Venetian Snares' best album?

[MisterE]

i think that if just the fact that someone uses odd time signatures is the main thing to be said about their work, then there isn't much to be said. anyone can change the time sig setting in their software.

[Hugh Mughnus]

Don't be a cunt.

 

Obviously there are things implied by the time signatures and other things I enjoy about his music.

Edited February 22, 2013 by StephenG

[Soloman Tump]

Albums purchased this week from planet mu...

Calvacade of Glee...

Last Step

Meathole

 

I felt the gaps in my snares collection needed filling! Great stuff all round. Don't get the hate.

[Guest fiznuthian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lY9qY8vuo

 

2370894 anyone? Not as cohesive as his other stuff but I still like it..

[Hugh Mughnus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lY9qY8vuo

 

2370894 anyone? Not as cohesive as his other stuff but I still like it..

 

I think it's great. Fuck Toronto Jungle is a great track.

 

Also I used to have one of those phone toys (the cover art)- lol.

[Suffocate Peon]

almost vsnares entire catalog sounds like high tempo patterns that constantly mutate with no real aim or guidance,

He's become a better song writer and composer over time because making tracks is seemingly all he does every day, I understand why people would prefer his earlier music, and I like its raw punk liveiness too, but that his music became increasingly more emotionally engaging is something that goes overlooked. There's no one better in electronic music at making 8 minute long tracks that flow so effortlessly; there are no lulls, no ugly transitions, and there is a real point to them, they just tend to take listening until the end for it to be realised.

 

I think in his earlier music there is less evidence of song craft, i like them but they do test my patience with sometimes little reward, but Filth (which isn't one of his best) shows an improvement in detailed compositions, if not necessarily an aesthetic to the music I like.

 

Tracks like Kimberley Clark I can listen to dozens of times, and it never becomes predictable. It's always ahead of you, you're always trying to catch up. It's 7 minutes, and the first 4 minutes wouldn't be worth as much if there isn't a point to the track, a climax which comes in the form of a rising twinkly melody that's so pretty, like an oasis of calm and clarity amidst all the squelchy acid filthiness. It's the kind of thing that separates him from other breakcore artists, and there's very few I actually know which aren't horrible, which would suggest making the kind of music he does takes a special dedication and talent, but maybe not.

 

If you want evidence of breakcore that 'constantly mutates with no real aim or guidance' listen to Otto Von Schirach, I know I tried several times but never returned. Filth goes on these crazy deviations and tests your patience, but he knows when to focus his tracks. He uses melody without relying on it as flashbulb and wisp do.

and someone randomly flipping through the drum sounds being used while it plays out. ok the drum switching isn't entirely random. tbh i think his sound design is pretty good, and i think his mixing is pretty good. i just don't like any of his 'music'. maybe two or three times in each of his millions of 20minute long spastic freakout tracks, there will be a moment i DO like, and it will last less than 2 seconds, then go into something else that i hate.

I don't really know anything about how he makes music beyond what I've read in interviews, I don't make music, I don't know anything about the software and hardware. It can get boring if people focus so much on how music is created rather than how engaging it is.

 

His best tracks are anything but random, or maybe they're created to feel in the moment and unhinged and that takes more effort than you will give credit. People adore Autechre on here but their last few releases contain an awful lot of apparently aimless randomness, but usually the melody underneath holds it all together, except in Exai there is few melodies. I think venetian snares is more musically inclined, the closest comparisons are Aphex Twin's Drukqs and The Tuss tracks, and everyone would agree Richard painstakingly puts them together.

 

I think most electronic music sounds flat and dull and their creators aren't able to express their personality through it in a way that is strong and individual. And he's such a revelation because he absolutely grabs holds of music and makes it his own, so it's beyond breakcore. It's more like a punk thrash band with 4 insane drummers than it is some nerd sat at a computer who is so in love with the idea of being a musician he treats his music with as much respect and preciousness as he does a first girlfriend so the results are lifeless and tame. He imposes himself on the music, and doesn't let it get away from him and become something more pompous, it never grows into 'an idea', or 'an idea of what spacey sci fi post Autechre electronic music should sound like'. If other musicians treat their electronic music like it's some crystal they occasionally chip away at making no impression whatsoever, he treats his music like it's his personal slave to be sexually abused.

 

All his stuff sounds more composed to me than most electronic music because it doesn't rely on such obvious repetition, he clearly copies and pastes but it's done intelligently and with the intention of giving the music real propulsion. His music is incredibly dynamic. I'll stop now. I need to make a stock venetian snares response I can wheel out whenever people essentially say 'I've not listened to his stuff enough to realise its greatness'.

 

 

I like the aptly named Sybian Rock from 2370894, it came on unexpectedly loud on shuffle when I was on my bike, it broke my ears. I like the loose carnival jazz-y ness of the tracks..like We Are Cesspools. His earlier stuff can be refreshing to listen to sometimes. He's done acid and he's done violins..

