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RDJ album came out in 1996! It's light-years ahead of its time! Here's a Phillip Glass orchestration of the mighty Icct Hedral. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIuSLczfn6U
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Jul 20, 2013 17:43
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Well, I was gonna write an epic but posts from Floodixor & Strav have said everything that needs to be said. This guy is a total auto-didactic techno wizard who has commanded everything from noise to ambient under his hood for well over 20 years. I have loved, and subsequently unloved so many musical acts in my time, yet Aphex Twin is still today a musician I revere with total unflinching admiration. Here we have a borderline autistic Cornish kid with a vision for electronic music that will never be surpassed. His precocious, scatalogical yet informed take on music will reverberate thru the halls of time. I don't even flinch when people make comparisons to Motzart because they are true. There are no words to describe his precocious, childlike genius Fingerbib is probably the best thing he's ever done https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kO6poDbsv0 Here's an AFX joint on Analogue Bubblebath 5 he released, that is one of his strongest. It's the strings that get me every time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ovJQ86bR9E
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Jul 21, 2013 03:12
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Lord Krangdar posted:I recently became a huge fan of Autechre, and I know Aphex Twin influenced them a lot. I've liked a lot of his songs I've heard but never really delved too far into all his many releases under different names. From what I have heard the stuff from his other pseudonyms was more interesting than his main albums. So anyway where's a good place for me to bridge over from Autechre to Aphex, and does anyone know more about the relationship between those two? Despite being labelmates I think there's not much one owes to the other. Autechre was always about the hard-edged techno, hip-hop and grafiti vibe of urban Manchester; later colliding with the German schools from Stockhausen to Shulzche to create a techno-concrete. Aphex on the other hand is a rugged, innocent, ruralisation of acid techno that just takes precedent from any quarter. Aphex treats his sound less than Autechre, who are wont to completely erase any reference point ("Bine" from Confield being a classic example, a Dockstadian nightmare techno inversion that lacks the human element that Aphex Twin would agree on). Meanwhile Aphex Twin will do a collaboration with Phillip Glass and produce a ridiculous operatic nightmare like Icct Hedral just because, y'know, he can. His work is more personal and intimate and dare I say, "hand-crafted" than Autechre but to be honest both groups are ridiculously awe-inspiring. o.m. 94 fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Jul 21, 2013 |
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Jul 21, 2013 03:18
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dead56k posted:i feel like i read in some interview that richard d. james is NOT a fan of Autechre Absolutely not true, they've been labelmates for over 20 years and are good friends.
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Jul 21, 2013 03:27
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I'm fairly certain RDJ just uses whatever tools he has available and there's probably no defacto workstream, but until about 1996 he was using primarily analogue equipment for the sequencing of his music. I got some sequencing software on his Mac at some point in the mid 90s, and you can hear the switch to "digital" by comparing the analogue glow of I Care Because You Do versus the intricate, harsh digital presence on RDJ album. He's used computers primarily since although presumably the Analord series is almost exclusively orchestrated using analogue or at least dedicated hardware. Regarding that interview re: Squarepusher and Autechre, remember that this is the same interview where he claims all his mates were trying to get off with Kylie Minogue, grabbing her in a dodgy club and that she was apparently into it. He tells more porkies than any artist I've ever seen, so it's worth taking anything he says with a pinch of salt. Total prankster. quote: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. The copyright for The Tuss songs on the PRS website are attributed to one JAMES, RICHARD D. Case closed! quote:Also I've been wondering, does anyone know why the two volumes of "Selected Ambient Works" were named together when they're so different from each other? Well the second record is clearly ambient music. The first album gets the name because the music is ambient techno (a genre he basically invented, or at least became the biggest proponent of). Ambient techno is basically techno music infused with tropes from ambient music - lush pads and airy leads, judicious use of reverb, delay and space in general, formless atmospherics, etc. At its most basic - like putting a techno beat over an Eno track. o.m. 94 fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Jul 21, 2013 |
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Jul 21, 2013 13:01
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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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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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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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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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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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This is a super nerdy observation, but the presence of BPMs suggest that the tracks will be more 'conventional' as per his AFX moniker that takes more from acid and Detroit techno. You wouldn't expect it to be mentioned if the tracks sounded like Bucephalus or Stone In Focus or Icct Hedral, and this is the Aphex I want to hear most. Just a reservation, he's never really done a full length that isn't amazing in some way, so we'll be in for a treat. I'm just hoping for something really unique if this has the Aphex moniker attached to it.
