I LOVE DRUKQS+

xp and most of it is good-to-great, it's insane

Yeah holy shit I was unaware of the last 18 tracks, all uploaded in the last 7 years. A few at least exceed a good majority of his released tracks during the same period, honestly, like Love 7. Why wasn't this on Collapse? blargh.

Many of the classics were cleaned up and mastered to be tacked on as bonus tracks for a number of his albums too.

Jah bless archive dot org

https://archive.org/details/aphex_twin_user18081971_soundcloud

(they also have several complete analord downloads)

listened to this in the day and now Confield at night. wow, can't believe both of these albums were seen as disappointments. the world was not ready

Confield is easily one of my most disliked albums ever, terrible sonics and no material to justify it. When I’m dead and in hell I’m sure Pen Expers will be on loop

“lentic catachresis” tho! exquisite.

i like confield a lot myself. kinda like the ae boys playing catch-up with mego digital noise of that era but not quite losing what made them autechre in the process.

is it better than “interesting” tho? still not quite sure! guess i’ll play it yet again…

I think it's great. I was actually surprised how listenable it was, despite what I'd read in the reviews. The only moments that are really overwhelming are Bine and the end of Lentic Catachresis, though I love the latter because it's such an aural rollercoaster. There's even that moment where like, you stop rising, you speed up a bit, you see the cliff over the horizon and know you're going over very soon...it nails that feeling

totally understandable why someone wouldn't like it though, I guess "head in a pinball machine" isn't all that enjoyable for some people

to me it feels a lot like a real noise record with a pretty major profile, which is cool. but of course… not for everybody. i myself like noise and find it very listenable (sometimes, when it’s done right). but i mean that it’s a “real noise” record as opposed to afx stuff that uses noise more like nine inch nails or a hardcore band like botch might. hits different but both approaches are valid. confield is more like what you get when you already loved roland kayn records also start to love kevin drum’s mego stuff (im guessing). it’s electronic music with very few concessions for people that don’t already find electronic music of this style to be perfectly listenable music. which is cool but… not for everybody.

I just realized this thread isn't about black metal band Drudkh. Maybe I should listen to Aphex Twin and post in the "listen to an album... and tell us about it" thread

There are so many odd choices on Confield that if they'd not made them I'd probably enjoy it a lot more. Some sounds are so overwhelmingly loud in the mix, if they'd been toned down just a tiny bit it would have made a big difference to my enjoyment

<3 confield, the most synaesthetic album ever, incredible sounds, no aural fatigue like i get with exai.

but this is an aphex thread. i've been working my way through the analords (thanks fgti), slowly because i'm suddenly in loads of all day meetings for the first time in my career. i'm digging the faster acid breakbeat workouts, most of the rest of it i could take or leave - i was never that crazy about saw 85-92 though.

Maybe I should listen to Aphex Twin and post in the "listen to an album... and tell us about it" thread

i recommend the Richard D James album, mostly cuz it's the shortest and arguably the weirdest.

and it has his best track on

For a long time RDJ was his agreed on high point album, now it feels underrated.

I at least had never heard that kind of crazy shit sounding so warm and organic and cozy, it's like a drill n bass wool sweater.

I have never thought about the connection between the word "sweater" and "sweat" before. (And that's why I think Finnegans Wake is bullshit)

Today's Aphex spot for me was that his mum is saying "Blackcurrant drink" on "Taking Control" and his wife (although not at the time of Taking Control) is called Ms Rybina.

I know this sort of dumb shit gets said a lot but hearing the RDJ Album for the first time was a lifechanging experience, like it completely changed how I thought about music for some time, I was almost unable to sleep that night because it kinda freaked me out. but I was 18 at the time (and it was like a decade old by that point, lol), it doesn't really do that for me now

Yeah I agree that RDJ is the one to start with for the 'later' (i.e. not the ambient stuff) Aphex vibe. It was a weird experience for me too, but for different reasons—it made me realise that I wasn't actually an Aphex Twin fan, even if I thought I was... I had bought all his (main) stuff when it came out, and I liked it... Well, I liked some of it. When RDJ came out, I thought 'this sounds interesting', but wasn't really in the mood, so I stuck it on this pile of CDs I had, which was essentially a 'must listen more to' pile.

Anyway, this was in 1996, and in 2005 I was going out to meet a friend half way across town, so I wanted to listen to something and realised that this album had been sitting in the 'must listen to more' pile for NINE YEARS (across multiple flat moves), so I stuck it in the walkman and I guess because I was in the mood it blew my mind, sounding like the most modern thing, but also with these weird folk influences (not so much folk music). It's also so easily digestible, because it's quite short—you don't feel overwhelmed like clearly a lot of people (possibly everyone) did with Drukqs. It was at that point I actually think I became an actual Aphex fan, and this ultimately led me back to the likes of Drukqs and others, all of which I had bought, but really hadn't properly processed—it was RDJ that was the route into the rest of them for me.

