of Tri Repetae having a label that says "incomplete without surface noise" (the vinyl press of course says "complete with surface noise"). The fuzz creates a really timeless feeling there, too.
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Dec 24, 2013 03:05
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