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Aug 19, 2014 07:45
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my Daddy (1997) and Windowlickie (1999),
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Aug 21, 2014 22:05
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toadee posted:Yes but also an insane one. Who contacts someone to clear a sample, then in the middle of the discussion says "gently caress you thats not even a sample we wrote that" ??? That's actually just insane. Trust me I would take Aphex interviews with a pinch of salt. He is not, in any way, what we might call a 'reliable narrator'
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Aug 26, 2014 22:00
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Yeah I dig it. Quite Analordy
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Sep 4, 2014 19:48
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thathonkey posted:Has aphex twin ever done something better than windowlicker? Im not familiar with his entire catalogue but that's easily my fave song of his despite its massive popularity (it's popular because it is good). Windowlicker is a masterpeice Pretty much of all of his Aphex releases are completely different each time so you can't really meaningfully compare them subjectively. Needless to say you must have the following releases in your arsenal: Selected Ambient Works 85-92 Selected Ambient Works Volume II ...I Care Because You Do Richard D. James Album Come To Daddy Windowlicker Everything else is a bit more particular or not as good because of reasons
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Sep 5, 2014 13:20
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Anyone who is a musician, especially a working one, has tens to hundreds of unreleased or half written songs floating about, some that can easily stretch back to a decade or older. this isn't particular to RDJ although I don't doubt he has more than most. For a lot of people, its about finding an album the track fits on musically / thematically, finishing the track, or getting a recording of it they're finally happy with. This is a process that can sometimes take years
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Sep 10, 2014 07:15
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lmao chemtrails richard pls
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Sep 17, 2014 12:40
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It's not reaching the the kind of perverse genius of Windowlicker, 4, or Come To Daddy or the delicacy of the earlier stuff (nor would I expect it to). It's really just a collection of technically solid, wierd techno / dnb workouts from a guy with lots of cool gear. Of course nobody else could do this kind of thing, but still. It's also 20 minutes too long. A tentative 3/5 stars at the moment
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Sep 19, 2014 10:39
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toadee posted:Among all of the other amazing things I love about this record, from a production standpoint I'd love to know how he achieves some of the 'fullness' in the bass lines. Like they are so deep and fat, without crowding out any other sounds and muddying up the spectrum, it's so perfect. Agreed, and I've also noticed he uses a neat trick, at least it seems that way, where some sounds have a subtle, short reverb or room sound to push them to the back, or are drier to bring them up to the front - it's more noticeable on headphones but it helps to create distance and seperation between spectrally overlapping sounds without panning on the x-axis as traditionally is done.
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Sep 24, 2014 14:54
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Also I know the prevailing opinion is that 180db_ is a lame track but in a way it's the most stand out in a moronic clownstep kind of way, like it was thrown on there as a practical joke. The more and more I listen to it the more it makes me crack up, especially if you imagine a poorly lit warehouse full of pilled up Mancunians raving to it
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Sep 24, 2014 15:04
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renderful posted:Syro definitely sounds muddy to me, and I think that's part of the reason it sounds good. Yeah this is definitely a technique all over Analord series too, like on Fenix Funk
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Sep 26, 2014 16:55
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Flectarn posted:180db_ and XMAS_EVET10 are the only good tracks, sorry. No need to apologise, you didn't understand my post anyway
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Oct 29, 2014 23:28
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IDM is an ill-concieved name was coined in the US in the 90s, most likely inspired by the name of the Warp Artificial Intelligence comps. None of the artists on the Warp roster like the term; Aphex often used the term "Braindance" instead. IDM usually refers to the technically intricate brand of techno that the Warp artists are renowned for at points in their career, and stateside labels like Schematic who had a similar output. It's essentially techno music that takes influence from the 20th Century european avant-grade, with crossovers into breakcore, downtempo, ragga, jungle and none of it fits nicely into one particular box, and most importantly NONE of these artists have a consistent "IDM" output throughout their careers. But if you were to do a pastiche of the quotidian "IDM sound" circa 2000 when the copycats were in full swing, it would be lush ambient pads contrasted against intricate, skittering and glitchy beats, with simple, melodic basslines. All of which the canonical roster are guilty of at some point, but it by no means represents a fitting description of the majority of their output.