Edited February 23, 2013 by Suffocate Peon

[MisterE]

i will agree that your comparison to ae and exai is kind of fair, in the sense that the music and composition is held together fairly loosely, and there is a kind of randomness a lot of times with little holding it together. i guess this would be where my distaste for his whole image, aesthetic, and style would come into play. i could say a lot about this but don't feel like it at the moment.

 

i don't see how it could be said that vsnares is music where any more of his personality is coming through than any other particular stuff though, including ae. but even aphex or squarepusher or whoever, their personality is in their stuff to some degree, and i don't see there being any more of that with vsnares at all. i dont see how you get lots of personality into really fast blizzards of drum samples or amen breaks that pitch up and down. i think the aphex catalog actually has tons more personality in it but, whatever. i mean, it all becomes a matter of opinion in the end i guess.

 

i think some of this stuff is stuff that you almost can't get so much better at though. like having a knack for melody or something. and i've heard at least one track by vsnares that to me seemed like a clear attempt at creating his own version of 'nannou', but just sounded so empty. nannou to me sounds like a piece of musical perfection. the vsnares track was clearly trying to evoke the same type of emotional response, and it just sounded like a pale imitation made by a person with no sense of melody but who knows how to put a bunch of nice sounds together. to me that clued me in that i'm not going to ever have a moment where his stuff clicks with me. his melodies sound random. you can walk over to a keyboard right now, and plunk on maybe 5 different keys at random and chances are you could use them in a melody, maybe even use some of them in the exact random order you picked them. i don't know if this is how vsnares composes melody, maybe he actually considers each note, but to me it sounds like he may as well be randomly picking every note. there is no thematic impact. ever.

[Guest nene multiple assgasms]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lY9qY8vuo

 

2370894 anyone? Not as cohesive as his other stuff but I still like it..

 

 

I've always thought it was underrated. it's definitely more of a compilation (I think mike p chose the tracks) than his other albums, though.

 

 

i think some of this stuff is stuff that you almost can't get so much

better at though. like having a knack for melody or something. and i've

heard at least one track by vsnares that to me seemed like a clear

attempt at creating his own version of 'nannou', but just sounded so

empty. nannou to me sounds like a piece of musical perfection. the

vsnares track was clearly trying to evoke the same type of emotional

response, and it just sounded like a pale imitation made by a person

with no sense of melody but who knows how to put a bunch of nice sounds

together. to me that clued me in that i'm not going to ever have a

moment where his stuff clicks with me. his melodies sound random. you

can walk over to a keyboard right now, and plunk on maybe 5 different

keys at random and chances are you could use them in a melody, maybe

even use some of them in the exact random order you picked them. i don't

know if this is how vsnares composes melody, maybe he actually

considers each note, but to me it sounds like he may as well be randomly

picking every note. there is no thematic impact. ever.

 

I like his melodies. the melodies on songs about my cats sound like cat

melodies. the melodies on huge chrome cylinder box unfolding sound like

alien melodies. the melodies on hospitality sound depressing. to some

extent, his melodies remind me of free jazz. sometimes after listening

to snares, I'll have an urge to listen to cecil taylor, or vice versa.

[Hugh Mughnus]

I get that same feeling after some of v snares songs too, but from the more obvious allusions to jazz of his. One of my fav of his:

 

Edited February 23, 2013 by StephenG

[SR4]

wtf?

 

one of the most beautiful short tracks ive ever heard was by VSnares

 

[youtubehd]FRntq4CSFzI[/youtubehd]

 

I know he has a lot of material to wade through, but stuff like this are moments of genius.

[awepittance]

I get that same feeling after some of v snares songs too, but from the more obvious allusions to jazz of his. One of my fav of his:

 

 

songs like this and the one smetty posted prove that Aaron is a true musical genius whethere you are a fan or not i think it's hard not to acknowledge it. I just wish he put out more 'themed' stuff like this.

 

this one too is pretty amazing

 

[chim]

He's a god damn genius who just keeps getting better and more refined.

 

 

But meathole is still his best album.

 

[Suffocate Peon]

Yeah I assume Hiszékeny is the track that to MisterE is referring to as ripping off Nannou. I think Nannou evokes more of a childhood wonder (but then it's trying to), but i find the venetian snares track to be deeper and be more moving personally..and more effective given it's placement in the album after Szamár Madár and the fact it's unlike anything else hes done and certainly unlike the winnipeg album he released like 3 months before Rossz csillag.

i will agree that your comparison to ae and exai is kind of fair, in the sense that the music and composition is held together fairly loosely, and there is a kind of randomness a lot of times with little holding it together. i guess this would be where my distaste for his whole image, aesthetic, and style would come into play. i could say a lot about this but don't feel like it at the moment.

