Aphex already did it

[Himelstein]

 

[justanotheruser]

3 hours ago, Braintree said:

It's on Bandcamp (which I would link you to if it hadn't just crashed), on the Nyege Nyege label.

Thanks, my friend. Just listened again an HAD to buy it. Exquisite.

[Freak of the week]

12 hours ago, ceiling said:

Neutron 9000 did it better 

Erik Satie did it better 

 

Brian Eno did it better 

 

Drexciya did it better 

Aphex tried to reach these heights but ultimately failed and look where he ended up 

oh, he reached even better heights

 

[brian trageskin]

btw i just found this meme that perfectly explains why collier's music is so terrible despite his abilities

it's not that collier simply has terrible taste or couldn't write a good tune to save his life, the problem is quincy jones wants to make him another pop star and targets the starbucks crowd, the frozen fans and their new-age moms. which results in that insipid blend of world music, pop, lo-fi hip-hop beats to study to and frozencore

the exact same thing happened to dirty loops, another quincy-managed band. brilliant musicians (especially the bassist) who became memes by playing killer fusion reharms of popular hits, they make walmart muzak now. it's all quincy's fault. the minute collier drops quincy, you'll hear him make stravinsky-step, post-djent or whatever

[ceiling]

8 minutes ago, Freak of the week said:

oh, he reached even better heights

 

Yeah i agree with you. Although i wasn't really clear in my argument, my point was that Aphex probably believes that these people were superior to him and that they'd 'already done it'. Didn't stop him making music like them and potentially surpassing them. Just wanted to cheer up the person who started this thread. 

Edited March 10, 2021 by ceiling

[Silent Member]

Who the fuck is Collier?

 

K, I'm up to date now, read some posts.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Silent Member

[KovalainenFanBoy]

On 3/8/2021 at 4:39 PM, Cryptowen said:

tbh whenever this topic comes up i imagine that simpsons episode where homer becomes an inventor, except replace thomas edison with aphex twin on homer's self-comparison chart, and leonardo da vinci with whoever aphex twin was listening to as a kid on his chart

  Reveal hidden contents

simpsons already did it

 

I am pretty sure aphex sincerely believes he has surpassed all his idols

[Limo]

8 minutes ago, KovalainenFanBoy said:

I am pretty sure aphex sincerely believes he has surpassed all his idols

That”s because we’ve been telling him that since the early 1990s. It’s a miracle Collapse turned out as good as it has.

[zkom]

Yes, let's all stop making music because Lord Aphex did everything better for all foreseeable future and just listen to his detuned analog wet acid farts for all eternity.

[ceiling]

9 minutes ago, rhmilo said:

That”s because we’ve been telling him that since the early 1990s. It’s a miracle Collapse turned out as good as it has.

Probably why he hardly plays any of his own tunes live anymore, a reaction to the tunnel vision of the aphex fandom. 

[hello spiral]

On 3/8/2021 at 3:33 PM, marf said:

Thinking about giving up music. It's been a constant in my life, but I look at Aphex's catalog and it's like what's the point? He's done it. Giving up music would allow me to concentrate on more concrete things. To pay the bills. I always feel two things tugging at me. Maybe it is time to pack it in

im_done.mp4

[diatoms]

38 minutes ago, rhmilo said:

Collapse

                                                      did someone say collapse?

                                                             

 

40 minutes ago, zkom said:

just listen to his detuned analog wet acid farts for all eternity.

                                                            did someone mention heaven?

                                                                    

[toaoaoad]

10 hours ago, brian trageskin said:

 stravinsky-step

I want to hear this 

[brian trageskin]

8 minutes ago, toaoaoad said:

I want to hear this 

me too 

 

 

6k posts btw 

6k posts of total cringe 

14 years of my life

i made it mom 

are you proud of me now mother

[hijexx]

Holy lol @ 7 pages of this

Ever go into a record shop and see how much music isn’t Aphex?

Yeah, lotta music in the world.

[zero]

1 hour ago, brian trageskin said:

14 years of my life

i made it mom 

bet you didn't know joyrex mails you a plaque once you hit 15 years. I heard at 20 you get a trophy.

[zkom]

5 minutes ago, zero said:

bet you didn't know joyrex mails you a plaque once you hit 15 years. I heard at 20 you get a trophy.

Back in the dial-up BBS days I actually got a postcard in mail from one BBS when I reached a certain post count.

[Cryptowen]

13 hours ago, KovalainenFanBoy said:

I am pretty sure aphex sincerely believes he has surpassed all his idols

yeah that's the vibe i get, and tbh it's valid as far as psychological methods go. even if you love making music you're inevitably going to have those little moments where the ego starts to creep in saying things like "who do you think you are, wasting all this time playing synthesizers? you'll never be as good as orgasms & chocolate ice cream, so why even bother?". And in order to combat that you need an equally egoic vote of self-confidence. For me it's saying remembering that music-making is like writing a journal, it's about the process rather than the destination. For others it might be telling themselves they're the greatest tunesmith to walk the earth or whatev (dunno if that's how afx frames it but it could work)

of course that's what you should do if you actually like making music. if you don't like making music you should reflect on what's causing that contrast of "i feel like i should do this//but i don't like the feeling of doing this"

[dingformung]

I'm sceptical about this "the process is more important than the outcome" approach. What would be the point of the process of music making if there was no music in the end? I'd gladly give up the process of making music if it was possible to just create it in your head and then it's magically there. I'd prefer that

[Alcofribas]

1 minute ago, dingformung said:

I'd gladly give up the process of making music if it was possible to just create it in your head and then it's magically there. I'd prefer that

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/collateral-damage-mark-fell

[ignatius]

like this but for music. (i'll get executed for this, again)

