I LOVE DRUKQS+

without the daft songs about milkmen etc.

lol—yeah Syro is actually quite free of the kind of studenty humour he used to do.

Just reading that Doran piece and yes, very prescient to a lot of what's being said upthread.

Something else:

Syro came out during the dying days of that protracted era of eighties revivalism, and I wonder how much that has affected my feelings towards it. If something like this had come out in, say, 2009, would I feel more kindly towards this album of B-boy acid workouts? I sometimes like to compare it to Untilted for that reason, but Untilted came out 7 or 8 years before.

RDJ (and a good few of his peers), really seemed to want an acid revival thing to get going at the time, and he was a huge ambassador for that sound and approach in interviews.
But for whatever reason it never properly took off. Perhaps the majority of Aphex fans just weren't as passionate about 303 analogue retro-noodling as they were about what's new, what's next. And the whole Analord thing came off a bit hagiographic to me, a bit "this is important and you kids must listen to it", like when John Lennon decided to release an album of hoary old rock'n'roll covers in the 70s.

Maybe that's not fair: It was definitely a new take on an old sound, nothing like, say the Universal Indicator comp. But it was the first time in a long time that RDJ's musi felt referential and backwards-looking

I have definitely been guilty of the "Oh, you haven’t created a new groundbreaking era-defining genre of music recently so you’re done” sentiment in the past. There's a time and a place for nostalgia, postmodernism, referencing - I'm all for it - but I do like to hear NEW sounds; I like that feeling of not quite knowing what I'm listening to

It is interesting that the premise of this thread, started twenty two years ago is about whether the reader insists on the artist progressing as time goes on, so I guess the answer to that on balance certainly seems to be yes; or at least for Aphex Twin—people are a little disappointed if they view this not to have happened.

Actually, it may be more subtle, in that 'progression' tends to me more around the sound of a record, rather than chords/melody etc; I guess that's a lot trickier to figure out whether something has progressed or not.

Aphex Twin certainly seems to be held to a higher standard than other artists in this regard, e.g. in the late '80s/'90s people were generally happy that Neil Young cooled off the experiments of the '80s and went back to doing what he does best and has been largely doing that ever since; whereas, when James does it with (e.g.) Analord, it can be viewed as a kind of admission of failure. Of course, it may make sense with Aphex Twin, if reinvention was one of the key selling points in the first instance.

As a quite separate point, I spent the last couple of days re-listening to all the Analord 12"s and made a playlist, which is probably about half of the whole of things I like—the thing is just so big (five hours) that it's always been close to impossible to digest (a bit of a theme with his work—with some of you saying the same about Syro, which probably has about five hours' worth of stuff compressed into an hour). I go hot and cold on Analord, and I kind of concluded it's because it's so miserable! I mean in a kind of good, post-punk way, but I did at some point think that I just couldn't be arsed with any more miserable music in a row!

There's definitely a feeling of "progression" with Syro - you can tell he's top-of-the-game and certainly not slacking off from trying to push himself and his equipment to the limits

I did struggle with Analord, I admit. I'm not even sure how to listen to it in this day and age of streaming and downloading - I know I must have a copy of the whole thing somewhere. I'd love a playlist. Actually, you know what would rule is if someone made a 60-90 minute DJ mix of the best stuff so I can hear it as a "club" album rather than a dump of individual tunes

i was just going to ask, i've never listened to any of the analords - do you all own the 12"s or get them off filesharing or what?

Yes I would agree, but certainly when Drukqs came out, it was viewed generally to not be the progression people hoped it would be—and some view him as having sort of stood still at best or even regressed (e.g Analord) since. With Drukqs, I kind of think the reality might just be that:

• Drukqs is pretty impenetrable to the casual listener (in fact, likely to anyone other than a pretty dedicated listener)
• It came on the back of Windowlicker and people were hoping for a kind of 'more like that, please' thing

Hey Ledge, I do actually own the 12"s for some reason, but the electronic ones I have, I dunno actually—I thought I bought them off his website—certainly did some of them because there were a load of extra tracks handed out at some point (like loads more), but they don't show on his website any more—strange.

