Aphex Twin Aphex twin - RDJ was his last real album

[awepittance]

I know there are lots of people who would argue Analord and Drukqs were proper albums... but it's just not the case.

 

Aphex twin has not done a proper release, meaning a large number of tracks, made simultaneously, designed to be put on an album that has a cohesive flow in 10 years.

 

Drukqs by his own admission was a compilation of a bunch of unreleased tracks to prevent the person who had his Ipod copies from releasing bootlegs first. While i love Drukqs, i've never looked at it the same as a I Care.., SAW II, or RDJ album. Even the tracks contained on analog bubblebath 3 and the hangable autobulb 1 ep feels like it was made with the intention to put on one single ep/lp. Drukqs sounds like a compilation of tracks to me.

 

Analord was a series of tracks released over 1 year that had a similar theme yes, but the only "album" version we got was Chosen Lords, which is far from a cohesive album. I like a lot of the analord series, but chosen lords as a whole came off very under whelming.

 

Is richard d james done making albums as we know it? I'm just wondering if this is something he's stated in an interview and i just never noticed it.

I can't fault him for not liking the idea of proper albums, he has released a good number of tracks since RDJ. I just miss the good ole days

[Guest vodor]

Drukqs by his own admission was a compilation of a bunch of unreleased tracks to prevent the person who had his Ipod copies from releasing bootlegs first.

 

I don't believe that for a second.

 

And if we really must discount Drukqs, I think ICBYD was the last real album. RDJ album is shorter than most autechre EPs.

[awepittance]

Drukqs by his own admission was a compilation of a bunch of unreleased tracks to prevent the person who had his Ipod copies from releasing bootlegs first.

 

I don't believe that for a second.

 

And if we really must discount Drukqs, I think ICBYD was the last real album. RDJ album is shorter than most autechre EPs.

 

i dont really think length reflects a proper album or not. Skinny Puppy's best album "Too dark park" clocks in at just over 30 minutes. Sote, from warp put out his first full length recently and its 34 minutes long. It still feels like an album though. Autechre Ep lengths are humorous, Ep7 especially to my ears might as well be an LP.

 

And i'm not sure if i believe that story either, but it still doesn't change the fact that Druqks does not sound like a cohesive album, where all of the tracks were made with the intention of putting them on a single album. Richard D james tracks do sound it like they were made for an album in mind. Do you disagree?

[khov]

i read he hates making trax in order to do an album (knowing they would be released or something), i guess that AFX makes trax, then decide to put out eps or album. but isn't everysingle album on earth a kind of a compilation?

[awepittance]

but isn't everysingle album on earth a kind of a compilation?

 

yes to some extent it is. i hate to compare but Autechre , and squarepusher for example have continuously made very cohesive sounding albums. In their design they sound like they were all put together with the intention of an album listening. Sote commented that my cd "lying on the floor..." did not sound like a cohesive album, so it is very much in the eye of the beholder. Im just wondering what other people think about this and if they would like to see Aphex go back to making something along the lines of SAW II.

[khov]

i dont know but i like cohesive albums more & i think the "well tempered 303" nickname is a good way to describe the analord records ; only very gifted musicians can makes loads of trax using the same sounds (instruments) without repeating themselves.

 

the best thing with analord is that its endless, there are som many trax, you cannot listen to the whole binder, just parts of it.

[Guest vodor]

Skinny Puppy's best album "Too dark park" clocks in at just over 30 minutes.

 

I never noticed that, and I agree that it is among their best. Touche.

 

Autechre Ep lengths are humorous, Ep7 especially to my ears might as well be an LP.

 

To be fair, EP7 is two EPs mashed together.

 

Richard D james tracks do sound it like they were made for an album in mind. Do you disagree?

 

I don't disagree. But RDJ feels very short to me when I listen to it. It's not satisfying like I expect an album to be, even though it's made up of excellent and complementary tracks. Technically, yes, it is an album, but I don't find that it feels much more like an album than the Come to Daddy EP simply because it's distractingly short.

[awepittance]

Skinny Puppy's best album "Too dark park" clocks in at just over 30 minutes.

