Taking Sides: Autechre vs. Aphex Twin

It's a tempting analogy but I agree with abcfsk, there's actually a lot of range to their work. Not an awful lot in common between Amber and LP5 and Confield.

xxp I don't agree with that at all, in fact if anything I'd switch the two

Is it just me, or is "Clipper" (and I guess other bits of "Tri Repetae") the closes Autechre came to sounding a lot like Aphex, or at least not dissimilar? After that it was really off to the races for the duo.

It's not as though Autechre made an entire career out of one idea, but there's a clear philosophy and a trajectory core to their work, starting at Tri Repetae and running through to the present. Aphex on the other hand would have clearly defined jumps in style from release to release, track to track, but it became apparent around the time of Druqks that really he only had about 4 or 5 kinds of track.

one man's clear philosophy and core trajectory is another man's stuck in a rut

I also never quite got the impression Autechre was ever taking the piss, even when they probably were. Aphex, on the other hand, like many a genius, seems impressively aloof about his own work.

So aloof that he hasn't released anything of significance in over 15 years...

blow me.

blowtechre

i understand that incunabula and tri repetae and lp5 and confield don't sound exactly the same

then again neither do saw i or saw ii or icbyd or windowlicker or rdj albums

i still think it's weird to call Ae a "one trick pony". i think they've easily got the range of Aphex and then some.

this is a silly part of the conversation tbf. Both acts had a wide remit. Both were lumped into the same category, but there's actually a huge gulf between them. Weirdly, it was when I first heard Autechre (after having been an Aphex fan for a good while) that I remember thinking "are these guys taking the piss?"

Yes, but Aphex Twin is often truly taking the piss! The one time I saw him on live, lying with a laptop on the couch while three giant dayglo bears stumbled around the stage .... ?

I mean, I loved it! And it was better than listening to Autechre goof around in the dark, for sure. But I guess I've always liked their mathtronica more than much Aphex.

"Flutter" is kind of a musical joke and I'd think some other tracks too

what is great about afx is that he can "take the piss" and still end up w a sick track (windowlicker and flow coma remix come to mind)

flutter is the non repetitive beats one?

is that a joek or a *serious artist statement*?

bit of both imo

'it was advised that DJs "have a lawyer and a musicologist present at all times to confirm the non repetitive nature of the music in the event of police harassment.'

I always took it as a joke, and it's a great track besides...

Agreed that Aphex clowns around better than anyone. In fact after the first few years it's the stuff he doesn't clown around on that's lackluster (outside "Flim", obv)

give drukqs another shot, esp the acoustic stuff

Yes, but Aphex Twin is often truly taking the piss! The one time I saw him on live, lying with a laptop on the couch while three giant dayglo bears stumbled around the stage .... ?

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 15:36 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah that's what I mean. I was used to Aphex and his pranks, but when I heard Ae for the first time my reaction to the music was totally, "You've got to be kidding me!". I think it was Fold4, Wrap5 that provoked that reaction actually.

Druqks was okay, but it was the first time RDJ's limits as a creative strength first came into view. It's like listening to 3 different albums on shuffle.

lol @ aphex not having released anything of significance in 15 years. i'm still working my way through all the released/freebie analord tracks. that music is really rewarding on repeated listens. kind of odd how overlooked it all is especially while people are wetting themselves over youtube clips of him playing pretty much the same stuff.

It's like listening to 3 different albums on shuffle.

wasn't there a story that he lost an ipod on a plane full of his music so he released a bunch of it as drukqs

also worth noting steinvord which, depending on who you ask, is either rdj, rdj+squarepusher, skrillex, or some 18 year old from spain

xp ^ lol yea

aphex twin mythos vs. autechre mythos, rdj wins hands down

The Analord stuff is okay, but it's not breaking ground in the same way that nearly all his work up until Windowlicker did. Not that that's a problem - good music is good music - but it seems RDJ is now more at ease with expanding on and deconstructing old acid and rave tropes than pioneering new ideas like he used to.

the analord tracks are really good, the best of them are as good as anything else he's done really

maybe releasing it all the Analord stuff on expensive, limited vinyl wasn't a smart move? because I would agree, that stuff is plenty good