Here's the playlist—I guess the 'at some point' was 7th August 2011.

Phonatacid 9:54 Aphex Twin Analord 2 1 13 07/08/2011, 17:12
Laricheard 2:17 Aphex Twin Analord 2 1 18 07/08/2011, 17:12
Pissed Up In SE1 5:18 Aphex Twin Analord 2 1 12 07/08/2011, 17:12
Bwoon Dub 5:59 Aphex Twin Analord 2 1 15 07/08/2011, 17:12
Carnival Acid 3:32 Aphex Twin Analord 2 1 8 07/08/2011, 17:12
Boxing Day 6:46 Aphex Twin Analord 3 1 2 07/08/2011, 18:12
Midievil Rave 2:45 Aphex Twin Analord 3 1 3 07/08/2011, 17:12
Klopjob 5:30 Aphex Twin Analord 3 1 5 07/08/2011, 17:12
Midievil Rave 2 4:04 Aphex Twin Analord 3 1 4 07/08/2011, 17:12
Stabbij 4:22 Aphex Twin Analord 3 1 6 07/08/2011, 17:12
Crying In Your Face 4:26 Aphex Twin Analord 4 1 4 07/08/2011, 17:12
Home Made Polysynth 4:08 Aphex Twin Analord 4 1 5 07/08/2011, 17:12
Halibut Acid 6:08 Aphex Twin Analord 4 1 6 07/08/2011, 17:13
Breath March 3:50 Aphex Twin Analord 4 1 4 07/08/2011, 17:13
Flutternozzle 6:28 Aphex Twin Analord 4 1 3 07/08/2011, 17:13
In The Maze Park 1:31 Aphex Twin Analord 4 1 3 07/08/2011, 17:13
Cilonen 5:38 Aphex Twin Analord 5 1 6 07/08/2011, 17:13
Batine Acid 5:31 Aphex Twin Analord 6 1 4 07/08/2011, 17:13
I'm Self Employed 4:28 Aphex Twin Analord 6 1 8 07/08/2011, 17:13
Lisbon Acid 8:32 Aphex Twin Analord 7 0 5 07/08/2011, 17:13
Pitcard 6:25 Aphex Twin Analord 7 0 3 07/08/2011, 17:13
AFX Acid 04 5:40 Aphex Twin Analord 7 0 3 07/08/2011, 17:13
PWSteal.Ldpinch.D 3:44 Aphex Twin Analord 8 1 3 07/08/2011, 17:13
W32.Deadcode.A 6:34 Aphex Twin Analord 8 1 5 07/08/2011, 17:13
Fenix Funk 5 5:04 Aphex Twin Analord 10 1 3 07/08/2011, 17:12
Xmd 5a 7:56 Aphex Twin Analord 10 1 3 07/08/2011, 17:12
Love 7 4:45 Aphex Twin Analord 11 0 3 07/08/2011, 17:12
3 Notes Con 4:54 Aphex Twin Analord 11 0 2 07/08/2011, 17:12

Actually, you know what would rule is if someone made a 60-90 minute DJ mix of the best stuff so I can hear it as a "club" album rather than a dump of individual tunes

(Granted it’s only 56 mins.)

It came on the back of Windowlicker and people were hoping for a kind of 'more like that, please' thing

Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. Windowlicker felt, conceptually and in some ways technically, like his apex (pun not intended). I was hoping for 12 wildly different "songs", each with a clear through-line at its heart (i.e. an extension of the Windowlicker and CTD EPs, or an update on ICBYD). Instead we got maybe 4-5 overall ideas shuffled around a double album, with many of those ideas being developments or retreads of what he had been doing on previous work: drill'n'bass work outs, or channelling other artists like Satie and John Cage.

