The Mandatory "What are you listening to now?" thread
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Tollbooth Willie
The Freeman
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Reel Big Fish - Pot Song
Absinthe
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The album has some gold on it, but as with most remix compilations, there's a few that are forgettable. It's especially noticeable that on some of the earlier remixes there's the commonality of throwing the beats through some ****ed-up bit crush distortion. And you can tell when he's just trying to make a quick buck with complete disregard to integrity (he is Aphex Twin, after all). It's the second disc that I find really takes off. The complete destruction of Die Fantastischen Vier's "Krieger" and Wagon Christ's "Spotlight" are brilliant, and his SAW2 remix takes on an all-new eerieness on its own.
That's not to say Disc 1 is anything to sneeze at. I've never heard anything else like his Buck Tick remix. For me it conjures up images of alien, night-covered forestry both beautiful and bizarre.
That's not to say Disc 1 is anything to sneeze at. I've never heard anything else like his Buck Tick remix. For me it conjures up images of alien, night-covered forestry both beautiful and bizarre.
Icarusintel
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The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3
evil^milk
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:cheers:
Geogaddi
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D: I just started listening to Mum
Ennui
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Heh one of my least favorite, I don't like that song very much because of it
Shakermaker
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Curtis Mayfield - Right on for the darkness
Absinthe
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FTW! Running around science like kids with guns.
"The Mark Has Been Made" by Nine Inch Nails
Absinthe
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Oh dear.
Sit down, my son. Let me get you some hot coco and a blanket.
Are they categorized by album? That's pretty much the most efficient way to go at it. The first two albums are easily the most approachable to anybody. Ignoring most EPs for the time being... Incunabula is heavily rooted in early electro/IDM. Think Aphex Twin's SAW1, except more clinical and cold.
Recommended: Doctrine, Lowride, Windwind, Eggshell
Amber is a lot softer around the edges, dare I say more ambient. Easily the most human album they ever released. It also has the the distinction of holding the only Ae track I know that sounds remotely happy: "Slip".
Recommended: Slip, Piezo, Glitch, Sliverside
Tri Repetae is often considered to be their best album, as well as one of the most significant ones of its time. There's a clear change in theme. The mechanical flavors are pushed to the point of being almost industrial. Each track seems like it was made with a machine in mind. Clicks, buzzes, drones, bursts of white noise. Songs generally build themselves up layer by layer, growing more condensed until collapsing. The US release included both the Anvil Vapre and Garbage EPs, which I personally find almost inseparable from the album due to their quality. I consider this to be the cutoff point where they start going towards the deep end, consequently pissing off a lot of fans and confusing everybody else.
Reccomended: Clipper, C/Pach, Overand, Rsdio
Anvil Vapre: Second Scout, Second Scepe
Garbage: Bronchusevenmx24, VLetrmx21
Chiastic Slide, opposite of Tri Repetae, is actually considered one of the most underappreciated. If they're to be believed, they were doing a lot of shrooms during recording sessions. This is actually one of my favorites. They start experimenting more with different time signatures, freeform beats, and shifting patterns. Whereas the mechanics of the previous albums were almost pristine, Chiastic is clunky, picking up dirt and mud, losing resolution. But aside from that, it still retains some beautiful, albeit heart-rending tunes.
Reccomended: Rettic AC, Cichli, Recury, Pule
LP5 pushes further into experimental territory. It contains a fair amount of qualities from the previous albums, but it sounds firmly rooted in robot territory instead of physical mechanics. BPM's fold, sequences cut in and out, synths morph on the fly. I think this is actually the weakest album, but not without its merits.
Recommended: Acroyear2, Corc, Drane2
Confield is, bar none, their most difficult. If you had a concept of music, this challenges it. Aphex Twin at his hardest is almost a pansy in comparison with certain tracks. Wether or not you consider it music or simply a collection noises running on mathemetical algorithms and sequences is up to you. Beats can exist for a second before getting smashed apart. I love it, but I don't blame some people for hating it.
