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

[Guest Shit Attack]

read the bible

[m.leafeater.dl]

I've always maintained the belief that Aphex/AFX/Tuss is about 40% utter genius and 60% garbage.

 

that doesn't make any sense.

 

 

there's nothing in the present that comes near rushup edge, dunno what you're all on about.

 

/thread

[autopilot]

that doesn't make any sense.

 

I don't imagine it would to someone with an AFX username.

[Guest mafted]

more like spyware talk

[Bubba69]

Funny that RDJ album's sound quality was brought up. I'm really not a fan of that album at all because of how poorly mixed it sounds. It sounds like the final master was dubbed on cassette tapes or something. Compared to the crisp production of something like Tri Repetae or Actual Sounds & Voices (which are only a year or so apart from RDJ album if I'm not mistaken), it sounds really bad.

 

Yeah it is interesting, things that came way before sounds super crisp and nice (like polygon window stuff). And also the come to daddy stuff afterwards is similarly awesomely produced.

 

[goonstock]

hi richard

[Guest Barricade]

Funny that RDJ album's sound quality was brought up. I'm really not a fan of that album at all because of how poorly mixed it sounds. It sounds like the final master was dubbed on cassette tapes or something. Compared to the crisp production of something like Tri Repetae or Actual Sounds & Voices (which are only a year or so apart from RDJ album if I'm not mistaken), it sounds really bad.

 

Yeah it is interesting, things that came way before sounds super crisp and nice (like polygon window stuff). And also the come to daddy stuff afterwards is similarly awesomely produced.

did you just say come to daddy is awesomely produced? Maybe the rest of the EP is good, but the pappy mix (the video version) is poor as hell if you ask me. The compression makes it terrible to listen to.

[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.

 

Seriously: what has RDJA got to do with D'n'B??

 

really? REALLY???

 

He doesn't. :confused: I guess I'm hesitant to use the words Jungle and Drill n' bass, or flat out say he invented the latter genre. My point is back in 1995-6, he started using elements of Dnb/jungle music and said he found it interesting but that most of the artists were substandard. He mentioned it in the BBC Radio 3 interview I think. I know it was in one those interviews from the mid-90s.

 

I'll just say he helped establish braindance and haters can fuck off, and leave it at that. I have no idea how one can love drukqs and piss on his older work.

[marf]

Funny that RDJ album's sound quality was brought up. I'm really not a fan of that album at all because of how poorly mixed it sounds. It sounds like the final master was dubbed on cassette tapes or something. Compared to the crisp production of something like Tri Repetae or Actual Sounds & Voices (which are only a year or so apart from RDJ album if I'm not mistaken), it sounds really bad.

 

Yeah it is interesting, things that came way before sounds super crisp and nice (like polygon window stuff). And also the come to daddy stuff afterwards is similarly awesomely produced.

Maybe it was an all laptop album versus him using all his gear in the early albums. He was really into laptops around 97-2000

[Guest theSun]

the fact that his tracks are intermittently genius shows he is actually human, and sometimes his pisstakes are more inspiring than his heavily programmed masterpieces. so there's something.

[soundwave]

Arguably I don't think RDJ has ever produced a 100% solid album that I never want to skip the odd track here and there.

 

The only ones i do tend to play all the way through are Universal Indicator, the Come to Daddy ep or Rushup Edge.

 

I just hope he developes his analord sound futher in some way or tries something else completely new and innovative.

[sneaksta303]

primus sucks

[Guest 123]

No he isn't all that is he! Shit, close this forum now and start a Dan Deacon one instead please; he can be all that for a while now.

[sinicalypse]

did you just say BOC run the IDM scene?

 

i very very rarely do this, but i have come out and say that i let loose a rather hearty LOL when i came across your post here. that was perfectly timed, sir.

[sinicalypse]

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.)

 

Perhaps I just like the slightly more polished, refined sound some others guys have been going for.

 

jesus horatio christ, woman, you must be some sort of miserable... if you listen to songs and are seriously contemplating whether certain levels are right or wrong or what sounds good and how much effort was put into this and how that was made was the distortion intentional/!@ i'd say you might as well cut your dick off, but um, i think you've got that taken care of.

