Aphex Twin classic or Dud?

:P

i know, i know

just making a point about trolling vs dissent

people are fucking morons especially people who like this trash band recent aphex better than jlin big & rich

in fact on the jlin thread i believe i made the argument that the only person even operating at her level is afx

Would pay crut to be my editor tbh

I’m cool with jlin if I got migraine pills handy

At least oval had sympathy for my broken discman

aw, i like black origami

recent aphex is better than autechre tho

I like kyanite a lot

Just like having fun cheers

Which way Dave

recent aphex is better than autechre tho

slam the brakes buddy

Feels like a road runner cartoon

lol so many twists and turns on opinions dr

ZANY APHEX = NO THANK U

I like Jlin, and I'm glad Aphex Twin is learning something from her.

at least they are not Sophie.

I liked Cheetah better but this pretty good, especially “1st 44”

Jed - what’s that mean about Sophie??

RDJ supposedly used an Elektron RYTM for parts of these tracks. You can sort of recognize its 'character' in the title track, but it's not so easy to identify. the RYTM is an eight-voice, analog drum synthesizer that also plays samples. There's a Pitchfork interview with James (and his wife?) from around the time Syro came out, and they mention the drum machine a few times (a gift from Elektron?) - it's a mk1 version of the RYTM, where you have to load samples using a computer. The MKII version (with improved functionality, display, size, appearance, etc.) came out just last year, and it's a sampler in the sense that you can just plug something into its input(s) and record (anything, using a 3.5 mm / 1/4" cable) directly. You can combine those samples with the sounds of the drum machine in a variety of ways. If you're at all familiar with Elektron step sequencers you'll know that using them can take a lot of preparation and forethought... volume/filter/envelope/effects parameters, sounds, sound behavior, their frequency of occurrence, logic conditions, etc. - it's all highly programmable / malleable, to a maddening extent. The workflow of the Elektron sequencer is not at all intuitive until you understand how it works. And then there are the pads of the RYTM, which add a whole 'nother level of control. The Texas band xuiqen uses Elektron machines, and their music (on the album moiré is the next best thing to Autechre (similar to Ae). I keep reading that Autechre used Elektron machines on both Untilted and Quaristice.. most likely the Machinedrum and the MonoMachine, both of which are badass / legendary synthesizers already. They're really expensive. Getting carried away with trivia, apologies. Been listening to the Collapse CD on the stereo this evening, and it is indeed FUN :)

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWyVwR_MH1V2Rzo3wisFRgNw9lmVeZi1Z (btw)

Poll: Lets Go Deep vs Stone In Focus

It kinda sounds like two disparate tracks playing simultaneously..

i don't know if it's because Stone in Focus is so well-burned 'in' after all these years, but it doesn't seem to match up very well, as it doesn't 'reset' on same the bar / count, so as to lock in with the other track better.

really like the new EP, I don't see it as him imitating himself (wtf does that mean?) as approaching a sort of classicism of the kind of techno he makes. I'm not a gearhead, I couldn't pretend to fully understand his process but I hear the material being mostly gestated out of the "character" of the gear he uses (and kind of what he's always done). I don't even know what "innovation" would look like for afx because he's always just made the music he wanted to hear himself.

but what if the music he wants to make for himself is boring

It kinda sounds like two disparate tracks playing simultaneously..

― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n),

It is! Just two records hanging out on the decks

but what if the music he wants to make for himself is boring

― the late great, Sunday, October 7, 2018 1:42 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

holy shit man do you have an axe to grind. boring to you maybe lol

boring to me for sure

this is what we do on i love music, talk about music we don’t like

yeah all good man, tbh i would rather listen to other records but i did like this one (and found most of the last haul of afx pretty dire)

saw two different versions of the LP yesterday at the record store, one with the regular cover and one with a silver cover, "first edition" or something. I didn't buy it, did I fuck up? they were the same price iirc

I have the silver cover. I prefer the regular cover.

ep's not the greatest, but track 3 slams...

it's not boring to me; i find a lot to like about it. what isn't boring to you, by comparison?

It's good not great. It's far from a classic like, say, Windowlicker was as a single/EP, but the tracks are all quite memorable, save for the last one on the digital release.

It sounds like an evolution from Syro, but it's clear his days of wildly changing up his sounds on each track while still expressing his classic silliness and trollish personality are over and have been since 1998. It's not like he turned in utter trash like other artist comebacks (*cough* Pixies *cough*) but it's been 20 years now since he's released something that gave me the feels of nearly all his classics up to and including Windowlicker. Wish he'd developed his sound more over the years and kept using laptops. His move to go back to all analog gear pulled back the complexity of his sonic palette. And not for the better.

Drukqs is his New Jersey.

