The cult of aphex twin - bbc radio 4 doc

[BaggerMcGuirk 156]

"56 Cymru Beats again, is technically impressive - but again could have easily been released in 1994."

 

...the fuck kinda time machine you got?

[auxien 2757]

Haven't heard the current radio feature but I did just read that old BBC Drukqs review and I do almost agree about the record maybe would've been better as separate releases (sorry not trying to start a riot). But otherwise, yes of course the review is pretty damned dumb.

 

And that record store full of Drukqs is lovely :)

Edited July 3, 2018 by auxien

[hijexx 804]

Funny reading that BBC review now after just hearing the 30 minute BBC Cult Of Aphex Twin thing where they beg him for an interview lol

[WhitleyStriber 11]

I luv Aphex I luv Aphex Twin I luv u richurd.

[d-a-m-o 1685]

I luv Aphex I luv Aphex Twin I luv u richurd.

lol is that Björk ?

[Soloman Tump 973]

Feels like it should have been an hour long. Didn't really discuss the fans / cult at all and plenty of stuff was missed out. Selected Ambient Works 2 anyone? Analord? The Tuss? Syro had a fleeting mention as a blimp only....Joyrex could have been in there too.

 

Edit

 

But I did enjoy it!

Edited July 4, 2018 by fletcher

[Guest]

 

I luv Aphex I luv Aphex Twin I luv u richurd.

lol is that Björk ?

Jessica

[worms 4]

Drukqs was originally going to be 4cds but warp cut it down. Probably a lie. Read it in an old interview. Who knows.

[Soloman Tump 973]

Drukqs was originally going to be 4cds but warp cut it down. Probably a lie. Read it in an old interview. Who knows.

 

Cool if true.

 

Autechre be like "hold my drink"

[oscillik 608]

jasondonervan - your new AV is perfect.

 

It's Pitchfork-level bad that Drukqs got such shit from the media at release. Whilst Aphex isn't my favourite artist, Drukqs is a record that I regard as incredibly influential on me and one of the best albums ever made.

 

The decision to intersperse the drill tracks with prepared piano pieces was genius then and is genius now.

 

Joyrex, you were fucking way off the packet of biscuits to say it was just "quite good". You asked for custard creams when you should've asked for Choco Leibniz.

[gnarlybog 93]

very nicely edited. made me feel like a teen again discovering his work for the first timeeee.

[Uros 303]

 

 

Yeah I've never heard that rumour of Drukqs being 'deliberately a dud album to end the contract' - That was never a thing was it ?!

 

 

I'm going off memory, but I do remember that being a thing (that infamous Pitchfork review mentions the contract in the first paragraph).  I think they even asked him directly in an interview way back, which is where the lost mp3 player thing came from.

 

Drukqs wasn't really well received (at least in the US) back in 01.  I remember a Brainwashed.com review that said something like "97 was 4 years ago".

 

Critics just heard "more fast drill'n'bass" and decided to start trashing.  

 

 

"Disappointment."

 

 

 

Druqks

 

OK, this comes from a guy who misspelled Sand Lowe the other day but c'mon three times. Disappointment.

[jasondonervan 2]

jasondonervan - your new AV is perfect.

 

Merci osci. You gonna be at whatever/wherever WARP30 is next year? I might actually buy you that beer I would have at WARP20, had we realised on the night that we were stood 2 feet apart down the front row during squatpumper's antics, instead of a few days post-show when you put out your recording... 

[oscillik 608]

 

jasondonervan - your new AV is perfect.

Merci osci. You gonna be at whatever/wherever WARP30 is next year? I might actually buy you that beer I would have at WARP20, had we realised on the night that we were stood 2 feet apart down the front row during squatpumper's antics, instead of a few days post-show when you put out your recording...

I dunno, money situation and ability to get time off will play a part, but if I can get there I will!

[ZoeB 12]

"56 Cymru Beats again, is technically impressive - but again could have easily been released in 1994."

 

...the fuck kinda time machine you got?

 

 

That's a curious metric to judge music by.  "The prepared piano tracks could have been released in the early 1700s..."  Like maybe I want to listen to good music even if it's not using cutting edge technology.  Something I really like about Aphex Twin's music is that if he hadn't made it, no-one else would have, because it's just so different no-one else would have dreamed up anything remotely similar.  The same goes for Autechre.  For the most part, it doesn't sound 90s so much as like it could be from an utterly alien culture.

[oscillik 608]

 

"56 Cymru Beats again, is technically impressive - but again could have easily been released in 1994."

 

...the fuck kinda time machine you got?

 

 

That's a curious metric to judge music by.  "The prepared piano tracks could have been released in the early 1700s..."  Like maybe I want to listen to good music even if it's not using cutting edge technology.  Something I really like about Aphex Twin's music is that if he hadn't made it, no-one else would have, because it's just so different no-one else would have dreamed up anything remotely similar.  The same goes for Autechre.  For the most part, it doesn't sound 90s so much as like it could be from an utterly alien culture.

 

I chalk up this kinda talk from reviewers as pure elitist bravado. There's a certain element of the same absolute horseshit statements from some people here (I've definitely been guilty of it myself in the past).