 

[Cryptowen]

4 minutes ago, dingformung said:

I'm sceptical about this "the process is more important than the outcome" approach. What would be the point of the process of music making if there was no music in the end? I'd gladly give up the process of making music if it was possible to just create it in your head and then it's magically there. I'd prefer that

i was thinking about this more generally today actually. imo even if you're framing the situation as "the process is more important than the outcome" (which I'm not saying is objectively true, just that it can be a useful frame to take), you can also recognize that we live in a culture that puts extreme emphasis on production of material artifacts, which no doubt informs our understanding of the world & what is good/valuable, even when we're trying to be aware of it. So in a sense you can kind of embrace the paradox - recognize that the process is what's giving you the important transformative experience, while also recognizing that the act of actually creating a physical object (we're calling a track a physical object here) activates certain emotional circuits in the brain, which wouldn't come online if you were just meditating on the idea of making a track or whatev. There's a certain balance to be maintained: you're creating as if you weren't concerned with an outcome, while still moving decisively towards an outcome.

and i mean like, just because i view the process as more important on an abstract philosophical level doesn't mean i don't get importance from the result itself. i like having thousands of tracks i've made since my age was in the single digits. i genuinely like listening to them. but there's this weird art to making more of them - i move most freely when i'm able to convince myself that none of that matters. generally in life i get the best results when i'm able to stop worrying about results so much

[Braintree]

I think that if you frame the music making process as a form of discovery, of finding things, rather than a point of genesis that only you, solely, are responsible for, then you start having a lot more fun and the results are a lot better.

18 minutes ago, Alcofribas said:

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/collateral-damage-mark-fell

I can't remember where, but I think Squarepusher had a lot to say about this and how machines end up being just as important and influential as the person who is "using" them.

[dingformung]

Yes, the software/hardware/instrument you are using allows you to explore their particular world of sound and can lead you into new territory. Maybe into territory that you couldn't imagine before & couldn't have been able to come up with yourself out of nothing. Totally agreed

I'd still like to have some brain computer interface that allows to directly create music from my mind. Would be fun

53 minutes ago, Cryptowen said:

i was thinking about this more generally today actually. imo even if you're framing the situation as "the process is more important than the outcome" (which I'm not saying is objectively true, just that it can be a useful frame to take), you can also recognize that we live in a culture that puts extreme emphasis on production of material artifacts, which no doubt informs our understanding of the world & what is good/valuable, even when we're trying to be aware of it. So in a sense you can kind of embrace the paradox - recognize that the process is what's giving you the important transformative experience, while also recognizing that the act of actually creating a physical object (we're calling a track a physical object here) activates certain emotional circuits in the brain, which wouldn't come online if you were just meditating on the idea of making a track or whatev. There's a certain balance to be maintained: you're creating as if you weren't concerned with an outcome, while still moving decisively towards an outcome.

and i mean like, just because i view the process as more important on an abstract philosophical level doesn't mean i don't get importance from the result itself. i like having thousands of tracks i've made since my age was in the single digits. i genuinely like listening to them. but there's this weird art to making more of them - i move most freely when i'm able to convince myself that none of that matters. generally in life i get the best results when i'm able to stop worrying about results so much

yeah that makes sense. overthinking stuff generally leads to headaches and takes the fun out of things

[Alcofribas]

1 hour ago, Cryptowen said:

i was thinking about this more generally today actually. imo even if you're framing the situation as "the process is more important than the outcome" (which I'm not saying is objectively true, just that it can be a useful frame to take), you can also recognize that we live in a culture that puts extreme emphasis on production of material artifacts, which no doubt informs our understanding of the world & what is good/valuable, even when we're trying to be aware of it. So in a sense you can kind of embrace the paradox - recognize that the process is what's giving you the important transformative experience, while also recognizing that the act of actually creating a physical object (we're calling a track a physical object here) activates certain emotional circuits in the brain, which wouldn't come online if you were just meditating on the idea of making a track or whatev. There's a certain balance to be maintained: you're creating as if you weren't concerned with an outcome, while still moving decisively towards an outcome.

and i mean like, just because i view the process as more important on an abstract philosophical level doesn't mean i don't get importance from the result itself. i like having thousands of tracks i've made since my age was in the single digits. i genuinely like listening to them. but there's this weird art to making more of them - i move most freely when i'm able to convince myself that none of that matters. generally in life i get the best results when i'm able to stop worrying about results so much

i agree with and relate to this for the most part but i'd also like to emphasize things in a different way, just for the sake of experiment. there is a different paradox having to do with the way capitalism enforces a paradigm of achievement but also a never ending process without rest or meaningful conclusion. we produce but it is production itself, incessant, without gratification that is at play. work has lost a sense of meaningful conclusion. an interesting bit of data here is that people over 65 are increasingly more prominent in the workforce at (to me) shocking levels. our entire system is setup to be just perpetual work without recognition or a sense of completion or pride in what one has accomplished. 

so, imo, yes our culture puts emphasis on production but i think it's the production itself that is emphasized, not necessarily the material artifacts of this production (although ofc those are still very much what it's all about). this is succinctly expressed by byung-chul han when he says that in contemporary relations of production "one works into the open." 

what does this mean for the process of music production we're discussing here? i'm not entirely sure. i think on the one hand what you are expressing is true, that we should work without concern for the outcome and find meaning in that process. but we should also be weary of simply internalizing and reproducing this process of interminable production and instead use our studio time to break out of this stream and attempt to achieve definitive, rewarding goals. this doesn't run counter to anything you're saying, i'm just trying to think out how this more free process "delivered from lust of result" can provide meaningful experiences of closure (e.g., an album) in a world in which such experiences are increasingly absent from daily life.