Aphex Twin classic or Dud?

yeah, I don't know about "return to form" but overall I think the analord stuff is probably his best work. It just takes some time to work your way through it.

not really, but i was let down by druqks and then with smojface it was like "i don't want this"

analords series is a joy. as the years go on i keep finding myself liking things by richard that i'd previously dismissed. saying that feel like the stars in the correct alignment for a new record this year :-p

I always assumed the Analord stuff was about buttlove, which tbh scared me away.

http://youtu.be/z72ie2nCxb4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycbIvd80NAI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0YyBp8ZyeE

He's inconsistent but Windowlicker alone is enough to call him classic.

in related news (not an April Fools' joke afaict):

http://pitchfork.com/news/54714-aphex-twin-unreleased-album-caustic-window-to-be-sold-digitally-on-kickstarter-physically-on-ebay/

revive was a discogs listing of that record. Two separate sales makes me suspicious, though maybe Cylob has decided to cash his chips

ah I see, it's a kickstarter thing. all sounds a bit dodgy to me.

Okay, yeah I didn't mean to say ALL his work could use editing, but there's few records that don't: SAW 85-92, ICBYD, HAB, RDJ, and CTD. The rest, including nearly every EP, and even SAW II, I feel could use some quality control. These releases seem to put tracks on display that are either outright attempts to troll their audience by taking the piss, or a classic case of RDJ lacking any person in power with the ability to tell him "dude, wtf.. we can't release this." To be fair, most of those same releases also exhibit at least one absolute classic. However, it helps to be wildly popular amongst kleptomaniac music fans and to own your own record label to enable these traits. Fuck, I can't blame the bloke.. if I were him I'd totally release an album full of sampled toilet flushes and nothing else just to see how many copies it'd sell

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289889/intentional-fallacy

Of course I don't think he'd be considered the same way if he'd only ever released quality tunes. There was always a 'jellybean' effect to his output which meant you were forced to take the rough with the smooth and which in context made a track like Knieval parsable to the dedicated Aphex fan. My problem with Druqks was that it was more like a jar that promised 'every flavour' but was mostly made up of the same 2-3 flavours. I'll quite with the analogies now.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/watmmofficial/cat023-caustic-window-own-the-legendary-record-by?ref=card

caustic window kickstarter is blowin UP

Can you imagine what a complete collection of Boards of Canada's early Music70 LPs would fetch? Good lord

http://www.mixcloud.com/keyfumbler/

somebody culled a bunch of live sets.. some dope, Tuss-y workouts in the Metz and Minehead sets, makes one wish he'd release the newer stuff, as it's ultra high quality. see: "the metz track"

Metz, Paris is great but the key takeaway for me on that page is that Aphex has been playing a bunch of live shows over the last ten years and I've wasted my life.

after this thread was revived i spotted the double vinyl SAWII set on brown vinyl sitting unloved in a local shop.

however, seller wanted £95 for it.

i aint that keen.

the vinyls sounds like crap anyway.

I have the brown vinyl and can confirm it sounds crap. I always liked to try and convince myself that Aphex had intended it to be a dodgy pressing to add an extra layer of "ambient noise" and that it was, of course, far superior to the CD version...
...it's not, it's just a dodgy pressing.

Why is it that a lot of people who don't like dance music like Aphex Twin

If I tell someone who's into rock music that I like house and techno they'll quite often say 'oh I like Aphex Twin'

Probably because his brand of conceptualism goes against what is considered to be the norm in 'proper' house and techno. Also because his historic pranks, interviews and the way he markets himself are more in line with rock/pop traditions of identity whereas house and techno often strives to erase the author and let the music speak for itself without attachment to a personality.

idk I don't like house or techno but I like Aphex (and others) because they don't just go UNTS UNTS UNTS UNTS for ten minutes

so you haven't actually heard any house or techno, got it.

I don't think most people think of Aphex Twin's music as dance music so I don't know why it would be weird to not like dance music but to like Aphex Twin

maybe not! but I will never let reality get in the way of dismissing entire sub-genres for arbitrary and/or inaccurate reasons

it's 2014, are these the best trolls we cd get?

what if they went ULTROS ULTROS ULTROS ULTROS for ten minutes

'Aphex Twin's Historic Pranks' would be a good intermittent Viz strip along the lines of Elton John's series of smalltime scams

Why is it that a lot of people who don't like dance music like Aphex Twin

Because Radiohead and Kanye.

Seriously, though, I was playing "Drukqs" a year or so ago, and someone I was with perked up at "Avril 14th" and recognized it as the song Kanye sampled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9GfEAaQUR4

Aphex Twins lustige Streiche

I like the UNTS UNTS UNTS UNTS type of dance music, and I don't like Aphex (except for some early tracks, when he was still making UNTS UNTS UNTS UNTS music), so I guess there's truth to this.

smelly unts

I misread that as "UNITS UNITS UNITS UNITS" and I thought, man, songs that are nothing but units, units, units, units are pretty much my favourite thing in the world, whether it's techno or dronerock or what.

Unts Unts Unts <---- going to use that for a song title

Because Radiohead and Kanye.

Seriously, though, I was playing "Drukqs" a year or so ago, and someone I was with perked up at "Avril 14th" and recognized it as the song Kanye sampled.

It was the case before Kid A or Drukqs though. His stuff often obeys some of the 'rules' of rock and works in a non club/dance context. This album cover explains it pretty well, really.

http://media.warp.net/images/WARPCD6.jpg

Also I don't think having an aversion to UNTS UNTS UNTS UNTS is necessarily a rockist or luddite reaction. It's more like the guy who asked What's with that constant cymbal tapping in jazz drumming?. I can see where he's coming from sometimes - a few times I've been in Germany or Holland and the constant immersion in (usually pretty lousy) techno can start to grate.

Unts Unts Unts <---- going to use that for a song title

check the b-side on this 1998 single

BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and BOOTS and CATS and

Also I don't think having an aversion to UNTS UNTS UNTS UNTS is necessarily a rockist or luddite reaction.

it's not even a reaction worth considering. "reaction" implies familiarity. it's tantamount to saying "i hate japanese films because they're all about samurai"

it's maybe surprising that ppl still lump house and techno together under the banner of "dumb dance music" using some spurious hierarchization of "depth" in music. it also has frankly homophobic undertones to me (house arose out of gay post-disco subculture, gay culture is vapid, consumerist, etc.)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a6/Sprad/XTAL_zpsdb12d2cc.jpg

xtal

i was just listening to delphium and thinking how great it would sound mixed into quadrant dub

"Crazy weekend. Need to put on something old and comforting."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGEQ9Hjr4c0

mostly just a lol old moment, that album will be able to vote come november

i always thought it was unce unce unce rather than unts tbh

i listened to the richard d james album just a couple of weeks ago and it sounded better than ever imo

that album will be able to vote come november

oof

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk7Q7nYJpS8

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL05YPqhPmTtJUC0AWZAOJrhWJrjlCH11q