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The consequences of a new Aphex Twin album


hardcode

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I'm not sure why I posted it. I liked Richard standing on the wheel of time, and I kind of derailed from there. It felt like the right thing to do, much more satisfying than most subforum discussions. Just biking around on a silly contraption, no worries, no iddems to ruin the mood.

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ZoeB is the babe that made posted a video on youtube dancing to aphex twin amirite

 

None of my YouTube videos feature me dancing to Aphex Twin for copyright reasons. You must be thinking of someone else.

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This is always how it works though. Eccentric musicians release crazy things that border on not being music (eg Merzbow). Slightly more sensible musicians make slightly more palatable music, and naturally are influenced by the more cutting edge / crazy musicians that they like to listen to (eg Aphex Twin). Even more mainstream musicians are influenced by them (eg Radiohead). And even more are influenced by them. That's just how it works. There's a broad spectrum between unlistenable, unmusical noise, and bland pop music, to name just one axis, and everyone seems influenced by someone just a bit less easy to listen to and a bit more of an acquired taste than they are. All of this music has its place.

 

As an example, I'd Rather Be With You was ripped off in Freak Like Me (Bootsy Collins got a credit, so I'll assume that was OK). This was mashed up with Are 'Friends' Electric?, and that mashup in turn was covered by a pop band. Yet you don't see teenyboppers going out and buying Gary Numan and Bootsy Collins records. Pop will eat itself. That's just how memes propagate, how culture cultivates. So you can either release your music and accept that it's no longer in a protected, isolated, impenetrable bubble, or you can hoard it for yourself. I for one hope to get to hear more of Richard D. James's work, even if it means that there will inevitably be more Iran So Far Aways and Blame Games. There's enough culture to go around that you can focus on what you love and ignore the rest.

 

I kind of agree, but I think the influence doesn't work just one way. Maybe more in the way you say indeed but still...

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I kind of agree, but I think the influence doesn't work just one way. Maybe more in the way you say indeed but still...

 

That's a good point. People in general are, and indeed ought to be, influenced by anyone else doing things they like. I'm guessing a lot of musicians (especially successful ones) draw from a wide variety of influences, both those more esoteric and also those more popular. And you can also be influenced by work made in other fields, such as Autechre drawing from architecture.

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If hardcore was right, wouldn't that scenario have already happened? I mean, by his logic, thousands of Skrillex fans must have already appeared on this forum or on YouTube videos about AFX.

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i dont think you can "bite" aphex. You will just make yourself sound like a plastic dollar store version of an idea. Best to do what you do best.

 

Aphex doesn't know this about himself. Which is why he says these things. He needs to work on his self esteem

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If hardcore was right, wouldn't that scenario have already happened? I mean, by his logic, thousands of Skrillex fans must have already appeared on this forum or on YouTube videos about AFX.

 

I could be wrong, but I believe Hardcore's point is that some of Aphex's memes have been copied and released into other memeplexes besides his own, to good effect, and that other people enjoy these new memeplexes with no idea of the origins of Aphex's unintentional contributions. Which happens constantly. That's how culture works. Everybody is influenced by everybody else, albeit usually very indirectly. To overextend the analogy, ideas reproduce very sexually, so pretty much any given modern collection of ideas has at least one or two in there that are related to countless other collections of ideas, the same way that anyone who lived in a given country a long time ago is the direct ancestor of either everybody living in it today (migration aside), or nobody.

 

In the 1930s, you started to see jazz bands with a single person playing all the percussion instruments, which included things like a kick drum, snare drum and toms. This is the same era the electric guitar was invented. You could say that any music employing these particular sounds a lot, and very few others, is essentially ripping off these people, if you go back far enough. It's one particular soundscape that's very popular and hasn't changed all that much. It's depressing enough to think how little most electronic music has moved on since Raga Bhairav's totally awesome 1982 album Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, let alone how little most rock music has moved on from 1930s jazz.