 

I never noticed that, and I agree that it is among their best. Touche.

 

Autechre Ep lengths are humorous, Ep7 especially to my ears might as well be an LP.

 

To be fair, EP7 is two EPs mashed together.

 

Richard D james tracks do sound it like they were made for an album in mind. Do you disagree?

 

I don't disagree. But RDJ feels very short to me when I listen to it. It's not satisfying like I expect an album to be, even though it's made up of excellent and complementary tracks. Technically, yes, it is an album, but I don't find that it feels much more like an album than the Come to Daddy EP simply because it's distractingly short.

 

 

even the come to daddy EP feels more like a cohesive piece than anything he has done since. Windowlicker while good, seems like he was kind of forced into making an EP out of the tracks he had at the time. What Eps were EP7 mashed togheter from? Is it like the chichli LP doublepack? I usually buy autechre stuff on cd and rarely buy their vinyl.

[Guest vodor]

There were EP7.1 and EP7.2 vinyls if I recall correctly.

[Guest AlexPallas]

i know what you mean when you say drukqs isn't a 'proper' album, but i wouldn't agree whole heartedly. it feels like RDJ gave us access to 2 cds or his most personal and prescious collection of music, much of it groundbreaking. i love the analord stuff as well. i love the RDJ album as well, but if the analords and drukqs is the result of 'improper albums' i'll be much happier if he stuck to improper albums because as good as the early stuff is, its not as groundbreaking as it once was.

[awepittance]

i know what you mean when you say drukqs isn't a 'proper' album, but i wouldn't agree whole heartedly. it feels like RDJ gave us access to 2 cds or his most personal and prescious collection of music, much of it groundbreaking. i love the analord stuff as well. i love the RDJ album as well, but if the analords and drukqs is the result of 'improper albums' i'll be much happier if he stuck to improper albums because as good as the early stuff is, its not as groundbreaking as it once was.

 

i know how you feel, i was never really into analord. Its a good release, just doesnt have elements of the aphex ive come to love. RDJ isnt as groundbreaking as it once was because since then he has had a lot of copycats :grin: so i think in a sense Analord is a backlash to all that and the high innovative standards his fans built up to expect from him. there are quite alot of copycats coming out of the woodwork doing analord style acid techno now, which i find very ammusing. It makes me wonder, if aphex started making 1980s breakdancing music, would that become the new trend in electronic music/electronic as well?

[Guest DJ Alan-A-Dale]

Drukqs by his own admission was a compilation of a bunch of unreleased tracks to prevent the person who had his Ipod copies from releasing bootlegs first.

 

Richie is always spouting out random crap in interviews, I mean, he said he wrote SAWII via lucid dreams and cruises around in a tank he bought off ebay, does that mean it's true~? Personally, I think Drukqs is as much as an album as RDJ, and even if it wasn't, it's just gorgeous, original music. See, I don't really care if Aphex completely abandons the album format in favor of wax cylinders and masking tape, what matters is that the music will keep being released, ya know~?

[Joyrex]

There were EP7.1 and EP7.2 vinyls if I recall correctly.

 

That's due to licensing in the UK... look at all the Aphex EPs that come out as Ventolin 1 & 2 but come out as one 12 track EP in the States.

 

Drukqs was his last album (although WARP counts 26 Mixes as an album) of original work, and the whole story about Richard losing an MP3 player on a plane is a lie, and had nothing to do with Drukqs coming out early. Analord was a series of EPs, and Chosen Lords, like 26 Mixes is an album-compilation, and not a true album in the sense as an original work.

[awepittance]

Richie is always spouting out random crap in interviews,

yes he is, but why would he say that unless some part of him knew that Drukqs wasnt intendted for an album while it was being made/compiled. I feel like this lie was designed as an excuse for why the album was completely uncohesive and sounded like a compilation of unreleased material much more so than previous albums.

 

See, I don't really care if Aphex completely abandons the album format in favor of wax cylinders and masking tape, what matters is that the music will keep being released, ya know~?

 

yes i can understand your opinion, but dont you miss the cohesive flow of his old albums at all?