 

i don't see how it could be said that vsnares is music where any more of his personality is coming through than any other particular stuff though, including ae. but even aphex or squarepusher or whoever, their personality is in their stuff to some degree, and i don't see there being any more of that with vsnares at all. i dont see how you get lots of personality into really fast blizzards of drum samples or amen breaks that pitch up and down. i think the aphex catalog actually has tons more personality in it but, whatever. i mean, it all becomes a matter of opinion in the end i guess.

 

i think some of this stuff is stuff that you almost can't get so much better at though. like having a knack for melody or something. and i've heard at least one track by vsnares that to me seemed like a clear attempt at creating his own version of 'nannou', but just sounded so empty. nannou to me sounds like a piece of musical perfection. the vsnares track was clearly trying to evoke the same type of emotional response, and it just sounded like a pale imitation made by a person with no sense of melody but who knows how to put a bunch of nice sounds together. to me that clued me in that i'm not going to ever have a moment where his stuff clicks with me. his melodies sound random. you can walk over to a keyboard right now, and plunk on maybe 5 different keys at random and chances are you could use them in a melody, maybe even use some of them in the exact random order you picked them. i don't know if this is how vsnares composes melody, maybe he actually considers each note, but to me it sounds like he may as well be randomly picking every note. there is no thematic impact. ever.

I wasn't trying to compare them, I was just trying to explain from a venetian snares fan point of view what marks him out, and he's closest to Aphex Twin in his twisted sense of humour and lack of pretension. But I think he's revealed more of himself in his music. When Richard sings in a track it's something about beetles in a closet, when Aaron does it it's to sing about how he dreams that his dad was still alive, he's made a lullaby named after himself, he's made music produced from the sounds of him and his then girlfriend having sex, He's made music that for me further breaks down the barriers between listener and creator; sounds zip in and out and bounce around your brain as though he's inside your skull conducting.

 

He's made music like Pwntendo that has a melody that is so full of yearning and aching desperation it's like it's trying to escape from a cell it's been locked inside all its life. He has music that just penetrates you with its sheer forcefulness, Cancel is devastating, My Half tears through sound; he said he was depressed when he was making My Downfall, he split with his girlfriend (I'm Sorry I failed You/If I could say I love you) he was in a lull and said that sometimes that's when it's best to make music, which I take to mean that that is when you make music where you feel it more deeply because he's making it for purely cathartic reasons; like he'd die for it, like he's living for it, he expresses that intensity better than anyone. There's a tangible vicious quality to his music when played out, you feel it cut through you.

 

He has a clear passion for music and making music that borders on unhealthy, but it's admirable because unlike aphex twin he also seems to have a passion for releasing albums, and different types of albums, he deserves absolutely no hate whatsoever. There is so much immense feeling in every use of sound in Cancel, he absolutely wrings as much emotion out of that track as possible, it's mixed with an aggressiveness that gives it real intent and power.

 

There's a moment in Flashforward that just climaxes in a high pitched angry squeel that more than anything I can think of expresses moments of absolute rage, it's like euphoria, but it comes and goes like absolute uncontrollable rage does. It's like he's making the track and half way through just gets sick of how relatively tame it is to what he's hearing in his head and just loses it. Plunging Hornets has a similar moment, a chaotic breakdown, that when played loud it increases its effect.

 

He's made an album about his cats, for gods sake, how one hates him, made an album how about much he hates the place where he lives, you know all this but I am pointing it out anyway. It's not about 'his music has more personality to it', but he's shown more of his personality in his music I think, it's more personal, nakedly honest. He never constructs anything, like an 'idea', he deconstructs, he makes music so visceral as to make him feel something. It took me ages to adapt to how compressed his music is (see here: http://musicmachinery.com/2009/03/23/the-loudness-war/) but now it's searing ear splitting-ness is one of the reasons I continue to play it, and play it loud. Another example of this would be the fool the detector track, it's similar to hospitality in sounding like a million yelping alien creature's sperm manically swimming towards you...and that's actually what it sounds like.

 

On the list the person makes, it goes like

The loudest artists

 

I have analyzed the loudness of about 15K tracks from the top 1,000 or so most popular artists. The average loudness across all 15K tracks is about -9.5 dB. The very loudest artists from this set those with a loudness of -5 dB or greater are:

Artist dB

Venetian Snares -1.25

interesting that

The Quietest Artists

 

Aphex Twin -13.93

...

'there is no thematic impact, ever'.

hmmm

 

okay.

 

what about shoot myself? It's ridiculously tightly put together, the way he brings the melody in and out, and its graceful melancholy. It's majestic.

 

i guess this would be where my distaste for his whole image, aesthetic, and style would come into play. i could say a lot about this but don't feel like it at the moment.

This is interesting, not sure what you mean.