Oh and to frogbs' point, actually I tend to think the same, that it's not going to 'do it for me' now, but weirdly every time I do stick it on, actually it does wind up doing it for me.

SAW II was the life-changing one for me. purchased cold in early high school days with no real reference for ambient or dance music of any kind yet, really. took a bit of work to adjust but it opened up some strange and wonderful new worlds. still think it's pretty special today.

The RDJ album is probably the record of his that grabbed me the most (and got played the most). It’s only been in the streaming era that I heard SAW I and II and started to get to know a lot of the later stuff.

And now I’m playing it again 😉

Yeah I put it on earlier and it stayed on all the way through... I should say I'm talking about the UK version of it—the US version I believe has the Girl/Boy EP tacked on the end of it, and whilst it has its funny moments, I don't really rate that anywhere near as much as the UK LP, which is just the first ten tracks.

Although tbf, I do like calling a track INKEY$, which was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum BASIC instruction to ask the terminal to wait for a keypress and record it in a variable.

As is PEEK 824545201, which is an instruction to look at the memory location 824545201 and return what byte is in it; however, that's far too big of a number for the computers of those days, so I would say he's just making shit up here.

cannot imagine RDJ without "Milkman"

Well yes, it is a standout track in a kind of a way, but not in a way that makes me want to listen to it lots.

I like that it exists.

In retrospect some of the reactions to Girl/Boy Song were insane - "it's the ultimate fusion of classical and electronic music" etc - great track though.

IIRC he went to a lot of trouble to record all the instrument samples for it himself. I wonder if they pop up on other tracks.

Yeah I wonder... Mind you, he seems almost bloody-minded in 'resetting' his creative approach, so possibly not. I just read that Kate Bush's Experiment IV is sampled on "4"—WTF? Is it? I'm not sure outside of Willy Wonka, I've EVER recognised a sample in his stuff.

You mean you weren't intimately familiar with the cinematic work containing the "Fantasia, having a party is not my idea of a fantasy..." dialogue? (j/k)

Having been an Aphex admirer since purchasing the Analogue Bubblebath 12", I have to say that my enthusiasm was somewhat lessened by hearing "Milkman". I really can't be doing with that kind of puerile guff. In fact, I found the whole "Girl/Boy" E.P. to be a complete letdown. Happily, I was blown away all over again the following year by "Come to Daddy".

Yes, as many have pointed out, the kind of studenty humour can be a bit of a put off. I forgive it, given the profound brilliance of lots of it though. And yeah I agree about Girl/Boy—one of the weakest of that period.

As much as I liked the RDJ Album (US edition), Come to Daddy was almost surely the one I ended up listening to more.

You mean you weren't intimately familiar with the cinematic work containing the "Fantasia, having a party is not my idea of a fantasy..." dialogue? (j/k)

Actually no, is it a grumbleflick or something? TBH, I don't listen to that album much... Lots of people love it, and I actually listened to it yesterday for the first time in a long time—there are some great moments, but I find it a bit of a stepping stone... The abrasive bits are just too abrasive; he hasn't quite yet worked out compelling percussion; too much in the way of 'classical' pretence, but as I say, lots of people love it, and I do think it contains some great moments; I also suspect it was a necessary step.

I do love it, it's my favorite – but it's also the first one of his that I heard/got into (and I think it often works out that way...)

Here's the (sfw) sample source for the dialogue.

Hehe, right.

Listening to RDJ Album now; it's so warm and inviting, more than I even remembered. "To Cure..." / "Goon Gumpas" is such a terrific pair.

Yes, it isn't a difficult listen. I listened to it twice tonight given the chat, and am still amazed how great it is.

Here is Goon Gumpas in Cornwall:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Goon_Gumpas_from_Wheal_Maid_DSC_2951.jpg

UK version feels incomplete to me, ending on "Logan Rock Witch"... had to search for the EP to complete the trip I'm used to.

I guess it's what you're used to.

I used to consider I Care Because You Do as AFX's zenith, but now feel it's the RDJ/Come To Daddy/Windowlicker records, which all feel "of a piece" to me.

xp from Confield discussion above - 100% OTM with the "we weren't ready for it yet" sentiments lol. It's extremely musical when compared to say Untilted, and so infinitely less weird and self indulgent than 1/3 of NTS or Elseq.

the first three tracks of ICBYD are definitely a zenith of some kind

^^word

yes yes yes

Having been an Aphex admirer since purchasing the _Analogue Bubblebath_ 12", I have to say that my enthusiasm was somewhat lessened by hearing "Milkman". I really can't be doing with that kind of puerile guff.

While there’s obviously something, I dunno, Ween-coded about “Milk Man,” the song is such a banger… those beats skittering on top of the melodic swells; synths chiming out that simple little melody; and those goofy, charming bass drops… There is obviously a very specific sort of take-the-piss artistic intent behind – “I’m gonna make these lyrics as dumb as possible” – but damn if it doesn’t work!

(for me, anyway)

Ween has a lot of Aphex-coded tracks too so I'd say the feeling was mutual