squarepusher The consequences of a new Aphex Twin album

[kaini]

i like the way hardcoded's name now shows up in red on the front page after he got the banhammer.

[purplegoat]

Remember when Deadmau5 copied BoC? Fucking priceless. It only proves how bad they are

 

 

 

link?

 

 

I was thinking of this one. Apparently he's done others as well..

[tokn]

hardcode will never die, but you will

 

[marf]

topic is something i never worry about. maybe back in the 90's when prodigy was getting big. still didnt care much then either

[Guest KY]

RIP HARDCODE

 

Sidenote: I don't think Aphex Twin will ever release another full album, nor do I really care at this point.

[acid1]

He's too forward in his thinking. All forward thinking albums seem to be misunderstood, rated terribly, and then suffer from depreciated sales.

 

I think Tuss was completely brilliant, and he used it to test the waters, in which it got pretty awful reviews.

 

Because of this, I doubt he will ever put out an album, which is a shame, because even though reviewers don't get it, he shouldn't let the fans suffer.

 

Go Plastic was horribly reviewed, but I still think its Tom's best effort.

[beerwolf]

I doubt he cares about record reviews tbh.

[ZoeB]

I don't know if RDJ cares about record reviews, but he shouldn't. His music is the kind you don't necessarily like on the first listen, but grow to appreciate more each time. I don't think I've ever liked any of his releases the first time I heard them, but I like almost all of them a few months or so later, to the point where most are my absolute favourites of any artist.

[delet...]

How about this consequence. He would have to release it in a deal that would perhaps get him less money and have less control over, than just doing stuff through other aliases as per now.

 

Not that i claim to know anything about the deal he has with those guys, just speculating cause i'm bored, and too pathetic to think of something real to do. (this isn't a backhander at you guys, i'm strictly disSing myself. ;-]_

[zlemflolia]

I don't know if RDJ cares about record reviews, but he shouldn't. His music is the kind you don't necessarily like on the first listen, but grow to appreciate more each time. I don't think I've ever liked any of his releases the first time I heard them, but I like almost all of them a few months or so later, to the point where most are my absolute favourites of any artist.

 

This. I used to think Analords were cheesy generic repetitive simple boring techno, and I used to think tracks like Vordhosbn were just a bunch of random noises, but now they're intensely thick and complex in subtle ways that I never realized beforehand.

[ZoeB]

This. I used to think Analords were cheesy generic repetitive simple boring techno, and I used to think tracks like Vordhosbn were just a bunch of random noises, but now they're intensely thick and complex in subtle ways that I never realized beforehand.

 

Exactly. If truth be told, I don't think there's a single RDJ release I've ever liked the first time I heard it, with the possible exception of Come to Daddy and Windowlicker, and even then not the more complex tracks like the Mummy Mix ("because it's got my mum in it", bless!) and the equation track. The Analords didn't seem interesting enough, the SAWs seemed too simple and boring (as did Lifeforms when I first heard it), the Richard D. James Album seemed too harsh and abrasive with the beats, despite the pretty string sections... but after listening to an album several dozen times, it becomes too familiar, predictable and pedestrian... and at this point, the tracks that first sounded too complex finally sound just complex enough. The Twin's generally on the far right of the "bland and repetitive <-> unpredictable and chaotic" scale, which makes his work hard to get into at first, but once you're there, there's not really much other music that can compete for your attention, because everyone else's music seems bland and predictable by comparison. Which is when you start to amble down that slippery road to being a completist (I've now bought Analogue Bubblebath 3 and the Caustic Window compilation, that's how bad it's getting for me now) and wanting to make more music like his, or at least with that level of originality and unpredictability. Wow, this sounds like an Aphex Anonymous post, ahem...

[beerwolf]

Most of the best music grows on you. And it's that music which has the most longtevity because it takes time to peel back all the layers imo.

[KyonPalm]

Eh, I like Skillrex. He's a pretty cool guy and doesn't afraid of WOBWOBWOB.