Recommended: Pen Expers, Sim Gishel, Uviol, Parhelic Triangle
Draft 7.30 takes the concepts behind Confield and focuses them into something more manageable, yet still drives it into further abstraction. Their hip-hop roots shine through from time to time, but they've pretty much mangled them into their bitches. Synths and percussive elements are sometimes indistinguishable, blending together or trading places. If you still don't like Ae at this point, you should just give up, because you never will. But hell, it obviously can't be all that bad. I heard the last track in a cell phone ad.
Recommended: 6ie.cr, Tapr, P.:ntil, Reniform Puls
Their latest album, Untilted, rather than wholly moving into another phase, seems to take all prior experience from each album. Previously, you occasionally got the idea that that they were just letting their tracks run on code and pressing the end result to a CD. But there are many times here you can detect the actual uncanny precision. Tracks progress through varied, segmented forms, often sounding nothing like the way they began. You can still hear some of the old 808 handclaps and drum kicks. And there is a distinct human signature on it. Some parts sound like Kraftwerk on ecstasy. Some are like cavernous domes, piping in audience noise, stuttering chants, and vocalizations. The end shoots out into space before drifting into a void.
Recommended: LCC, Ipacial Section, Pro Radii, Fermium, Sublimit
You have fairly similar music tastes to me, and you're adventurous enough. So you can jump in pretty much anywhere past Tri Repetae (although Confield will take getting used to no matter what). But I personally think that the most interesting progression is in chronological order, since it just gives you an idea of of how much they've transformed. Although there's still a good chance you won't like it. There's not really anything else to compare it to.
Untilted is perhaps their most accessible album in a long time, but it's still some of the strangest shit to come out of music. When I said they challenged the concept of it, I was serious. It does make you ask yourself if music has to have a consistent (or even identifiable) structure, or if it needs to be pleasing to the ears. One of their goals seems to take whatever current tools are available and then pushing them to their extremes before anybody else, and they're always one step ahead in that regard. But don't let that fool you into thinking it's a gimmick without emotion. They have produced some of the most moving pieces I've heard. They're subtle, carefully made, and often have a pervasive sadness to them.
And on a lesser note, their very nature can make them some excellent drug music. I could listen to Chiastic Slide for ages on shrooms (although don't expect any soft SAW2 vibes). Confield and the Gantz Graf EP seem practically tailor-made for dissociatives.
Apologies to all others for taking up this much space. :|
(Also, ep7, while considered an EP, actually has the full length of an actual album)
Sit down, my son. Let me get you some hot coco and a blanket.
Are they categorized by album? That's pretty much the most efficient way to go at it. The first two albums are easily the most approachable to anybody. Ignoring most EPs for the time being... Incunabula is heavily rooted in early electro/IDM. Think Aphex Twin's SAW1, except more clinical and cold.
Recommended: Doctrine, Lowride, Windwind, Eggshell
Amber is a lot softer around the edges, dare I say more ambient. Easily the most human album they ever released. It also has the the distinction of holding the only Ae track I know that sounds remotely happy: "Slip".
Recommended: Slip, Piezo, Glitch, Sliverside
Tri Repetae is often considered to be their best album, as well as one of the most significant ones of its time. There's a clear change in theme. The mechanical flavors are pushed to the point of being almost industrial. Each track seems like it was made with a machine in mind. Clicks, buzzes, drones, bursts of white noise. Songs generally build themselves up layer by layer, growing more condensed until collapsing. The US release included both the Anvil Vapre and Garbage EPs, which I personally find almost inseparable from the album due to their quality. I consider this to be the cutoff point where they start going towards the deep end, consequently pissing off a lot of fans and confusing everybody else.
Reccomended: Clipper, C/Pach, Overand, Rsdio
Anvil Vapre: Second Scout, Second Scepe
Garbage: Bronchusevenmx24, VLetrmx21
Chiastic Slide, opposite of Tri Repetae, is actually considered one of the most underappreciated. If they're to be believed, they were doing a lot of shrooms during recording sessions. This is actually one of my favorites. They start experimenting more with different time signatures, freeform beats, and shifting patterns. Whereas the mechanics of the previous albums were almost pristine, Chiastic is clunky, picking up dirt and mud, losing resolution. But aside from that, it still retains some beautiful, albeit heart-rending tunes.