 

i honestly don't get how people can listen to music so cold and barren and machine-like, and go figure you claim that you've liked autechre more lately, as their music has sounded like an electronic bowel movement for a good ~7+ years or thereabouts, so cold and contemplated like hte product of assembly lines fornicating and its what happen when people deconstruct themselves as opposed to music or the environments around them.

 

again, and a few people have mentioned this, aphex twin tends to go way back to when he was really the only game in town. i'm sure some people can talk about incunabula and old autechre in 1993 and whatnot, but it wasn't anything special, read: personable. my aphex twin experience started in 1994 when i heard cuckoo and it literally hit me in a whoa way that here was a type of music i was listening to, just with a better concept of momentum and movement and feel and it went places and then it was on to the older stuff of the polygon windows and i care because you do which are fine in their own ways but not oh my god in my book, but then within a year or so came the rdj album and thats around the time i got my little homemade cassette dump of the joyrex EPs and thats really where it started clicking for me anyways, as it wasn't about what sounded the crispest/best-produced/etc it was about what worked, what put a smile on your face, what patterns evolved beyond this and that and all, and really if i were listening to music from the perspective of technicality-first-and-foremost i reckon i'd be a miserable cunt in love with fleeting moments and little places in time and space when everything comes together to define the ultimate anima of what i believe in.

 

so certainly enjoy your own opinion, if it's not the actual bassline as opposed to how that bassline was constructed and how it interfaces with your speakers, shit, everyone's got their thing... but if you're getting that technical that wrought in overthought methinks you're going the wrong way about it and quite honestly the sophomoric can't be arsed pisstake beauty inherent in the works of one richard james might be lost on someone who wants the kind of brilliance reserved for classical musicians when really all they were originally listening to in aphex twin was badass futuristic children's music.

 

[Guest mafted]

you've just heard it too much

[Guest assegai]

He's basically the only IDM artist that still gets "regular" play.

I'll toss an autechre/boc/sp/etc on once and a while but afx is still in regular rotation.

I think he lives up to all the hype and hopes he continues releasing

I also admire his dedication to his craft and think he's one of the few people in music who lives up to the title "Artist".

[Guest mafted]

He's basically the only IDM artist that still gets "regular" play.

I'll toss an autechre/boc/sp/etc on once and a while but afx is still in regular rotation.

I think he lives up to all the hype and hopes he continues releasing

I also admire his dedication to his craft and think he's one of the few people in music who lives up to the title "Artist".

 

yea, totally agreed. the artistry is what sets him apart.

[pera]

No one here understand richards music, all you noobs..

[Joyrex]

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.

 

Is that Bo Shek from the Star Wars cantina in your avatar?

 

[Bubba69]

Funny that RDJ album's sound quality was brought up. I'm really not a fan of that album at all because of how poorly mixed it sounds. It sounds like the final master was dubbed on cassette tapes or something. Compared to the crisp production of something like Tri Repetae or Actual Sounds & Voices (which are only a year or so apart from RDJ album if I'm not mistaken), it sounds really bad.

 

Yeah it is interesting, things that came way before sounds super crisp and nice (like polygon window stuff). And also the come to daddy stuff afterwards is similarly awesomely produced.

did you just say come to daddy is awesomely produced? Maybe the rest of the EP is good, but the pappy mix (the video version) is poor as hell if you ask me. The compression makes it terrible to listen to.

 

I really hate the song come to daddy, I was referring to more the rest of the EP.

[doorjamb]

primus socks

raed yor bibble

 

[Guest Tran Iberskagin]

Very funny the 'poor' sound quality and the 'flaws' in RDJ's music are mentioned.

When i read an interview with the head of the former R&S Records (label where RDJ started and who put out SAW 85-92 , Xylem Tube and Classics), the 'sound quality' was mentioned as well. His music was on DAT-tapes and their 'sound quality' wasn't always that great. Still, the music on these tapes was incredible. It still is.