[marf]

how do you make music that grows on people? dont you have to kind of dislike your own music as you are making it so it will grow on people and yourself? tough job

[GORDO]

having music "grow on you" is merely a consequence of you not being a good listener in the first place.

[MAXIMUS MISCHIEF]

Eh, I like Skillrex. He's a pretty cool guy and doesn't afraid of WOBWOBWOB.

THE SKRILLEX FANS ARE ATTACKING retreat to the boc subforum quick!!!!!!!!

[delet...]

having music "grow on you" is merely a consequence of you not being a good listener in the first place.

 

I wasn't initially sure of my bloody valentine loveless, the first time i heard it. Was wrecked on some very nice, on a lovely sunny sydney winter morning in a garden shed that my brother was living in. And when he put it on, i did my break down and critique thing. That thankfully these days i mostly hold back from at least verbalizing, heh. Anyway, the next time i heard the thing, it really clicked. Now whether in the interim, it was rewiring my brain to accept a new paradigm. Or whether i was just having a grumpy moment i don't know. Most of my life though, i've usually known the instant something is playing, whether that something is for me or not.

 

hrmm.

 

Anyway, perhaps it isn't a bad thing for people to come around to liking something. If that's the way their mind works. As long, of course, as it isn't for non-musical reasons. Like social conditioning, ala peer pressure, fashion and the like.

[ZoeB]

how do you make music that grows on people?

 

Hmm... good question. I think it partly involves building upon your own memeplex that hasn't filtered down to the general meme pool too much (hence not releasing all your albums), and partly involves taking tracks you've written, and rewriting them, and adding to them, before they're released. In a lot of RDJ's work, he seems to have spent just as much time creatively destroying a track as building it up in the first place. Windowlicker's a good example of this. By the time he was finished with it, it had that bar of what sounds like MP3 compression for no apparent reason (2:35), a spiral at the end, at least two parts that are only half a bar in length, and various other kinds of quirks that add interest to the track. And, of course, Last Rushup 10 wouldn't be complete without that duck (5:13).

[Claudius t Ansuulim]

After listening to ICBYD a long time ago I started wondering if there was a way to program or manufacture a compact disc that would introduce new tracks into the mix once it reads over a section a certain (programmed/random) number of times. That would be cool, and even cooler if nobody knew about it!

[Guest plutopia]

I remember hating or mostly dismissing HAB the first time I heard it. I had something similar with drukqs (not all tracks but still). I don't have to explain how I've come to love them (not that I could explain, not in any half-dignified fashion). I think it's safe to say our brains are simply not ready or ill equiped to actually listen, which makes you think.

 

It's not just merely layered either, there's something I can't describe (so much obviously, not being a musician and/or musical doesn't help) which has to do with the interplay between the sounds. Hmm, when I say it like that it just sounds like I'm describing the whole of music everywhere, but perhaps it made some sense to someone.

[marf]

i dunno., I think we expect albums to sound a certain way and get disappointed but ultimately like the style of the artist enough to give it enough of a chance to let it grow on us. The Manchester track aphex played is all aphex goodness. It has all his style with perfect accessibility. That track won't need to grow on me. Drukqs was a grower. i just wasn't expecting that album, but I love his style at the core of his music so i gave it more chances. there is an aphex thing in the music. always and I learn to like the music around it.

[ZoeB]

After listening to ICBYD a long time ago I started wondering if there was a way to program or manufacture a compact disc that would introduce new tracks into the mix once it reads over a section a certain (programmed/random) number of times. That would be cool, and even cooler if nobody knew about it!

 

About the sneakiest thing you can do with a CD is hide music in the pre-track countdown. I believe you can even do this on the first track, so it'll always be skipped unless specifically rewound to, but I could be wrong, so don't quote me on that.

[psn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_albums_with_tracks_hidden_in_the_pregap

[Guest exaze]

See people discuss about Aphex Twin and Skrillex in the same thread.

 

 

 

I really can't deal with this shit.

[AfterEight]

I'd like it if he comes out

 

 

with a huge collection of songs, much like the anal

 

ord series.