Aphex Twin Musical analysis?

[Guest tronicphace]

I actually studied drumming (Latin, African, etc.) in college, and 54 Cymru Beats has some drum lines towards the beginning that basically form a medley of the different beats that I learned in class. I think Richard knows a lot more about music theory than we might think (i.e., not all just made up in his head), and he uses it in his songs a lot more than we probably realize. Derelict7's analysis is case in point.

 

Another thing I've noticed is that he doesn't care much for 'sweet' sounding songs. He likes to purposefully throw in some jarring sound into his songs, even if the rest of the song has a more pleasant sound (e.g., Alberto Balsalm and others). He'll come up with these new cherry sounds, and then scratch the hell out of it with electronic weirdness. I'm not saying I don't like it. I actually think it's brilliant and gives his music a more unique sound than some of his contemporaries. However, I definitely think there is something going on in his mind psychologically that makes him do that.

 

Maybe he's worried about sounding too electronic music-ish...

 

Bottom Line: rules the world of music. Period.

[Guest tronicphace]

Another thing, he knows what he's composing and he works hard at it. One of the interviews we have on file in the WATMM archive has him responding to the popular myth that he did Drukqs just to get out of some contract and that he didn't work that hard on it, and that it's not as good as some of his older stuff. His response, and you can tell that he was serious on this one, was, "Rubbish. I worked harder on that one than anything else I've done." (I'm paraphrasing a bit...)

[sneaksta303]

Another thing, he knows what he's composing and he works hard at it. One of the interviews we have on file in the WATMM archive has him responding to the popular myth that he did Drukqs just to get out of some contract and that he didn't work that hard on it, and that it's not as good as some of his older stuff. His response, and you can tell that he was serious on this one, was, "Rubbish. I worked harder on that one than anything else I've done." (I'm paraphrasing a bit...)

 

Yeah, Drukqs is hardly a random collection of tracks. People who still think that are naive as fuck. Drukqs is WAY too solid an album to be just a thrown together collection.

[chim]

yeah tronicphase, i think the main reason would be contrast/juxtaposition, like one element emphasises the other. also i think its because hes got ADD and wants to keep his brain interested. i agree completely about drukqs, it gets coherent as soon as you look beyond the inane track titles and the variety of genre styles. i especially like how critics reacted to the piano "practice" tracks

[Guest hahathhat]

so isn't it about time we had a good discussion on how the hell he puts his drums together?? overall trax? anyone care to write up something nice like derelic7 did, for the rhythm?

 

i'll write something, just because i've had lots of coffee.

 

 

i took a lot of music theory classes in school. i enjoyed them, i found them interesting... but i also felt they were too clinical, and eternally at arms' length from musical reality. even when i was in the classes and it was all fresh in my mind, i found it INTENSELY aggrivating to try and write tunes that way - chord progressions I V VI, etc. i realized what really mattered is how the music made me feel, and there's no textbook progression for "melencholy with an edge of bitterness."

 

this was tacitly admitted in the classes - the teacher was fond of reciting the joke from "this is spinal tap"... that "d minor is the saddest of all keys." if you ponder why that's funny, you realize it's because keys aren't sad or happy or what the hell ever in and of themselves. scales are less general, but it's still possible to use the same scale for seemingly contrary moods. this stuff is for people studying music academically, not people writing it... except for maybe jazz, which i am admittedly not that knowledgeable of.

 

once i get into writing a track, i more or less just spew stuff onto the piano roll without paying attention to keys or chord progression. i work in terms of the shape of notes on the screen, versus how they sound. i make pretty pictures with the blocks, just like legos. if i get stuck (i.e. have trouble getting a chord to sound how it sounds in my head) i will rouse the theory from the depths of my skull, use it to dig myself out of the hole, and then forget it again.

 

i could be entirely wrong, but i wager mr. james probably has a similar workflow. his tracks are often dripping with emotion, and while roman numeral analysis can teach you some useful tricks and occasionally save your bacon, such things are no more than cursory guidelines... or a way to talk about things without confusion.

 

you declaim on beethoven's dramatic use of the chromatic fourth in the first movement of his ninth symphony, or you can simply announce "ODE TO JOY MAKES MY NIPPLES HARD."

[Guest griever]

another important fact: the synths he's using for melodies! the melodies themselves are not that complicated, but it's the strange/beautiful sound that makes them so interesting. richard is ja great idol of mine, and i think this is a very important point in his music.

[Guest hahathhat]

making noises is import part of electronic techo musics. if you listen to AB3, where i think his style is most laid bare, it seems a lot of effort is going into layering. i get the impression he makes a few noises, gets that going into a loop/layer... then bounces it, and starts building another layer on top of the previous one... then feeds all the tracks into a mixer/computer and shapes things with fx and fades and shit. of course, you could shuffle that around a few ways i.e. making all the sounds first or using temp sounds to get the overall pattern of a track down before synth programming

 

or maybe he has reprogrammed a buchla to sequence songs based on messages left on his answering machine... or used the rhythm of his dishwasher slowed down 20x...

[Guest hahathhat]

ROUND TWO???

 

suppose you had a simple rhythm. say four to the floor with a hat and a snare. suppose you recursively fractalized it - replaced every hit with two, while keeping the overall energy arc and feel of the original rhythm intact....