Edited February 24, 2013 by Suffocate Peon

[Guest yikes]

digging the in depth snares analysis in this here thread,lots of cool thoughts/opinions being expressed.

 

while everyone is pining for the new aphex-for me snares kind of quietly picked up the torch and ran pretty far with it.

 

i realize some peeps will say that is sacrilege,but it's just how i see it.

 

between ALL of the full lengths and ep's there sure is a shit ton of stuff to listen to and absorb.

 

listening to intense complicated fast IDm is like doing a crossword puzzle or some kind of math quiz.

I like the tuss and analords,ufabulum was a letdown, but those tests were really easy to pass ya know what i mean?

snares keeps me intrigued,and my brain dancing brah.

Edited February 24, 2013 by yikes

[GraveGlitcher]

listening to intense complicated fast IDm is like doing a crossword puzzle or some kind of math quiz.

I like the tuss and analords,ufabulum was a letdown, but those tests were really easy to pass ya know what i mean?

snares keeps me intrigued,and my brain dancing brah.

That's exactly how I feel about the Snares man's more intense breakcore material(which happens to be most of his stuff).

[Franciscus]

is snares on a long holiday or what? he hasn't released any albums in years (not counting his two eps in 2012)

[Friendly Foil]

I think Mike P mentioned that he was having problems with his studio (or something..)

[triachus]

is snares on a long holiday or what? he hasn't released any albums in years (not counting his two eps in 2012)

 

I read in an interview that he is kinda living this hermit life indoors, making tracks. And Mike P really has to tug his sleeve to convince him to release something.

Edited February 25, 2013 by triachus

[Suffocate Peon]

 

is snares on a long holiday or what? he hasn't released any albums in years (not counting his two eps in 2012)

I read in an interview that he is kinda living this hermit life indoors, making tracks. And Mike P really has to tug his sleeve to convince him to release something.

 

Oh God, this sounds familiar.

 

Thankfully, he was 10 years too late to have a few of his tracks made into phenomenally successful music videos for mtv by some freak multi talented genius that contributed massively to his world wide appeal and made him so much money he could live off the exposure and subsequent legend status it gave him, eventually allowing him to degrade himself to only live shows of acid techno remixes anyone could do SLOW VORDHOSBN IF YOU'RE LUCKY and swinging piano pendulums, and thus transforming his existence into one of extreme annoyance and pointlessness to those of us outside his circle of friends who have all his tunes...so all of us.

 

Venetian Snares is poor though right....right...he has to release albums to make money to feed all his cats right...? Mike P should just drop everything, leave a note for his son when he comes home from school, and turn up at Aaron Funk's snow den uninvited dressed convincingly as a Jewish Man.

 

And venetian snares loves making different types of albums right, yeah he says he doesn't want retards out there listening to his best most personal stuff (too late...) but surely there's a contradiction in buying loads of cds from everywhere in this world of music but then not adding to this world of music yourself. Surely it's not that you don't realise stuff because a few petty nob heads might hate it but for all those who make music; you have their output they want to listen to yours.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Suffocate Peon

[Guest yikes]

^^^^^^^^^^^

exactly what i don't think too!

[Guest yikes]

almost vsnares entire catalog sounds like high tempo patterns that constantly mutate with no real aim or guidance, and someone randomly flipping through the drum sounds being used while it plays out. ok the drum switching isn't entirely random. tbh i think his sound design is pretty good, and i think his mixing is pretty good. i just don't like any of his 'music'. maybe two or three times in each of his millions of 20minute long spastic freakout tracks, there will be a moment i DO like, and it will last less than 2 seconds, then go into something else that i hate.

deep imagination there pup

[fxbip]

Im more into his melodic and jungle stuff so for me his best are:Rossz(even if im a bit critical of the many melodic samples he uses its still a great album),My downfall and My so called life each with many masterpieces on them.Stuff like :

 

Integraation:with THAT epic bassline at 5:07 So agressive!!!

 

 

Senki dala:Melodic masterpiece,such a beauty!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTryXajYFsI

 

and his best track in my opinion,the track that has everything My so called life;those strings;those breaks,so perfect!!Both melodic and agressive!

 

 

When i listen to these tracks let me tell you something i think to myself:this guy has some genius in him!

[Goiter Sanchez]

I've probably already said this in this thread somewhere but it bears repeating; Making Orange Things!

 

[Goiter Sanchez]

^

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh1-QffUFX8

 

fucking cracks me up every time

Yeah, for me Funk is at his best when he creates abrasive noise/percussive terrorism like so... While he does transition to punctuated subtlety more gracefully than most artists that made their name in break-core I've yet to be convinced that it is his strong suite.

[awesomeperson]

Find Candace/Doll Doll Doll is brutal, probably the best work from everything I've heard from him.

 

This track is also great from another album: