Aphex Twin - is it OK to only like the bits that sound nice?

[slate]

 

i'm guessing you also plan to run ventolin through a band reject filter

 

Ventolin is an interesting example to discuss.

 

So its 1995, I'm at Uni. I've been listening to Selected Ambient Works 95-92 loads, SAW II loads. The hype around Aphex is at an all time high. The internet wasn't really a big thing yet (it existed, but not many people were on it). So the hype was being driven by NME and Melody Maker and so on. The playing-sandpaper-at-a-club thing was already legend. The SAW II lucid dreaming story was legend. "On" had been released a few years prior, had got into the top 40 and got played on MTV. So there's a new EP out, called Ventolin, the NME says. I take a trip down to HMV to find it (no amazon, no streaming, you had to get your arse down to the shops and rummage around).

 

And, you know, Ventolin. Its an impressive bit of experimentation. Story goes that its supposed to sound like having an asthma attack. He captured that pretty well. I've listened to it all the way through once or twice in the last 23 years, not more than that. I mean it invokes interesting feelings, but I don't actually want to listen to it.

 

The rest of the EP though, fucking amazing. The Coppice, The Marazanvose Mix. Sounded like nothing anyone had done before, so organic and low fi yet still electronic. And then the second disc with the Cylob mix on it.

 

Its interesting that he put Ventolin out at that time when the hype was so high. Like it was literally unplayable on the radio. It really established that he wasn't trying to get popular.

 

And if you wanted to listen to something cool, you put on the Ventolin EP and skip the first track.

 

I Care Because You Do dropped a month later. I like albums you can listen to all the way through without skipping stuff. ICBYD is almost one of those albums, but I would skip Ventolin obviously.

 

Icct Hedral is interesting, because its very intense and noisy and dark but its also very musical and cinematic. You can listen to it and imagine the world ending and folding in on itself or whatever. So Icct Hedral vs Ventolin is interesting to think about because they're both from the same period and both intense and dark but Icct Hedral is deep and impressive but Ventolin is kindof like giving you the finger and jamming a pencil in your ear at the same time.

 

 

Your observations are sound, you are free to listen to and enjoy whatever you like, but Rich has always said he's interested in the 2 extreme sides of music, the extremely lush and the extremely harsh, and he is only ever going to make music that he finds interesting, so we get tracks like .942937 or Ventolin, with both sides mixed together. About what you said on 54 Cymru Beats, I've listened to Drukqs many times and I think bits like that serve a few purposes:

 

1. Adds pacing and variety to the sonic palette, breaking up the melodies with pure sound experimentation.

2. Acts as an extension of what he wanted Drukqs to sound like, he didn't want it to just be frantic and lush with good melodies, he wanted some of it to be cold, menacing, calculating, intense, even jarring or un-listenable, that's the narrative he wanted to tell/what he was feeling and a great album we got.

3. It just goes hard, you can't deny that while the amazing drumwork on Vordhosbn is tight and danceable, the jarring bits on 54 Cymru Beats and Omgyjya Switch are just intense on a whole other level, he didn't want the crazy drums to be the intensity peak of the album, he wanted to have these rough bits that went even further.

4. He just wanted to experiment and make those metallic industrial sounds because the album had to have them and he felt like it.

 

I think that while you may skip the harsh bits of tracks, if he never had them in his music and it was just all lush, his whole body of work would lose character and variety, he has mastered the 2 polar opposites of accessibility and in-accessibility.

[Bubba69]

different parts sound nice to different people. for example, I actually like the first and second parts of the track the most, the 3rd part I'm just like, well I know that's nice melodyish but I've heard it a bunch of times and I'm a bit bored with it, what about that MT-1 track.... mmhmm, I'll skip to that 

[Dragon]

all joking aside, i think this is one of the best threads i've seen here in a long time. i'm willing to bet there are plenty of aphex fans out there who feel the same way. maybe there's some kind of taboo against pointing this out? i think this is a real opportunity (and anyway, isn't this "real fan" mindset exactly the kind of thing we criticize in other subcultures/communities?)

 

so let's do this! the first thing that came to mind was this interview from 95 where rich is asked about his sound design:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcibDsSoNEY&t=1535s

 

rdj has always been focused on putting out a wide an eclectic range of moods an styles within his releases (particularly his most mainstream albums) to the point that when drukqs was released he openly advised people to choose their favourites and make their own playlists etc.

 

when syro was released, i admit i had this problem with CIRCLONT 6A and syro u473 - not only are they very intense in their mood, but they approach the listener with so many layers of noise densely packed together. i love the breakdown sequences in 54 Cymru Beats and omgyjy-Switch, but i still can't get into the 'groove' of those two syro tracks (funnily enough, when rdj was asked on soundcloud about his personal favourites on syro, he simply answered "u437, by quite a long way".)

 

overall i think this is all a good thing - this extreme variation is the best part of the journey. i don't think there's a single person on earth who considers all four tracks on Donkey Rhubarb to be personal favourites, but give me Pancake Lizard any day of the week :)

[modey]

 

If I made my own edit of T69 Collapse with the middle bit chopped out, would that be some kind of sacrilege?

