Boards of Canada Going off Aphex Twin - is he all that?

[Lianne]

I've kind of realized that, apart from Drukqs (which sounds utterly genius to my ears now), the Tuss material, and a number of tracks off the Selected Ambient Works discs, I don't really enjoy listening to Aphex Twin nearly as much as Autechre, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, Plaid, or even a bunch of newer similar-ish electronic artists.

 

The last weeks, I've been trying to re-listen to the Richard D James album, I care Because You Do, Come to Daddy, 26 Mixes for Cash and the Analord Series, and they all seem annoyingly slapdash and incredibly uneven in places. There's a few great moments, and I normally love a humorous element to music, but ALL the above albums have a number of tracks that just sound sound lazy, and even the good tracks have annoying tinges to them here and there (for example, production flaws, like unintention distortion when the "levels" seem wrong, or sections where randomly very little new happens for a while...etc.)

 

I've always just assumed he he was The One, what with everything that surrounds him as a figure, and I appreciate him for how he's moved things forward, but listening back to him again I've realized that I don't think his actual released music is all that anymore. There's gems in there, but he's sure put out a lot of shit for someone who supposedly has hundreds of unreleased tracks! Perhaps I just like the slightly more polished, refined sound some others guys have been going for.

 

Mind you, Drukqs shits on most other IDM from a great height - as I'm sure his other albums once did, and still do at the odd moment or two, and The Tuss is incredible. So I await the new album with great anticipation.

[khov]

no

[Guest Grizz]

no

 

[Guest 0123456x89]

no

 

[Lianne]

I thought that'd be the response on an Aphex Twin forum. :)

 

Well, come on, at least it was saying something new. If 26 Mixes for Cash and some of those Analord tracks had been put out by anyone else, you'd agree with me.

[khov]

no

 

[Guest chunky]

http://forum.watmm.com/index.php?showtopic=44000

[Guest Kenneth172]

Well, it would be unrealistic to say that Aphex isn't a product of hype and overzealous fans. He is human after all, the flaws and imperfections in his tracks are part of his 'art', his sound. IMHO his earlier work is an antithesis of what went before, there's a punk attitude in what you might refer to as 'lazy'. At the end of the day, it depends when you got into Aphex, if you listened to his stuff in a chronological sequence, i.e. listened to each release at the time of release then each release would make more sense as his stuff sort of juxtaposes other records or makes a mockery of them. At the time he sounded like nobody else. As he's slowed down the number of releases since Drukqs (not to say he still isn't as prolific), maybe we'll see a further refinement in the next proper Aphex release. Personally I like all the little 'flaws' and deliberate incorrectness in his earlier releases though.

[BCM]

it's the very fact that his music isn't always as polished and refined as other artists in the same genre that makes his music much better. all those little "flaws" give his music an organicness and dynamism which is lacking in most of his contemporary's music. this makes his music much more interesting than say, autechre's, in my opinion...it is also a trait seen in a lot of the other rephlex artist's music - ceephax, d'arcangelo, global goon, squarepusher (his rephlex stuff anyway) etc all have that similar, not-over-produced sound. embrace it!

[pissflaps]

RDJ album has some very poor threatened resonances in some tracks like girl/boy song that could blow up some speakers at a certain volume, and the album is overally "badly produced" considering it was 1997 when it came out and the standard of electronic music production was already getting very "polished" in most professional musicians, but who gives a shit, the music is good.

[J3FF3R00]

I've kind of realized that, apart from Drukqs (which sounds utterly genius to my ears now), the Tuss material, and a number of tracks off the Selected Ambient Works discs, I don't really enjoy listening to Aphex Twin nearly as much as Autechre, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, Plaid, or even a bunch of newer similar-ish electronic artists.

 

The last weeks, I've been trying to re-listen to the Richard D James album, I care Because You Do, Come to Daddy, 26 Mixes for Cash and the Analord Series, and they all seem annoyingly slapdash and incredibly uneven in places. There's a few great moments, and I normally love a humorous element to music, but ALL the above albums have a number of tracks that just sound sound lazy, and even the good tracks have annoying tinges to them here and there (for example, production flaws, like unintention distortion when the "levels" seem wrong, or sections where randomly very little new happens for a while...etc.)

 

I've always just assumed he he was The One, what with everything that surrounds him as a figure, and I appreciate him for how he's moved things forward, but listening back to him again I've realized that I don't think his actual released music is all that anymore. There's gems in there, but he's sure put out a lot of shit for someone who supposedly has hundreds of unreleased tracks! Perhaps I just like the slightly more polished, refined sound some others guys have been going for.

 

Mind you, Drukqs shits on most other IDM from a great height - as I'm sure his other albums once did, and still do at the odd moment or two, and The Tuss is incredible. So I await the new album with great anticipation.

 

read the rules

[Guest Caustic]

no criticism in the afx subforum.

 

fanboy or gtfo.

[joshuatxuk]

It's all about context as well. If On, SAW 85-92, and Surfing on Sine Waves were released in the last 5 years, they'd be well-recieved but not considered classics. RDJ broke away from the cliche 4/4 rave and ambient output of other major electronic artists and took D'n'b into a whole new direction with Hangable Auto Bulb and The RDJ album. You can arguably gripe about sound quality or un-amazing sounding tracks, but I even appreciate his most older lackluster songs because they don't sound like any other artist, even now.