I have Analord complete in a Dropbox, ILX mail me for a link as you wish

Was thinking yesterday about differences between electronic music that is “built” vs that which is “composed”— knowing that an insane track like “Full Of Fire” was made by Olaf meticulously working out the modulations bar by bar for days on end, in contrast to Autechre coming up with their foundation and building some amazing sounding generatives to fizz around and about on their own

syro is total jazz-fusion grooves. i am howard moon in the van with the thumb all about it

― massaman gai (front tea for two), Thursday, March 21, 2024 4:01 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

finally a otm post

this reminds me, has anyone heard the new Squarepusher yet? I've listened to a few tracks from it, seems like it's probably really good

No but I went back to give Be Up A Hello a proper listen and man, it crushes

Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. Windowlicker felt, conceptually and in some ways technically, like his apex (pun not intended). I was hoping for 12 wildly different "songs"

Yeah certainly from my point of view, I loved the kind of warped vocals aspect of Windowlicker and it felt like a good direction to be going in, and when it didn't (well, it turns out that some of it did, I just didn't notice), I guess I didn't like it. I didn't comment here when it came out, but it seems I did a few years later once I had made some sense of it.

I LOVE DRUKQS+

I have put together another playlist of Blackbox Life Recorder and the Collapse EP to keep me going on holiday. I have called it "Recent Bits".

Really enjoying Keith's write-ups and the discussion on this thread. I'm currently giving Syro another shot but my thoughts pretty much echo dog latin and fgti. It sounds great and it feels generous what with all the big, steady grooves (which mostly read as electro to me), but the RDJ-ness is really in the details.

Has me thinking about how his very personal sense of melody & harmony is really at the heart of it all...you don't really go to RDJ for sound design, even though he can seemingly bend any piece of gear to his will.

Thanks, Jordan.

Syro is totally his (acid) freestyle album, huh

I have the full analord on a hard drive, downloaded years ago from you send its or whatever else was being used at the time. But usually I just go to youtube to listen to it. I remember being really impressed by it at the time, and sometimes still think this is the best thing he's done.

I was hoping for 12 wildly different "songs", each with a clear through-line at its heart (i.e. an extension of the Windowlicker and CTD EPs, or an update on ICBYD).

Tbf his whole thing was, “This is a dump of old tracks, listen however you want,” etc. I’m not sure how true that actually was… I guess some of them must’ve been old, but they do seem pretty deliberately arranged.

I was revisiting Drukqs, due to this thread, and was surprised by how familiar each of the tracks was to me, just from its opening seconds… I must have listened to the album a lot back in the day.

“This is a dump of old tracks, listen however you want,”

Yeah I don't believe that for a second. Mind you, if it were true, it would be pretty funny.

Also, I know this is a normie opinion, but “Avril 14th” and “Nanou2” are just perfect compositions. The latter in particular still just floors me, it’s so beautiful.

Drukqs, I think I was giving too much credit to bad reviews at the time, I went in thinking this was going to be not so good. Over time I've come to enjoy it, definitely some career highlights in this, though overall it's maybe a bit too much to take in when listening from beginning to end.

Syro, I've come to appreciate more over time but I still can't fully get into it.

The one thing he did in the last 10 years or so that really impressed me is "Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2". Nobody really talks about it much but I really wish he did more stuff like this, he's really good at it.

that's something that's kind of dogged him I think, some of his tracks are just so perfect that his fans can't stop wondering why he doesn't do more like them. maybe people assume because he can write 300 acid house tracks that he could do 300 Avril 14ths if he really wanted to. idk part of me thinks RDJ is embarrassed to admit how hard he works on some of this stuff. every time he's interviewed it's always "oh this is something I cooked up while I was waiting for the dishwasher to finish, I don't even remember it, but maybe *YOU* might like it" and it's the most intricate shit you've ever heard

Haha, yeah, it's myth of the artist stuff—yeah I was just dicking around with with my sequencer for five minutes and out popped Mont St Michel/St Michael's mount. I do think it's a pity lots of artists project the image their stuff just falls out of them like rain falling out the sky, when in actual fact it was years of effort—it's bound to put lots of young people off, who probably just give up, thinking that they just weren't born talented, when things are 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

I also think some artists do this out of insecurity, as if to say "well it's okay if you don't like it, I didn't work very hard on it". but RDJ doesn't really seem like the type to care what the audience thinks.

then on the other hand you've got guys like Max Tundra, who will straight up say stuff like "this one track took 6 months to complete, you better enjoy it"

I also think some artists do this out of insecurity, as if to say "well it's okay if you don't like it, I didn't work very hard on it"

Yeah I guess that's true too.