 

We should make a compilation of classic IDM tracks fixed by Watmm, with phudoshin's Coathanger edit and whatever else

 

yes, and also include the proposed remake of saw85-92 without the tape dropouts and noise

[BobDobalina]

 

 

If I made my own edit of T69 Collapse with the middle bit chopped out, would that be some kind of sacrilege?

 

We should make a compilation of classic IDM tracks fixed by Watmm, with phudoshin's Coathanger edit and whatever else

 

yes, and also include the proposed remake of saw85-92 without the tape dropouts and noise

 

 

Don't forget Untitled stereo-difference and pitched-down NTS Sessions, both classics IMHMMVPN

[usagi]

flol thread

 

anyway no, you should make an intense constipated effort to enjoy absolutely everything Prophet Richard (PBUH) has ever brought into existence because anything else would be sacrilege.

[dingformung]

olo

i mean ololo

[WhitleyStriber]

Threads like these are the reason why I still browse WATMM

[Zephyr_Nova]

 

This is the correct answer.

[Goiter Sanchez]

If it's all completely lush then it would be the audio equivalent of fast food, i.e, uniformly stimulating of sweet & savoury receptors without any sort of challenging aesthetic contrast... Having abrasive or discordant sections makes it more of a honed, traditional recipe; there are familiar and unfamiliar tastes, some outright bitterness which may put off some, but the sweet and savoury sections are more genuine in direct contrast. 

[zlemflolia]

I used to do this thing where I'd skip to the good parts of songs and listen to them over and over again, but then I realized you get burnt out on them if you do that, because often the "goodness" is based on the contrast to the other parts.  For instance, there are parts of AE tracks where if you listen to them individually they're pretty unremarkable, just like an extra loud or noticeable drum beat thrown in somewhere, but when that drum beat is heard as part of the whole composition and you can hear its contrast to the preceding couple of minutes, it's amazing and the thing that makes the entire track pure perfection, the anticipation of waiting for it.  For this reason I think you shouldn't listen to tracks in this way and instead should listen to the whole thing or nothing, but this is just my preference.

[saltykraut]

So things are just lush or not lush

[Zephyr_Nova]

when syro was released, i admit i had this problem with CIRCLONT 6A and syro u473 - not only are they very intense in their mood, but they approach the listener with so many layers of noise densely packed together. i love the breakdown sequences in 54 Cymru Beats and omgyjy-Switch, but i still can't get into the 'groove' of those two syro tracks (funnily enough, when rdj was asked on soundcloud about his personal favourites on syro, he simply answered "u437, by quite a long way".)

 

 

Interesting - to me Syro u473 was his most accessible track on that album.  it's maybe the funkiest track he's ever done, the beat/bass sounds almost like something Prince wold have come up with.  The breakdown at 3:50 is pretty unexpected though.  But up until then it lays the groove on pretty thick.  Prob my fave track off Syro. 

 

The idea of skipping through sections of tracks/songs is bizarre to me.  It's akin to only looking at half a painting and covering up the rest.  I mean... I guess I can get behind the idea of visiting an art gallery with a sheet to casually throw over sections of paintings you find aesthetically displeasing.  The more I think about it, the more I like the idea really.  But when it comes to albums, I pretty much never skip tracks, nevermind individual sections.  I do sometimes stop Syro before Aisatsana because there's only so many times I can hear a C maj7.  it's always been my goto chord on piano, so I have that one covered.  I don't need to hear it from anyone else.

[modey]

I wonder about his reasons for putting something like that in the middle of a track. Trying to push the envelope I guess. Any maybe also a way to make sure his stuff stays 'underground'?

maybe it could be..

 

gasp

 

something he.. enjoys making?!

[Brisbot]

The track as a whole just makes more sense.  It all feels like a collapse, if you cut out the middle it's like showing just the before and after of some disaster without knowing what the disaster was. Then again I have no clue what was happening in the video.

So if you do splice out the middle you MUST name it "T69".

[phudoshin]

 

If I made my own edit of T69 Collapse with the middle bit chopped out, would that be some kind of sacrilege?

 

We should make a compilation of classic IDM tracks fixed by Watmm, with phudoshin's Coathanger edit and whatever else

 

takes umbrage.. i was young and foolhardy

[killabyte11]

The middle part is the best bit of the track.  Why does this need it's own thread?  Nobody cares what your moronic opinion is about wanting to water down and dilute Aphex Twin's music and make it as tame and safe as your stupid little anime mice. 

[Ivan Ooze]

lol

[usagi]

leave his little anime mice alone.

[donquixote]

I don't like the middle section either. I respect it but don't like listening to it. I also make playlists of autechres melodic shit and get rid of the fluff wankery tracks. I'm happy with who I am.

 

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[hello spiral]

I am not happy with who you are

[donquixote]

safe.

[hello spiral]

[eczem]

DJ Fluff Wankery

 

shit, wrong thread

[usagi]

the hippin' and the hoppin', the druggin' and the fuckin'