[Adamovich]

no

 

[Guest AOOproductions]

Well, it would be unrealistic to say that Aphex isn't a product of hype and overzealous fans. He is human after all, the flaws and imperfections in his tracks are part of his 'art', his sound. IMHO his earlier work is an antithesis of what went before, there's a punk attitude in what you might refer to as 'lazy'. At the end of the day, it depends when you got into Aphex, if you listened to his stuff in a chronological sequence, i.e. listened to each release at the time of release then each release would make more sense as his stuff sort of juxtaposes other records or makes a mockery of them. At the time he sounded like nobody else. As he's slowed down the number of releases since Drukqs (not to say he still isn't as prolific), maybe we'll see a further refinement in the next proper Aphex release. Personally I like all the little 'flaws' and deliberate incorrectness in his earlier releases though.

I agree with all the above.

 

Because time has gone by and these other like BOC autechre and squarepusher have really emerged and showed that they really run the IDM scene with AFX he has less attention then he once did obviously, and I'd go as far to say that guys like Autechre and BOC have actually become more respected among IDM/alt electronica fans as time has gone on. But when AFX was rocking his shit in the mid 90's no one was as popular or nearly at his level of genius. For example Tri Repetee and MHARTC were both and are probably the most respected IDM albums by non aphex and by critics and such, and they were really critically acclaimed and such. But when albums like Windowlicker, SAW, RDJ album came out... people were literally like THIS HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE, THIS IS BEYOND MUSIC AS WE KNOW IT. whole other level of reception. Plus he also made the scene cool. The whole idea of knob twiddling and hiding behind a board and bedroom producing. That was him!

 

Just watch the music cites like Pitchfork media when a new "APHEX TWIN" album drops. hahahahaha. yeah a new BOC album would get press, or new Ae or pusher. But it won't be the same at all.

[perunamuusi]

did you just say BOC run the IDM scene?

[BCM]

you know what i think he did.

[Guest AOOproductions]

did you just say BOC run the IDM scene?

take it as u like :embrassed:

[m.leafeater.dl]

some people like to drink their own pee

[BCM]

I hear Rolph Harris likes it.

[perunamuusi]

Rolf

[BCM]

Rolph is more Rephlex.

[hardcode]

I've kind of realized that, apart from Drukqs (which sounds utterly genius to my ears now), the Tuss material, and a number of tracks off the Selected Ambient Works discs, I don't really enjoy listening to Aphex Twin nearly as much as Autechre, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, Plaid, or even a bunch of newer similar-ish electronic artists.

 

The last weeks, I've been trying to re-listen to the Richard D James album, I care Because You Do, Come to Daddy, 26 Mixes for Cash and the Analord Series, and they all seem annoyingly slapdash and incredibly uneven in places. There's a few great moments, and I normally love a humorous element to music, but ALL the above albums have a number of tracks that just sound sound lazy, and even the good tracks have annoying tinges to them here and there (for example, production flaws, like unintention distortion when the "levels" seem wrong, or sections where randomly very little new happens for a while...etc.)

 

I've always just assumed he he was The One, what with everything that surrounds him as a figure, and I appreciate him for how he's moved things forward, but listening back to him again I've realized that I don't think his actual released music is all that anymore. There's gems in there, but he's sure put out a lot of shit for someone who supposedly has hundreds of unreleased tracks! Perhaps I just like the slightly more polished, refined sound some others guys have been going for.

 

Mind you, Drukqs shits on most other IDM from a great height - as I'm sure his other albums once did, and still do at the odd moment or two, and The Tuss is incredible. So I await the new album with great anticipation.

 

basically when you listen to one of his albums you need to take a different approach, because it was created not by someone with rich parents, a team of producers, and dreams of climbing the billboard top 100.

 

[Guest mafted]

couldn't have said that better,.. that's the difference. artists vs. entertainers vs. combinations, but mostly one or the other... but then entertainment is an art itself (djing?) so... :undecided:

 

uhh

 

If the tracks don't hit you like they used to you've successfully grown that region of your brain and it's time to move to other tracks that will titillate you further.

 

 

[Guest hahathhat]

I've kind of realized that, apart from Drukqs (which sounds utterly genius to my ears now), the Tuss material, and a number of tracks off the Selected Ambient Works discs, I don't really enjoy listening to Aphex Twin nearly as much as Autechre, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, Plaid, or even a bunch of newer similar-ish electronic artists.

 

The last weeks, I've been trying to re-listen to the Richard D James album, I care Because You Do, Come to Daddy, 26 Mixes for Cash and the Analord Series, and they all seem annoyingly slapdash and incredibly uneven in places. There's a few great moments, and I normally love a humorous element to music, but ALL the above albums have a number of tracks that just sound sound lazy, and even the good tracks have annoying tinges to them here and there (for example, production flaws, like unintention distortion when the "levels" seem wrong, or sections where randomly very little new happens for a while...etc.)

 

I've always just assumed he he was The One, what with everything that surrounds him as a figure, and I appreciate him for how he's moved things forward, but listening back to him again I've realized that I don't think his actual released music is all that anymore. There's gems in there, but he's sure put out a lot of shit for someone who supposedly has hundreds of unreleased tracks! Perhaps I just like the slightly more polished, refined sound some others guys have been going for.

 

Mind you, Drukqs shits on most other IDM from a great height - as I'm sure his other albums once did, and still do at the odd moment or two, and The Tuss is incredible. So I await the new album with great anticipation.

 

well, i feel some of that -- the quality is uneven, bunch of skip tracks in between the genius, and even though i love RDJ album and ICBYD i don't listen to them much any more.

 

finding things like drexciya, reading what few interviews they've done etc. made me realize ol' richard has lifted a lot of ideas from many places... but of course, how can you NOT? no music is created in a vacuum. i still hold him in very high regard, though now i have more of an idea where it all came from, instead of it just being all these amazing sounds i've never heard before.

 

finally, his lack of releases recently has made it hard to remain enthusiastic. other artists continue to advance. rushup edge was like driving 100 miles for a spliff and a cold beer, in terms of wait vs. reward.