"Chosen Lords", in my opinion, doesn't really capture the best stuff, from what I've heard. The thing is that it's really the same stuff he's always done as AFX, neat acid junk that really has the mark of a man who composes like 250 tracks a year and doesn't have much time to work on them, but I prefer the Analords to the Analogue Bubblebaths (which have awesome tracks but as a whole are kinda...eh)

Autechre's image makes people ignore the fact they do jam around a whole lot. How they physically do it in the studio I don't know but Untilted is basically a jam session, there's funk and sweat and freak-outs and it sounds pretty free-form (even if it was planned to sound free). This should've been a more natural critical approach to their music, considering hip-hop roots and all, than it has been. They're fun guys, they just don't look it.

There's no lack of great, emotional melodies in either career, by the way.

About 8 or 9 years ago I read an interview with Aphex where he said he'd thrown out a whole bunch of four-on-the-floor records saying they were useless (or somesuch). Two years ago I saw him play a set of straight-up techno bangers. Guy's pretty inconsistent in interviews, but that made me laugh a bit.

i think your definition of breaking ground is different to mine. i mean he's always taken an older style and put his spin on it. the analord stuff takes established dance forms but beefs everything up with fat analogue synths, and it's not like he's just got a 303 or a pro-1 and a few drum machines, the sound design is pretty unique to him. he's also pushing the boundaries of the form in typical aphex style. hyper dense, challenging music. the same as he's always done. and on top of all that, it bangs like a daddy.

IIRC he claimed he made RDJ album short because he thought long albums were boring, despite having already released SAWII, pretty much the epitome of "long and tedious" (as brilliant as it is!)

maybe releasing it all the Analord stuff on expensive, limited vinyl wasn't a smart move? because I would agree, that stuff is plenty good

"Chosen Lords", in my opinion, doesn't really capture the best stuff, from what I've heard. The thing is that it's really the same stuff he's always done as AFX, neat acid junk that really has the mark of a man who composes like 250 tracks a year and doesn't have much time to work on them, but I prefer the Analords to the Analogue Bubblebaths (which have awesome tracks but as a whole are kinda...eh)

― frogbs, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 16:09 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This. I lost patience with the series as I haven't had a record player (or storage for records) until recently. Plus it's a mammoth collection to sift through. Think the series was good for obsessives, but a terrible commercial mis-step. I'm sure he doesn't give a hoot, but it completely wrongsided fans like me who'd been disappointed by Druqks and would have preferred an approach like ICBYD.

I'm not sure how much he cares about commercial success, but is he really still just living off money from his 1996-1998 heyday? It's not like he tours much.

probably.

radiohead fans

He must make a fair amount of dosh each time there's a TV documentary about the paranormal.

plus I guess pretty much everything from SAWII was licensed out

IIRC they used "4" in some kind of anti-drug advert which struck me as really odd

Orange (?) probably paid a fair few for To Cure A Weakling Child too.

didn't that series "Jam" use a ton of Aphex music

aphex still plays too and probably makes mad $$$ every time he does

afaict lots of retired or semi-retired electronica dudes make a lot of scratch hush-hush on the side doing uncredited sound design for tv, commercials, movies, video games, etc

not sure if aphex is doing that or not but i know a lot of other people are

like who

i know richard devine's stuff is everywhere but he's hardly retired or anything

xxpost I know a handful of local producers who do this - it's very common and good money. Wouldn't be surprised if that's how a lot of ex-popular musicians get their beer money.

i encounter loads of people that say they do this, but in reality they sit around smoking spliffs and maybe do a job or two a year for like an iphone game that never gets released. and there are libraries and companies that specialise in this stuff now.

That's probably what I'd be doing too if I was a washed up bedroom producer. Sounds great.

good autechre article for the geeks

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr04/articles/autechre.htm

<3

"The worst things are the timeline sequencers where you can see on the screen what's coming up. That really f**ks with your head when you're listening."

one prominent example would be photek - that's basically what he was doing from 2000 to 2010

another two i know about by name are neil landstrumm, who did sound for playstation games iirc, and gold chains, who basically quit recording to do sound design for mtv promo spots

http://oi45.tinypic.com/289m0e8.jpg