 

You can argue that there are 'flaws' in his music or that the quality of the sound could be better, but i think that you're really missing out on the whole. And saying that this would be unintentional is really taking it a step too far...I remember reading an interview with him where he states that he prefers the analogue equipment because of the fact that it isn't always delivering a clean sound, but there are always little differences and glitches; it's a more organic sound. He also said he doesn't like to aproach his music in a 'mathematical' way as lots of other people in the field do. So...i think you can forget about the 'flaws' being unintentional just as well as you might not want to state that the sound should be better. I do believe that, as mentioned before in this thread, it's got more to do with what works. I would even dare to say that in some occasions it's even the more the result he explicitly wants rather than the effect of laziness of incapability.

 

I agree that RDJ is hyped a bit to much at times, but i don't argue on the point that he's a genius. He really has put out a lot of marvelous music while maintaining his inventivity, his craftsmenship and (definitely!!) his wits on a very high level. The fact that he's hyped is actually a bit of a sad story, because it's often for the wrong reasons. I'd like to state that the other side of the story is that he doesn't always get the credit he deserves. But hype or lack of credit...RDJ kept playing with it. He kept joking with it...and that very same element of fun and mockery returns in his music. But just as the whole Tuss-hype was a superb hoax, the music on the records was hitting the spot. And while he jokes and plays around, his music still keeps things interesting...The dynamics of his music are really great, and -luckily for us- not always that clean. The humour, artistry and charm are an intregal part of the intricacy of RDJ's music.

 

So, he's not all that... He's more and less. He's definitely less and without any doubt a whole bunch more. I guess the clean music got your ears or your brain messed up. RDJ has proven that he's more than capable of creating superb music that mixes a lot of styles and influences. He has done it his way, both with analogue and digital material. So if you're not hearing it any more or you're brain doesn't get stimulated any longer...you're up for either a hearing device or brain surgery.

[Guest Tran Iberskagin]

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.

 

It strikes me that you seem to have a worked out frame on how to listen or how to listen to criticise music...But while re-reading your criticism i just figured out that you might be just focusing more on what you think to know about how to do things should be according to you rather than you ever get to listen to the music.

It also seems to be that you love structured music that has been worked on, but when nothing happens for a bit it doesn't seem to occur to you there is a repetition going on or a silence built in...no you just seem to file it rather quickly as boring or flawed or...well, whatever negative that works for you...

 

Strange how you don't mention anything about the eerie, sometimes very awkward and uneasy atmospheres that are created on I Care Because You Do, Richard D James album and Come To Daddy. It seems to me that what you call the 'flaws' in these albums contribute very much to these rather dark and dirty atmospheres. I even think when these so called flaws would be left out these albums wouldn't have half the punch they have now.

 

About your taste I must agree with your own conlusion, albeit just partially: you just want a polished sound. I beg to differ if a polished sound equals automaticly that it's more refined though. One of the things i have noticed and always adored when listening to some RDJ's music is exactly the fact that there is a part of his production that incorporates, even embraces these flaws and uneasy sounds, and works with them. Not against them. And often it seems to me that apparent lazyness isn't always was it seems...it has it's very own function in his music and is often used deliberately or, if you wish, not left out. In my opinion you're confusing your own preferences for polished sounds with the idea of refinement since music -or any other art for that matter- certainly isn't more refined because of it's cleanliness...on the contrary, some very refined music and art have been made while explicitly using dirt, flawed materials or coincidences as their basic material.

 

So i guess that you are very willing to overlook, or better overhear, that the play with noise and flaws are a vital element in RDJ's music. But your opinion on him and his music takes a very strange turn and becomes harsh but at the same time so narrow that it almost makes me want to laugh. You admit that you always have assumed that he's The One, and by doing that you almost admit that you were just caught up in the hype around RDJ. Funny though how you seem to love Drukqs, The Tuss-material and some tracks from the SAW-dics, which all have a more polished sound. You're even showing generosity by saying that you think that there are some gems to be found in his volume of releases. Still, you don't seem to be able to grasp that RDJ's versatility of sounds and styles makes him such a genius. It doesn't occur to you that he hasn't only made the fantastic albums you like (which show his ability to produce 'a polished sound' with flying colours), but that he has just as well proven that he's very capable of producing quite refined albums with rawer and somewhat uneasier sounds to them.

 

And doing so it completly escapes you that this also might be part of his genius...

[Braintree]

I've worn the hell out of pretty much every Squarepusher album. Don't listen to him much anymore.