[Fred McGriff]

drukqs was proper

[Guest Mr. Modular]

You are dead wrong as usual.

[Guest ¾mE ½yoU]

Aphex twin has not done a proper release, meaning a large number of tracks, made simultaneously, designed to be put on an album that has a cohesive flow in 10 years.

the US edition of the RDJ album is a short album (10 tracks @ 32 minutes) + rest of the girl/boy ep tacked on the end. hardly cohesive.

[Guest AlexPallas]

i know what you mean when you say drukqs isn't a 'proper' album, but i wouldn't agree whole heartedly. it feels like RDJ gave us access to 2 cds or his most personal and prescious collection of music, much of it groundbreaking. i love the analord stuff as well. i love the RDJ album as well, but if the analords and drukqs is the result of 'improper albums' i'll be much happier if he stuck to improper albums because as good as the early stuff is, its not as groundbreaking as it once was.

 

i know how you feel, i was never really into analord. Its a good release, just doesnt have elements of the aphex ive come to love. RDJ isnt as groundbreaking as it once was because since then he has had a lot of copycats :grin: so i think in a sense Analord is a backlash to all that and the high innovative standards his fans built up to expect from him. there are quite alot of copycats coming out of the woodwork doing analord style acid techno now, which i find very ammusing. It makes me wonder, if aphex started making 1980s breakdancing music, would that become the new trend in electronic music/electronic as well?

 

that wasn't the impression i was trying to give. when RDJ did the analords he was taking the genre to its full potential. he did something wise with the analord songs, all of the tracks (as in multitrack recording) are interesting, but not extremely praiseworthy in their own right. but when the multitracks are combined the result is amazing. in other words, if you cant focus on all at once, you probably wont understand the songs at all.

[Guest DJ Alan-A-Dale]

Richie is always spouting out random crap in interviews,

 

yes he is, but why would he say that unless some part of him knew that Drukqs wasnt intendted for an album while it was being made/compiled. I feel like this lie was designed as an excuse for why the album was completely uncohesive and sounded like a compilation of unreleased material much more so than previous albums.

 

See, I don't really care if Aphex completely abandons the album format in favor of wax cylinders and masking tape, what matters is that the music will keep being released, ya know~?

 

yes i can understand your opinion, but dont you miss the cohesive flow of his old albums at all?

 

Well, personally, I think that Drukqs, in the timeline of Aphex evolution, fits in perfectly. Directly preceding drukqs was a series of very poppy (at least for him) releases, -Richard D. James, Come to Daddy, Windowlicker.

 

Now I believe that Richard wasn't entirely happy with this new direction, maybe it was just a fluke, maybe it was a potboiler, I don't know.

 

I think Drukqs was released, at least in part, to promote AFX's experimental side, and shake off the teenybopper fans he'd developed (sort of like Nirvana's "In Utero"), and drukqs also serves as the logical conclusion of the direction he'd been going (i.e Incredibly fast, nearly random snare rushes, mixed up with soft piano pieces). Literally, I think it's more or less RDJ album to the extreme, on drukqs perhaps~?

 

Now Analord is what I belive is a rebirth of Aphex, similar to the beatle's let it be period, he's returning to his old style of creating music, and I think that lots of the tracks from analord would feel quite at home on SAW-85-92. If I had to predict where he'd go from now, he's probably going to release another proper album, and it's gonna be the most cohesive thing he's ever written, like... a masterpiece or something, I don't know~!

[Guest man with no name]

I do not agree with you awepittance

[awepittance]

You are dead wrong as usual.

i have been wrong about a lot of things, but what's with the assish condescending attitude? in a bad mood or something? didnt mean to stir up the pot. just asking a valid question and opinions of other watmm members.

[awepittance]

Richie is always spouting out random crap in interviews,

 

yes he is, but why would he say that unless some part of him knew that Drukqs wasnt intendted for an album while it was being made/compiled. I feel like this lie was designed as an excuse for why the album was completely uncohesive and sounded like a compilation of unreleased material much more so than previous albums.

 

See, I don't really care if Aphex completely abandons the album format in favor of wax cylinders and masking tape, what matters is that the music will keep being released, ya know~?

 

yes i can understand your opinion, but dont you miss the cohesive flow of his old albums at all?

 

Well, personally, I think that Drukqs, in the timeline of Aphex evolution, fits in perfectly. Directly preceding drukqs was a series of very poppy (at least for him) releases, -Richard D. James, Come to Daddy, Windowlicker.

 

Now I believe that Richard wasn't entirely happy with this new direction, maybe it was just a fluke, maybe it was a potboiler, I don't know.

 

I think Drukqs was released, at least in part, to promote AFX's experimental side, and shake off the teenybopper fans he'd developed (sort of like Nirvana's "In Utero"), and drukqs also serves as the logical conclusion of the direction he'd been going (i.e Incredibly fast, nearly random snare rushes, mixed up with soft piano pieces). Literally, I think it's more or less RDJ album to the extreme, on drukqs perhaps~?

 

Now Analord is what I belive is a rebirth of Aphex, similar to the beatle's let it be period, he's returning to his old style of creating music, and I think that lots of the tracks from analord would feel quite at home on SAW-85-92. If I had to predict where he'd go from now, he's probably going to release another proper album, and it's gonna be the most cohesive thing he's ever written, like... a masterpiece or something, I don't know~!

 

i appreciate the more than 5 word reply. thank you. I definitly see your stance, and i'm kind of coming around in my thinking. But im not so sure i would say Druqks was more experimental than his previous releases. The piano pieces i suppose were experimental, but to me the content was very dancefloor , even more so than his previous works, and this is arguably more "poppy". He went back to using a lot of 303, and 808 sounds, even had some robot voice samples over tracks. From the people i know who are into aphex only as of recent *got* into him because of Druqks. So maybe it shook off some fans, maybe it didnt, i cant really say. The album to me will always sound like a drill and bass dancefloor album, outtakes of I care because you do with solo piano and prepared piano tracks intermingled. I do agree that it is most definitly a natural evolution in his style, but at the same time i also feel like it is a back lash along with Analord to what his fans expect him to do post Windowlicker/come to daddy/RDJ album.

[awepittance]

i know what you mean when you say drukqs isn't a 'proper' album, but i wouldn't agree whole heartedly. it feels like RDJ gave us access to 2 cds or his most personal and prescious collection of music, much of it groundbreaking. i love the analord stuff as well. i love the RDJ album as well, but if the analords and drukqs is the result of 'improper albums' i'll be much happier if he stuck to improper albums because as good as the early stuff is, its not as groundbreaking as it once was.

 

i know how you feel, i was never really into analord. Its a good release, just doesnt have elements of the aphex ive come to love. RDJ isnt as groundbreaking as it once was because since then he has had a lot of copycats :grin: so i think in a sense Analord is a backlash to all that and the high innovative standards his fans built up to expect from him. there are quite alot of copycats coming out of the woodwork doing analord style acid techno now, which i find very ammusing. It makes me wonder, if aphex started making 1980s breakdancing music, would that become the new trend in electronic music/electronic as well?

 

that wasn't the impression i was trying to give. when RDJ did the analords he was taking the genre to its full potential. he did something wise with the analord songs, all of the tracks (as in multitrack recording) are interesting, but not extremely praiseworthy in their own right. but when the multitracks are combined the result is amazing. in other words, if you cant focus on all at once, you probably wont understand the songs at all.

 

ah, yes i did misunderstand you. Analord 10 is one of my favorite aphex 12" singles ever, if the entire Analord series was as developed and had as complex composition as 10 it would be the best aphex twin album of all time.

[awepittance]

ok for the sake of continuing the discussion and take the focus off Drukqs, i will agre that Drukqs is a proper album. Now its been about 5 years since Drukqs (was also 5 years in between RDJ album and Drukqs)... do you think Aphex has plans to release another full proper album? For the people who do not care, is Analord filling the void of a new album for you?

[Guest aphelion]

well his Q music interview suggested he had just finished an album??,

but i'm not sure he cares too much about his fans/releasing anything (could all be bollocks). :undecided:

your right though, i think he is due a proper studio album (I do like the analord series mind you)