Key

I wouldn't say I was a drummer but I used to have a kit which I tried to teach myself on, and which I used to record songs with. I wouldn't be good enough to play on whole set on drums but could muddle through something which sounded passable and edit around it later. I must say out of all the instruments I have played, drums is by far the most fun. More like a workout where you can switch your brain off and feel connected to the music. Theres something exhilarating and satisfying about nailing a tricky fill that you can't really get playing a synth or a guitar which are slighly more cerebral.

At Field Day last time I kinda regret not picking up the record but at the same time cannot imagine how it would possibly have survived intact after being in the pit crush for the full set. So it was probably for the best.

I think with streaming the line has become blurry - lots of albums now seem to be around the 20-25 minute mark which would seem mad in the cd era. Whereas some artists want to do long EPs in order to present the work as less of a statement I guess. I really like the newer Burial stuff but have to admit its not as exciting or envelope pushing as his 2 albums were, tho if he regressed and released a third album in that style now it would be a little stale and many people would cry foul so he can't really win.

Havent heard it myself for about 25 years but from what I remember yeah its pretty awful, kind of milquetoast Pixies/Throwing Muses knockoffs but trying to be more pop and mainstream. Creep or that song above are probably the best ones. There a few songs where Thom is trying to be all snotty like Johnny Rotten that are pretty cringey.

Sounds very much like he just cut and pasted the Beck vocal very sloppily over some Hangable Autobulb outtake. The way it drifts out of sync... I still have a laugh every time I hear it how lazy it is. I wonder if Warp themselves cut it from the 26 Mixes comp.

Cylob was chubby with an uncool haircut and wore shit glasses... story checks out.

Juxtaposition ?

I think its a slightly more low key lead-off single than Minipops or Collapse but still clearly top draw stuff that he has spent a bit of time over and is pretty well fleshed out in detail/production chops compared to some of the more obtuse head scratchy stuff he sometimes puts out. I am enjoying the slightly darker SAWII-esque tinge to the mood and am pretty psyched up for the full thing. That said if this one short EP is all we're getting before another 5~ years long hiatus, I might be a little bummed out, but I hope he's got at least another couple in the pipeline.

Joyrex said a few pages earlier the higher costs are likely due to the fancy origami-style packaging

This one features my favorite ever pad sound on an Aphex record, in the background during the verses - and it is from a wealth of choices. It's not markedly different from any number of other beautiful etherial pads he has created in his career but there is something about taking that sound out of the Aphex netherworld and into the context of vocal pop music which somehow enhances it's lushness.

As us oldheads know, he used to be a regular poster on here back in the day as Christpuncher and iirc was never far away from opprobrium and drama but it was a different place back then - full of madness. After he started to become more successful with his music he became something of a meme on here with people calling him a lame rip off merchant of AFX/Sp - basically what Im trying to say is theres no love lost between Benn Jordan and watmm.

https://www.merchbar.com/vinyl-records/kode9-burial-2089755/kode9-burial-infirmary-unknown-summer-vinyl-record https://www.roughtrade.com/us/product/kode9-burial/infirmary-unknown-summer Looks like this is possibly gonna be a split 12"

Yeah, this kind of circus always accompanies an Aphex release doesn't it? It can't be any worse than the stunned outrage when he was asking for 40 quid for Analord 10 + Binder and virtually everybody regrets not buying that now.

Tracks bloody great, a Meltphace6/Alspacka style thing with Rich's voice providing a lush ambient backing to lots of hectic break juggling, drums not as dry as normal either.

The dude who wrote it is real cause he was trying to drum up publicity for it on the aphex subreddit recently. He seemed like a smart kid for his age, but I think I'll give it a miss, if I want a load of half-baked opinions of AFX tunes I've got everything I want here on watmm ?

Those PBoD tracks are a real mixed bag, some are clearly are the unvarnished curios which basically show Richards progress in real time, with the fairly gauche use of samples/hooks. I would have sworn 2Tone and Sally Vingoe were more recent - to my ears they have the sophistication of something off of SAW1 or SoSW. Then there is other stuff where he seemingly accidentally hit paydirt early on experimenting- Windowpeeper or His Eyes would still sound great in his live sets now.

Seems surreal to note he was posting and reacting so recently, now he's gone - we always ended up in a lot of the same threads on here and we must've had a lot in common. He always seemed a positive and engaged guy I had no idea about his troubles, my thoughts go out to his family and the small comfort that he now knows peace. Goodbye MIXL2.

Vox have long been a part of Clark's arsenal, with Growl's Garden, Rainbow Voodoo, much of Iradelphic etc, theres even spoken word stuff on Body Riddle iirc. Sus Dog seems to come at it from a different angle - much more prestige, almost trying a Beach Boys type vibe (if I may steal ideas from the Guardian review). I have to give him props for holding his own against the likes of seasoned pros like Tchocky and Anika and he does largely pull it off, but its still a bit too coffee table for me, Clive - I want the dirty gritty club madness Clark back but thats just a personal preference. I def dont want the Watmm Pantheon to start doing song/lyric based compositions, its just not their strong suit, whenever they foray into stuff like that (Milkman, Shobaleader etc.) its always amongst their weaker material for me. AFX is a master at using vocal textures in a more abstract way (Windowlicker, Crying In Your Face, Minipops) He should not be getting his notepad and pen out and start writing from the heart, nor do I think he has any desire to do so, the cynical bastard.

I'm heartend to see the label continuing in a strong direction after Peter's death. Tujiko Noriko, who was the closest thing Mego had to a pop star put out a beautiful and effecting elegy/tribute album at the beginning of the year that I highly recommend. The Melvin Gibbs album was also a riveting work considering it seemed to mostly consist of nothing but manipulated tape hiss.

Interesting stuff, I am imagining some sort of mix too. Surely if they ever released a collab album it would come out on Hyperdub.

Ok i concede a little, maybe I haven't been listening as closely as you. My first impression on the album was that it sounded like a continuation on the Sarah Eat Neon EP that had lots of that loud distorted male voiceover, then I thought hmmm maybe its a bit darker than the other albums, but then I thought FFS theyre all bloody dark.

Chosen Lords was for all the butthurt whiners who didn't have a turntable.

I think it's a worthy addition to the discography. I think VHS Head is one of those artists who you can take any track and it would fit on any of their albums - he is stylistically and thematically consistent to a tee. I suppose your milage may vary on whether or not you get bored of it, but theres enough interesting melodies and rhythms buried in these tracks to keep me listening, personally. If your criticisms are that he is not developing his sound quickly enough, you must also remember this release was stuck in label limbo for a few years.

I mean, the clue is in the name. The whole concept was that it was 100% analogue, live, recorded to tape. There are photos on the artwork of analogue gear, references to them in the track titles. There is the distinct and unmistakable sound of spring and room reverb throughout(that would have been difficult to fake via vsts in the early 2000s.) There are alt. takes of tracks like Halibut Acid and Reunion2 which are clearly him improvising around similar structures with the hardware. Theres the stop-start sound of live gear being triggered on various tracks. Rich has gone on to use similar techniques with the Cirklon on later releases. Now I have never used Reason, but I can't imagine even Richard with all his pranking would go to these extreme lengths to try and fake all this stuff just to make it all on a computer. (Not that I even care how it was made, it's just great music.) What would be the point?

Using pitchfork's decimal review system when youre doing a series of albums together really does highlight its silliness, but I suppose the reviewer thought they were moderately good (7/10ish) then just ranked them in order of preference, with Elseq no.2 being noticably worse than the others.