 

So yes, in this sense, anyone publicly releasing music will have their style emulated, at least if their music is considered good enough. Such musicians should take it as a compliment, and not worry about their own sound no longer being unique and special. Share your secrets.

 

Also, if you want to truly influence an artform, invent your own instruments rather than merely using other people's. John Chowning has influenced music more than any musician I can name.

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Copying Aphex is like copying apple. You can do it to improve your product but most of the time I makes you look pretty stupid. Some on the other hand do a great job with this but these understand how the whole thing works and do not just bite the obvious bits

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Skrillex's production is irrelevant, it's his status as a mainstream artist and what he says in interviews that is linking mainstream idiots to underground art that they never would have bothered checking out themselves, but now do so through mainstream-proxy.

 

let me tell you about a little band called radiohead.

 

also, shut up.

 

i never listened to radiohead unlike you which im sure "creep" was your little high school personal anthem. i dont really care. radiohead is a stupid band.

 

You are such a clone of 2-years-ago-me that I sometimes I just want to choke you. Grow up, dude. Life's not all that bad.

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Copying Aphex is like copying apple. You can do it to improve your product but most of the time I makes you look pretty stupid. Some on the other hand do a great job with this but these understand how the whole thing works and do not just bite the obvious bits

 

Exactly! You shouldn't copy the superficial (this kind of arrangement, that collection of instruments), so much as the fundamental (making music that you yourself want to hear, and not caring whether other people will like it, even being surprised that they do, rather than trying to please everybody and making something bland as a result). Which also works with Apple, as different from Aphex Twin as they are (don't take this input device and that colour scheme, but make products for yourself rather than designing by committee or asking your customers what they'd like to see next).

 

If only someone like Walter Isaacson would write a detailed biography on Richard D. James and other Warp luminaries, but we don't live in that world. :) He actually did delve into Apple's creative process and provide some good tips, which is handy as that's probably what a good few people read his latest book for.

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and what about the consequences of a new Tuss record ?

 

Pretty much the same, only without as much hype, popularity, nice cover artwork or ability to buy a digital download online right away. (I'm still waiting for a digital download release of Confederation Trough EP...)

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I can't believe this is actually a question. If everyone in the world listened to Aphex Twin, would you not? Isn't it about the music and what it does for you? Seriously, if what was considered Pop tomorrow is what is considered IDM today, I might start listening to the radio. I think it would be hilarious if Skrillex tried to copy Aphex Twin. Remember when Deadmau5 copied BoC? Fucking priceless. It only proves how bad they are

 

EDIT: Disregard me, I only just realized this is a troll.

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Guest liquiday

Deadmau5 was creating some IDM stuff before progressive house. He released his unfinished works in ''Project 56'', thats not copying BoC at all.

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Guest Drahken

Hey guys so I was thinking last night (as I always do because I'm so smart), what are the consequences of a new aphex twin album. Electronic music now with dubstep and people like Skrillex in all these huge interview for spin magazine and all that crap, talking about how he liked "anything on warp" and mentions squarepusher and richard d james (not sure why he just didnt say rephlex if he wasnt going to mention anyone else on warp but anyway), aphex twin already had a pretty big profile and im sure that is a factor in his decisions not to release good music simply because too many idiotic assholes would hear it, i wonder if this is even more intense of an issue for him now.

 

Because if he were to release a new lp, how many people like Skrillex would instantly be all over it and start biting and incorporating this into his dubstep which then is broadcast to millions of american sheep, bye-bye aphex twin. All the dubstep robots who look to Skrillex as the man would also remeber he mentioned aphex twin and also start biting him. It would be an epic collapse of a main cornerstone of underground electronic progressive music.

 

Didn't read through the whole thread but that last bit kinda reminds me of what happened in the States towards the end of the 90s. DJ culture exploded and everyone wanted to be a dj. What bothered me most about it was how good artists got sidelined by the 'sheep' as you call them. A sweet track would come on, and some chump would say "Thats a Bad Boy Bill song!", when in reality it was just a track spun by Bad Boy Bill in a set. That shit bothered the hell out of me.

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