New Aphex Twin!

true, true..(xpost)

Obviously, I find this a really, really intriguing issue and would love to expand on it...

(I mean, not just the whole phenomenon of fanboyism, but also whether or not Aphex fanboys are in particular worse - or if it's just my experience of the kind of cultish fan who is still obsessed enough to, you know, still participate in internet communities dedicated to an artist 5 years after the artist's last "proper" release - though that said, they were just as annoying when he was still fairly active.)

BUT. I try really really hard not to let an artist's fanbase get in the way of the experience of their music.

I keep hoping that this kind of flurry of activity over the past year does mean that some kind of new release is imminent. But perhaps he's just playing/DJ-ing so many gigs because these days it's far more lucrative for him to do a live appearance (even if that means just MP3-J-ing teaser tracks) and get a massive fee each time than to put out an album.

I mean, to me, as much as enjoy Analords, it is essentially just the sound of an artist amusing himself rather than any sense of "this is an important statement body of work." I get the feeling that it's like looking through his sketchbooks rather than viewing a finished painting. (Or maybe just listening to a dude have a wank in semi-public if I can say that without setting off the irate phanboys above.)

But, carrying on from that other thread, after the response to Druqks, he's done with Statement Bodies Of Work and we won't ever get another. Or even if we do - a la The Tuss - we won't ever get an admission that it really is him.

Fucker. I kinda hate him as much as I love him. OH NOES I'M TURNING INTO AN UNSOCIALISED NERD WITH ENTITLEMENT ISSUES ABOUT MY FAVOURITE ARTISTS.

Yeah I've come to really really hate fan-ism but that's probably me being a boring superior middle-aged git and it hardly ever affects my liking for an artist.

Hey, it would be completely hypocritical for me to hate on fan-ism (given that I am actually a member of said kinds of forums and obviously indulge in spots of that kind of thinking.)

But what I *don't* think (which many Phanboys do seem to) is that my Aphex fandom makes me in any way superior to other people.

And what I really REALLY hate is the gendered (and also vaguely homophobic) approach to fandom that privileges one kind of fandom over another. i.e. that there *is* something inherently projection-y and quite romantic about this "OMG, no one understands me like my fave artist, therefore no one understands my fave artist like *I* do, ooh, quasi-romantic entitlement entitlement..." (as Mark G describes above.) But there's this kind of weird kneejerk "NO HOMO!" that kicks in (even though there is something *incredibly* homoerotic about this kind of fandom experience.) And that expresses itself in this utter LOATHING of fangirls when they are free to express *their* quasi-romantic feelings about the fan-object-idol in straightforward sexual terms because that highlights the supressed sexual nature of their identification in a way that makes them really, really uncomfortable.

Perhaps it's more extreme with Aphex phanboys because RDJ makes a habit of constantly rubbing their faces in it. He has quite a history of female-identification (can't remember the exact interview, but he's talked about expressing these aspects of himself in boy-songs and girl-songs - c.f. GirlBoy Song) even going so far as to project his own face onto female bodies, thus objectifying himself as part of the Image process. It's just such an interesting aspect of his work (where's Karen Tregaskin when you need him?) but it so rarely gets discussed in those terms and I've found that the fans get really really upset if you even try. (Even though I'm quite sure they've ALL wanked to the Windowlicker cover.)

in a way the analord series was quite ahead of the game in that the idea of rejecting digital excess in favour of vintage electronics and old fashioned recording techniques is all the rage now in dance music

barring a few exceptions i'm of the opinion that everything after donkey rhubard is some of the most overrated music ever -- all the shitty laptop music he made before the analord stuff seems to me way more overindulgent than a dude digging out his old 303 and just plugging in

Why do you think that r1o?

Wow, I so don't agree.

Donkey Rhubarb as cutoff point? Really? I mean, not least because "Richard D. James" is probably my favourite of the non-SAW albums. It just seems willfully narrow to draw the line there. I can understand how much of the rest of the genre probably went too far, but Aphex's stuff of 95-96-97 is still some of the most playful and inventive music - not just that he's done, but ever. There is a sense of "how far can we push this...?" in some of Drukqs but as far as I'm concerned he never quite loses a) his beautiful quirky sense of melody or b) his fluid rhythmic technique. Like, even at his most cerebral and skittering drill n bass moments there's a really appealing basic sense of musicality to it. It works on a pop level as well as experimental for the hell of it.

I mean, even on something as outright silly as Come To Daddy there'll be a B-side like Bucephalus Bouncing Ball which is both intricate and plainly beautiful.

in a way the analord series was quite ahead of the game in that the idea of rejecting digital excess in favour of vintage electronics and old fashioned recording techniques is all the rage now in dance music

I agree with this up to a point although (a) it seems he was actually behind the game wrt to his lil circle of producer pals ie Cylob/Mike Dred/those other old skool Rephlex dudes and (b) digital excess of the fidget/Frankenstein house type is just as much "all the rage" now even if ILM doesn't fuck with it much

I love Aphex Twin. He writes banging house tunes. I own pretty much everything he's ever done under all psuedonyms but I've been told by many people for the best part of two decades that I don't share their nuanced and cerebral understanding of the true phanboy. Usually by pasty, white spods who have a principled 'reason' for why they don't dance.

Current top three: Ptolemy, Metapharstic, Flow Coma (remix) by AFX

I wish he'd done more songs in his 'pop' period but only because I get a bit fed up of hearing Windowlicker at gigs and clubs, when the DJ could be dropping something that's easier to dance to.

(also 'Come To Daddy' is prob a relevant building block in at least the more obnoxious dayglo end of the fidget house thing, I'd say)

xp

Analogue revival is as much a fad as anything else, really.

It's not like producers en masse are dumping their DAWs or anything.

x-post yeah, I do not understand why DJs insist on playing only Windowlicker. Yeah, tis' a great tune, and instantly recognisable but it's not exactly danceable.

it's plenty danceable imo. there's a more straight-ahead remix of it by trentemoller which sort of sucks iirc.

It's way slow, though.

The "Original Demo" version is fairly straightforward/uncomplex, rhythmiacally.

I remember playing the Video on the PC, with Amber (14 months) on my knee. She thought it very funny.

It's way slow, though.

um, no?

i'm coming from a perspective where anything between 100 and 130bpm is optimum dancing tempo.

and nothing higher than 140bpm or so unless it's happy hardcore.

which is really more a music to stab to than to dance to.

I don't actually know what the BPM of Windowlicker is, but the past few times I've heard it out, it just seemed to drag.

(But I'm kind of influenced by pop & bubblegum to think of anything under about 120 as being "slow")

come on you slags, let's have your top threes.

Wrong thread. Is there an Aphex POX or POV?

or POIII

windowlicker i'm guessing is about 117bpm, which is quite a weird tempo for dance music - not slow or fast.

Aphex Twin - POIII (Pick Only Three)

DO YR WORST

Survey says.... 122 (but the tempo actually shifts during the course of the song.

has there been any other discussion/writing about the gender stuff? i didn't really get that aspect of his music until revisiting it more recently, though i think i've always had a sense that there's more noticeable "feminine" character to a lot of his tracks. scare quotes bc i don't really know how to explain that further. something there that stands out in the hetero-nerd world of IDM anyway. and then there's the donkey rhubarb video...

it was hard, but i gave up on expecting him to keep building his Important Body of Work. obv hope he surprises us again someday, but it was getting in the way of really digging his post-drukqs output, much of which is still great for the sense of melody and rhythm masonic boom talked about. would LOVE him to try something dancier again. i was suprised how well digeridoo worked in shed's fact mix a few months ago.

As far as I know, only by me, and I pick up about 6 SB's every time I mention gender on ILM. :-/

I, too, would love to read critical discussion of "gender" (don't know why I'm putting that word in scare quotes given that gender is a construct to start with) in the work of Aphex Twin but I have been searching for years and never found it, except danced around in the vaguest of terms in that interview I referenced above and in that case, I think that he brought it up.

footage from recent london gig, complete with face mapping video thing

http://gizmodo.com/5627209/confused-ravers-terrorised-by-aphex-twins-face-mapping-demonstration

wait wait wait i thought he was doing a rap collab with...who?

That Aphex Twin face mapping software turns up again in 'new tune' by RDJ.

A new 75 second trailer appears to be for promoting the Bloc Weekender in Minehead next year but adds more jigsaw evidence to the theory that he'll be releasing an album next year.

Just ONE? Not this 6 he's supposedly been keeping from us for years?

Well, apparently it's not even by Aphex Twin but by dgoHn and was recorded in 2005.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/7721/afxanothermanoct10pg01.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/3040/afxanothermanoct10pg02.jpg

Mr. Richard D. James doesn't like Foetus, The Jesus & Mary Chain, most radioplay (and on that, Radiohead according to his wiki page), and only likes The Smiths because of nostalgia. Has anyone ever heard what exactly this guy likes besides himself?

He plays a lot of different stuff when he DJs.

curious - examples?

A lot of techno stuff. Only thing I can think of off the top of my head is Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Participation Mystique".

I think he likes Tangerine Dream, 808 State, can't remember what else... he likes his own music a lot apparently, that's his favorite music (if he isn't joking)

I think he also likes a lot of dubstep. I've heard he played Burial once when he dj'd, and another dubstep producer as well

I have very fond memories of Aphex incongruously dropping the Grandstand Theme in the middle of a predominantly drum'n'bass set at ATP a while back.

He has to like Squarepusher. He basically stole the whole guy's jig for the RJD Album.

I'm impressed with the wide range of subjects that you're abjectly rong about.

Drill & bass. He adopted it. There's not a lot of arguing to be done here.

Looking forward to this "RJD Album" - maybe that's one of the 6 unreleased albums, on which he finally buries the musical hatchet with Tom?

It's a new album where he travels back in time and nicks the idea for Drill and Bass off of Tom Jenkinson and then travels further back in time and makes an EP called Hangable Auto Bulb which magically uses Drill and Bass tracks 6 months before Squarepusher's released anything. Dead clever.

Also in this magical alternate universe Mike Paradinas doesn't exist and internet message board poster "kelpolaris" has 1 (one) fucking clue.

that interview is nice btw....he's a strnge mixture of new age serenity and mischievous humour

~strange~

Interview's a couple of months old isn't it? At least it's been floating around watmm & that othe afx board. One of those rare interviews you read and just think "what a lovely man." Unusually rare for him. Usually I get the impression that he got bored halfway through & just decided to fuX0r with the idiot interviewing him.

Doesn't seem strange at all to me. And I absolutely loved his definition of "weird."