Aphex Twin Richard Robinson on Selected Ambient Works 85-92

[ZoeB]

If I remember correctly (which is a loaded statement at my age), it was Mike P and I think he said this was around 1988ish, and I think was prompted by me asking if Richard really was making stuff as far back as 1985 (which he really was!)

 

I think Mike P even still has some of these cassettes...

 

Cool, thanks! If I remember correctly, wasn't he the one who pointed out how Aphex Twin's mystery box in that Aphex Effect interview was fake? So him vouching for the other thing he said in that interview seems to have a bit more weight to it, if he's happy to call out that other bit.

 

Damn you lot, fuggin' my b'liefs up'n'down'n in'n'out!

[Joyrex]

I don't recall Mike P pointing that out - then again, the early 00's are a blur sometimes!

[Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin]

i saw two AB1 and 1 AB2 - i saw DIGERIDOO and Xylem Tube...

and yeah right i saw SAW1

i also saw (quoth) & saw QQT & TTQ...

 

& it's all i can see...

[marf]

i think my favorite aphex music is the totally alien stuff that doesn't sound derivative of some techno scene. point being, id love to hear the early early stuff

[donquixote]

 

Surfing To Sine Waves recorded between '86 and '89? Where'd you get that from? I have a hard time finding evidence for that (and SAW 85-92). Starting from '89 I'd believe, but before that? Nah...

 

The press release.  It's pretty consistent with the other tracks we know the years to.  For example, the older tracks from ...I Care Because You Do sounds structurally quite similar, whereas, say, 1994's Alberto Balsalm actually has different sections, something he hadn't started experimenting with (to my knowledge) until about then.  He also uses different sections in Melodies From Mars and Hangable Auto Bulb.  He doesn't in Surfing On Sine Waves.  You can also tell he's using pretty limited equipment to good effect in Surfing On Sine Waves, such as the pitched sample of a TR-808 rimshot in If It Really Is Me, presumably because he didn't have access to the real thing.  (Although even if he did, sampling it and manipulating the sample later can still be a good idea.)  Anyway, you can sort of stitch together a rough chronology like that by working out when he learns new skills and gets new equipment.

 

On those tapes in the OP? Can't read them, except for the known titles.

 

Yeah, they're really hard to make out.  There's something that looks like Quarm (an early title for Quoth?), and Tapney or Tapwey, which I'm guessing is Tamphex.  It's curious to see the (de)evolutions of his distortions.  See also Isopropanol into Isoprophlex and Quintute into Quixote.  Quarm appears to have been offered as a Digeridoo B-side, at any rate.

 

 

 

Anyone got a copy of this press release please?

[ZoeB]

 

 

I swear that first one looks like it was written on a Philips VideoWriter...

[donquixote]

ahh thats fab. cheers :)

[Joyrex]

Ah, the origin of the old "spilled the orange juice on the masters" fable!

 

1986 would have put Richard at around 15... but didn't he say in an interview/article he saved up for his first synth/piece of gear at around 17? (I might and probably are mis-remembering that)

 

Either way, amazing that someone so young with relatively few resources can make music like that.

[donquixote]

Yeah I don't take hardly any of it seriously. Still love reading it all though and his tales of teenage music making inspired a 13 year old me to start buying synths so I (and/or the synth industry) owe him a lot.

 

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[donquixote]

Noticed his age was well off in the AI1 compilation interview the other day which again would have been one of my first contacts with his music and heavily inspired me. now think that was another *fable*

 

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