[ceiling 19]

What a complete waste of time that was

[beerwolf 883]

What a complete waste of time that was

 

What you was expecting? It was broadcast to Radio 4 listeners mid-morning. Not for hardcore nutters like us bouncing off the wall at midnight.

Edited July 4, 2018 by beerwolf

[Soloman Tump 973]

Anyone rate The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer?

absolutely! Mulligan and O'Hare, Walk me home Ched, Otis and Marvin, the Stott brother's.... All classics

[Hugh Mughnus 1764]

 

 

 

Yeah I've never heard that rumour of Drukqs being 'deliberately a dud album to end the contract' - That was never a thing was it ?!

 

 

I'm going off memory, but I do remember that being a thing (that infamous Pitchfork review mentions the contract in the first paragraph).  I think they even asked him directly in an interview way back, which is where the lost mp3 player thing came from.

 

Drukqs wasn't really well received (at least in the US) back in 01.  I remember a Brainwashed.com review that said something like "97 was 4 years ago".

 

Critics just heard "more fast drill'n'bass" and decided to start trashing.  

 

 

"Disappointment."

 

 

 

Druqks

 

OK, this comes from a guy who misspelled Sand Lowe the other day but c'mon three times. Disappointment.

 

lol @ the bottom recommendation... I get it RE BoC (kinda the same vein somewhat?) but recommending "Akufen - My Way" if you like drukqs?

[kaen 21]

I agree with Tec

[Goiter Sanchez 407]

"56 Cymru Beats again, is technically impressive - but again could have easily been released in 1994."

 

...the fuck kinda time machine you got?

Exactly what I was thinking. Few modern composers/producers can even approach the programming brilliance of the last two min of that track even yet!

[hello spiral 1758]

Anyone rate The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer?

 

Very much

 

Prefer Bang Bang though

[Jez Courtez 1]

I embarrassingly confess it was a disappointment for me at the time and I think the lost mp3 player story only made it worse. Made it seem like he just threw a bunch of tracks together to beat a leak. I still think the story was made up to cover how personal and risky the CCAI1/piano stuff was. Maybe he should have told the interviewer that he put his heart and soul into those tracks and wanted to be taken seriously as a composer instead of saying it was some random stuff on an mp3 player that he lost. 

 

At the time, we were used to aphex breaking new ground and every release sounding like pretty much nothing else out there in the mainstream, a mainstream he had broken into. This was before YouTube and the easy internet streaming that has allowed us to hear everything with ease. Back then I would take a punt on an album because it got a good write up in the music press or was on Warp, Rephlex, Planet Mu or tigerbeat6. There was a tiny little rack of electronic music cds in selectadisk on Berwick street in london and the big HMVs were actually pretty decent. CDs were expensive. Anyway, point is as a young IDM fan back then I pretty much only heard the music after I had bought it. Compared to the limited range of IDM a teenager could buy/hear in the mid to late 90s, Aphex was always mindblowing. The On singles, ICBYD, SAW2, Ventolin EPs, RDJ album, CtD and windowlicker was a run of releases that repeatedly reinvented what 'dance' and ambient music sounded like.

 

And then Druqks. The drill tracks were great but didn't feel like the huge step forward we had been spoiled with on previous releases, especially with venetian snares and squarepusher around and evolving, and the CCAI1/piano tracks were not of interest to people who liked IDM. Or not to the younger me, at least. Even if you were inclined to be open minded to those tracks, the reviewers told you that it was sub- Cage and Satie, and you probably wouldn't have heard the music of those composers or have the means to check them out. You gonna blow £10/15 on a Satie CD because a reviewer mentioned him in a Druqks review and you might better understand what aphex is going for with these compositions? Nah, i wan't into them enough. I guess you might loan a cd from the library (yes, we really did get cds out the library - that's the first way i heard Nirvana albums).

 

Just like druqks, It took me years to appreciate SAW2. That's sacrilege to most on here i'm sure, but buying an album by someone you considered the best of a bunch that consisted of squarepusher, kid606, the prodigy, chemical brothers, autechre, orbital, etc. and hearing those tracks for the first time when you got home and played the album... tastes were not as diverse back then and music was still pretty tribal! Yeah the reviews described it so you knew not to expect stuff like SAW 85-92 but it was still a departure to say the least. I'm pretty sure there were rumours/articles at the time that SAW2 was a joke on the ambient community. Similarly, the CCAI1/piano stuff on druqks wasn't taken entirely seriously; it was unexpected (we thought Windowlicker signalled the direction of travel), richard was making out it was just a bunch of random tunes he happened to have lost copies of, and the reviewers were saying there was better, more original, contemporary classical compositions that he was imitating. Druqks was an easy album to dismiss. I wish I hadn't and grew to love it, of course.

 

Well that turned into a garbled meander down cool story bro road. Druqks is a great album (although far from my favourite) but much of the audience for it at the time were perhaps not sophisticated enough to appreciate it. I know I wasn't.

[Hugh Mughnus 1764]

eh? wasn't the lost mp3 player business for 26 mixes for cash?