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Oct 31, 2014 13:22
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toadee posted:And yet there is no term which gets across the point of what you're talking about better than IDM. It doesn't matter whether or not an artist does or doesn't like the label most widely accepted to categorize their output, it just matters that it's the most widely accepted and therefore best used in communication. Even people who scoff at the term IDM use it, while rolling their eyes or making little quotey symbols in the air with their fingers. It's been used now for, christ, over a decade to describe this music, I think the ship has sailed on a better term. It's meaningless, really. Using a genre label in anything but the loosest terms possible is an absurdity unless you're dealing with the most monomaniacial of artists. If you're using a label to describe a track like Autechre's "Bine" and also Boards of Canada's "Roygbiv" in the same breath, then it's truly an absurdity. It's an absurdity even on a single artist's album. Is Druqks a genre album? How could it be. It has Cageian prepared piano peices juxtaposed with electro-funk, acid techno, musique concrete and something verging on breakcore or jungle. There's no nice label for it and there doesn't need to be, either
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Oct 31, 2014 15:26
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I'm not being pedantic, quite the opposite. I am saying the term IDM is absurd, and nobody should use it
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Oct 31, 2014 17:31
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Ninja fetus posted:My favorite Merzbow piece is this: 1930 best Merzbow album
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Nov 2, 2014 03:00
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Emetic Hustler posted:Also the whole "I've got a bunch of tracks but get sidetracked and never release them/takes too long to get them released" is a lame excuse. Either put up or shut up. There's always bandcamp to put up things quickly. He probably has contractual obligations to Warp, and the production of an album requires at the very least mastering and artwork so it's not a matter of just throwing it up on Bandcamp, these things take time and money at his level
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Nov 3, 2014 18:47
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Since the Avril 14th tune he posted is the MIDI notes playing in reverse order, you get the original melody with a reverse timbre and ADSR when you play it backwards
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Nov 4, 2014 15:29
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Ninja fetus posted:There's several pictures of AFX with Die Antwoord: they've used the original mix but put a fresh beat over it. The drums from the original recording wouldn't be noticeable against it
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Nov 5, 2014 11:48
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at this point getting excited for new aphex is like getting excited that you have tickets to pink floyd
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Nov 8, 2014 12:13
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http://mexicoindie.net/2015/01/stream-aphex-twin-computer-controlled-acoustic-instruments-pt-2-ep/ Here's a stream It's a great album for beat samples and suchlike As an album it lives and dies on the concept of controlling acoustic instruments via computer, which it does in a pretty basic way. There are some moment of insane Nancarrow/Cage type poo poo, but really, I would only rate it if he had done some full-blown tracks with the complexity of Analord jams. That would be properly amazing, something like Fenix Funk by with the instruments swapped out for pianos and pitched percussion. As it stands it feels like a kind of a wasted concept
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Jan 22, 2015 10:22
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Also some of the beats are suffocatingly compressed which sucks
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Jan 22, 2015 10:23
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modestmusashi posted:How did that fella get it in his itunes? It's not giving me a download option Record the output of soundcard into an editor or sequencer
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Jan 28, 2015 09:01
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Snapchat A Titty posted:No reason for that, afaik there's no way to get better sound out of soundcloud than 128kbps since that's what it streams as. Oh, didn't know that. You have to go down to like 96 before I'd start noticing
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Jan 28, 2015 14:02
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Mutation posted:Seems like he's done, I guess? It'll be most sifting through a pile of poo poo to find gold.....but I guess I shouldn't be ungrateful
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Jan 30, 2015 09:06
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Aphex conspiracy
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Jan 31, 2015 00:14
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he just posted an orchestra rendition of Rhubarb on his main soundcloud. it's amazing...... still trying to work out if sequenced or just a straight up live recording
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Jan 31, 2015 13:44
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his comments are pretty entertainingquote:we are always changing, if i go back to something literally 5-10 minutes later I will do it very differently and i did this about 20 years ago! so.. , yeah I hardly even recognise myself, so you just have to appreciate yourself in the moment and go with it . Things change but time as in ‘before’ or ‘after’ are just words, human constructs. There is only now , there is only now ,whoops it’s gone. ok I’m drunk and talking to people i don’t know, is that good ,i ve no idea, hi!
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Jan 31, 2015 22:04
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Lots of crappy trash but 34 ibiza spliff is amazing
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May 5, 2015 20:47
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 07:29 |
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Four-Twenty posted:18.08.1971 is birthdqay of richard. woah they say he was child prodigy but this is just ridiculous
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May 12, 2015 08:59
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