The Soundcloud dump is quite enlightening in this respect, as there are loads of 'different' versions of existing tracks—slower versions; backwards versions etc. etc. And this would imply he's trying a lot out with tracks and deciding which one he thinks is best for proper release.

y'all are really inspiring me to re-listen to Analords and the SC dump

Something else he said in the Drukqs era: “I’ve done loads of tracks which are really new in style and which don’t sound like anything else but I didn’t want to release those tracks."

Did we ever figure out what those were, lol? It certainly wasn’t Analord, right(?) Maybe the roots of Syro?

Part of the reason I like Analord so much is that its construction is somewhat-transparent. The synths are familiar, how RDJ made them "do that" is apparent; which allows for each moment of innovation and really shine. I don't think of Analord as being something that follows Drukqs tbh, I think of it more as something that follows... Vince Clarke. Like, Erasure's "Chorus". It's wonderful hearing RDJ working within limitations and kinda buffeting up against them.

Interestingly, too, as Analord series progresses, the methodology starts to break down. By the time you get to "Fenix Funk" there isn't even a pretence of it being "all analog" any more

That one was the first to be released, although it's possible the numbers reflect the order in which they were recorded.

Oh interesting! Maybe it was a reverse course, then. The drums on Analord 10 are extremely digitally sampled... but it's conspicuously analog-only on 1-6. iirc around 7 he starts using something that sounds (to my ears, anyway) like a DMX. I think 10 is MPC samples

You made me think that when it came out and was trumpeted as his return to analogue equipment that I didn't bat an eyelid and assumed it was all analogue, but yeah it really does sound quite different to most of the other EPs!

I was listening back to some of the later ones today, and didn't notice so much, but then I wasn't primed. TBH, excluding 10, to my ears, they get a chunk worse at the later end of it, despite there being a few great tracks.

I mean, “define analog” I guess. There’s wavetable stuff in there, and the MC-4 (pictured on the cover of Analords 1-3) spits out analog CV but is a digital sequencer

So do you all say Analord as in "analog" or as in "anal"

the former

maybe people assume because he can write 300 acid house tracks that he could do 300 Avril 14ths if he really wanted to. idk part of me thinks RDJ is embarrassed to admit how hard he works on some of this stuff.

I like this a lot. Something like Flim too, I love the original but the Bad Plus version really made me appreciate the writing, you can't just toss something like that off (or maybe you can once in a great while, but it's an inspired moment).

xp Well, it was the former until you just mentioned it.

Does 'Kladfvgbung Mischk', one of the percussive ambient tracks on Druqks, sound like Sonic Youth's 'Bull In The Heather' to anyone else?

there's maybe something to be said about the IDM crew being careful to write tracks that were *too* pretty, lest they start coming off like Jean-Michel Jarre or something. so the pretty stuff they do release has to be absolutely perfect.

xp haha, I don’t know it by title but I know exactly the track you mean from that description.

I just listened to my "Druqks: Chillers" playlist (all the ambient and piano non-dance tracks) and I maintain it is much easier to listen to like this. A nice highlight was Kesson Dalek, this great little Gothic piano mini-symphony

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5T1VrMYGtIzkbGswl4KZFA?si=e511f8b4d2904280

One of the things about Druqks that I'm not keen on is hearing all the ravey dance tracks broken up by these ambient pieces. Some might hear these wild changes in mood as pallet-cleansing. To me it's an unnecessary momentum killer. I'm rarely in the mood for listening to full-throttle drill'n'bass mayhem AND Satie-esque piano moods at the same time

Similarly, lumping all the bangers together makes for a really coherent and thrilling dance album https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ottxyuqVttiufuAQvygva?si=f240593f2a9e4b47