Reccomended: Rettic AC, Cichli, Recury, Pule
LP5 pushes further into experimental territory. It contains a fair amount of qualities from the previous albums, but it sounds firmly rooted in robot territory instead of physical mechanics. BPM's fold, sequences cut in and out, synths morph on the fly. I think this is actually the weakest album, but not without its merits.
Recommended: Acroyear2, Corc, Drane2
Confield is, bar none, their most difficult. If you had a concept of music, this challenges it. Aphex Twin at his hardest is almost a pansy in comparison with certain tracks. Wether or not you consider it music or simply a collection noises running on mathemetical algorithms and sequences is up to you. Beats can exist for a second before getting smashed apart. I love it, but I don't blame some people for hating it.
Recommended: Pen Expers, Sim Gishel, Uviol, Parhelic Triangle
Draft 7.30 takes the concepts behind Confield and focuses them into something more manageable, yet still drives it into further abstraction. Their hip-hop roots shine through from time to time, but they've pretty much mangled them into their bitches. Synths and percussive elements are sometimes indistinguishable, blending together or trading places. If you still don't like Ae at this point, you should just give up, because you never will. But hell, it obviously can't be all that bad. I heard the last track in a cell phone ad.
Recommended: 6ie.cr, Tapr, P.:ntil, Reniform Puls
Their latest album, Untilted, rather than wholly moving into another phase, seems to take all prior experience from each album. Previously, you occasionally got the idea that that they were just letting their tracks run on code and pressing the end result to a CD. But there are many times here you can detect the actual uncanny precision. Tracks progress through varied, segmented forms, often sounding nothing like the way they began. You can still hear some of the old 808 handclaps and drum kicks. And there is a distinct human signature on it. Some parts sound like Kraftwerk on ecstasy. Some are like cavernous domes, piping in audience noise, stuttering chants, and vocalizations. The end shoots out into space before drifting into a void.
Recommended: LCC, Ipacial Section, Pro Radii, Fermium, Sublimit
You have fairly similar music tastes to me, and you're adventurous enough. So you can jump in pretty much anywhere past Tri Repetae (although Confield will take getting used to no matter what). But I personally think that the most interesting progression is in chronological order, since it just gives you an idea of of how much they've transformed. Although there's still a good chance you won't like it. There's not really anything else to compare it to.
Untilted is perhaps their most accessible album in a long time, but it's still some of the strangest shit to come out of music. When I said they challenged the concept of it, I was serious. It does make you ask yourself if music has to have a consistent (or even identifiable) structure, or if it needs to be pleasing to the ears. One of their goals seems to take whatever current tools are available and then pushing them to their extremes before anybody else, and they're always one step ahead in that regard. But don't let that fool you into thinking it's a gimmick without emotion. They have produced some of the most moving pieces I've heard. They're subtle, carefully made, and often have a pervasive sadness to them.
And on a lesser note, their very nature can make them some excellent drug music. I could listen to Chiastic Slide for ages on shrooms (although don't expect any soft SAW2 vibes). Confield and the Gantz Graf EP seem practically tailor-made for dissociatives.
Apologies to all others for taking up this much space. :|
(Also, ep7, while considered an EP, actually has the full length of an actual album)
Vegeta897
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Some of Autechre is a bit too abrasive for me. Nuane is not one of them. I only like abrasiveness when it's at a climax or is used in a super fast breakbeat style. The ending of 54 Cymru Beats by Aphex Twin is both.
Absinthe
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Yeah, they can get pretty grating. But at the least, I always find them interesting. Years from now, there will be courses in studying their tracks, finding the underlying workings.
And sometimes I need something to obliterate my senses, even if it isn't necessarily an enjoyable experience. Like a cathartic rush that breaks down my mental construction, then having it reform from there. Squarepusher's good for that as well sometimes.
Oh, and so I'm not entirely off topic: "Steinbolt" by Squarepusher
And sometimes I need something to obliterate my senses, even if it isn't necessarily an enjoyable experience. Like a cathartic rush that breaks down my mental construction, then having it reform from there. Squarepusher's good for that as well sometimes.
Oh, and so I'm not entirely off topic: "Steinbolt" by Squarepusher
Icarusintel
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William Hung - Deck The Halls
jimbo118
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ditto, good song.
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