^^good post/summary, IMO

20 years now

the Flow Coma remix was released in 2001

i too wish he'd go back to digital, release some sonically new and wild stuff etc. he's going the other way, endgame for him is making insanely detailed weird little Cornish jewelboxes with no right angles and absolute freedom of line

the most frustrating thing for me about recent afx is that he can do a track like XMAS on Syro, with those gorgeous pads that briefly enter and then fuck around for the rest of it..his music is challenging at times for me as a listener, not that it is inaccessible but that it feels like a constant give and take now. Mind you the new EP is great

It seems like people who cherish 90s Aphex Twin will almost certainly be disappointed by anything he's released after Windowlicker? Hard to say. I had heard bits and pieces of SAW vol. 2, then came aboard with Drukqs (because of the disklavier tracks) ... it took me a while to warm to the more aggressive "drill n bass" stuff, but by the time The Tuss eps came around (2006?) I was fully on board, anticipating new releases, etc. Drukqs is certainly a high water mark, imo. The new ep is excellent.

The Metz track (XMAS_EVET10) started circulating around 2010, a crappy audience recording, with room sounds (audience chatter, reverb etc.) - it sounds 'heavier' somehow. Those elements that corrupt the signal/recording sort of enhance the quality of the track. It's the same effect with Minipops--the original "Manchester track" started circulating on YouTube during the lat 00s, and it seemed to have more depth / dimensions to it. The album versions, while they're great, sound sterile in comparison. Syro is an inconsistent, "grab bag" of tracks. It's still mostly good to great, though

It is! Just two records hanging out on the decks

― saer
all i meant was that it didn't sound so successful as other blends / mixes / mash-ups that i've heard. like, it doesn't exceed the sum of its parts...but whatever floats your boat!

one of my fav mixes, this has some nice blends going on during the last quarter. it's a great mix all around

y'all are listening on speakers and not headphones right?

It seems like people who cherish 90s Aphex Twin will almost certainly be disappointed by anything he's released after Windowlicker? Hard to say. I had heard bits and pieces of SAW vol. 2, then came aboard with Drukqs (because of the disklavier tracks) ... it took me a while to warm to the more aggressive "drill n bass" stuff, but by the time The Tuss eps came around (2006?) I was fully on board, anticipating new releases, etc. Drukqs is certainly a high water mark, imo. The new ep is excellent.

― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n)

Yeah but here's the thing - Hangable Autobulb, RDJ album, Girl/Boy EP, Come to Daddy and to a lesser extent, Windowlicker, are all drill'n'bass in their editing, production style, tempo and energy. Yet there's also other beat styles mixed in. The timbre of the instruments, especially the drums, varies widely. Experiments galore abound (Bouncing Bucephalis Ball, Hangable Auto Bulb, Peek 824545201). Melodies are either synths or classical instrumentation (something I realized I miss a lot from RDJ, pizzicatos and orchestral swells!). Remember when RDJ actually had vocals on a couple tracks? Go back and listen to the RDJ album.. it's mindblowing the variety of everything on those records. BPM,

But then Drukqs comes along and every song sounds like variations on two sonic palettes: Satie-like prepared piano vignettes and squelchy 303 acid lines layered on top of the same acoustic breakbeats. At the time, when it came out, I felt it was phoned in and disappointing. It was the first time an AFX album gave me that feeling since I had begun following him. While the editing and complexity of the compositions is staggering (as is the quantity) it felt like he had stopped "experimenting" and had fallen into a sonic groove. This is a groove he hasn't truly jumped out of. Only Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt. 2 and the aforementioned Flow Coma above have done anything to make me feel the old Aphex is still there. A few tracks on Syro are amazing, and the new EP is solid, but none of this is brilliant, never before heard insanity that his late 90's run of records produced.

Don't get me wrong, though - I'm super happy he's releasing music and I hold out hope he's got some next level shit still coming. SAW III could be aces. Maybe he'll return to laptop production, more sample focused compositions, and light the world up with a track that samples giraffe mating calls over drill'n'bass beats constructed from meticulously recorded sounds of bubbles popping - who knows. Maybe he'll record a track with vocals again?

Where's the "I would like some milk from the milkman's wife's tits" Aphex? Where's the Flim Aphex? Where's the "dirty little boy" Aphex? That's the Richard I miss.

little lord faulteroy mix is my favorite RDJ track and it's not even close

tuss is great tho, it still has awesome melodies, classic afx imo

I felt exactly the same as you about drukqs but I listened to it with a fresh set of ears a couple years back and suddenly thought it was amazing.

If you don't think Fredugolon 6 (from Confederation Trough) has a sense of humor / overt playfulness then I don't know what else to say. The dude is like 45, and it sounds like he's having a ball.

That Tuss track may be "playful," but it's sure dull

whatever, man. one person's dull is another's "banger". Fredugolon 6 is all-time