threespires
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Please Miss, the hamster ate my homework which is why I'm only now posting a few thoughts on Aphex Twin...
I do think as others said this was a classic example of an album that must be viewed in the context of the time it was released. I think it was @denislawsbackheel who made a comment about using garageband auto settings to get the same outcome, It made me smile because I was actually sat in front of Ableton and Analog Lab when I read that and given such software allows even a muppet like me to do something ‘creative’ I can understand why listening to an opening track like Xtal it’s pretty easy to get lured into the idea it’s no great shakes.
But then I thought about the fact that when this album was released, Ableton didn’t even exist as a company and neither did the company that makes my highly integrated/easy to use midi-keyboard and I think you have to see it in a different light. I tend to think that without pioneers like James popularising and legitimising stuff and inspiring others, the market for the plethora of tech we all now take for granted probably doesn’t exist, at least not at the very democratized and laughably low consumer type prices that mean we can now access and enjoy truly fantastic software/hardware instruments. I also note that despite there being thousands of Aphex Twin soundalike Ableton Live projects that you can download, by and large they mostly don’t quite nail it; which is also the case with various musicians who’ve also had a go at his work and don’t quite get there. This is unsurprising to me because he’s always been obsessed with experimenting (or messing around depending on your viewpoint) with creating unique sounds as much as he is interested in music in the conventional sense of the word.
If you watch something like his Barbican performance of sort of Steve Reich’s Pendulum, you might oscillate (pardon the pun) between thinking he’s a total chancer or a genius. I veer towards thinking he’s basically partly a sonic mad scientist and partly a light on his feet geezer. Some of his experiments come to nothing; some you can’t make up your mind, but some are otherworldly. But given all the (self-declared) bullshit he comes out with I’m never 100% sure and I quite like that. For example, I still can’t decide if 2015’s Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt 2 (which is exactly what it sounds like) is basically crazed experimental jazz underpinned by a really interesting concept that he’d had in his mind since making a previous album Drukqs or just someone taking the piss and/or having a bit of a breakdown. He seems to take great delight in throwing the listener off balance which I personally think is an admirable trait in an artist and imo makes him pretty much always interesting. More to the point throwing all this stuff out there the good, the bad and the possible pisstake provides fertile soil for other artists and even companies to build upon.
In 2023 some of this album does sound a bit meh to be honest but as @Out on blue 6 said it was properly groundbreaking stuff that we now take for granted. Even judging by today's standards some of the tracks absolutely still stand up today; the fact that there seems to be quite a bit of disagreement in the thread about which those tracks are again illustrates to me how hard he is to pin down. If I’d scored solely on the album it would have been a 6 because not enough of it resonates for me personally, but to not recognise his value and contribution to modern music seemed churlish so I added an extra point to at least acknowledge this.
I also note that no-one was prepared to address the elephant in the room, namely that had he not produced this album maybe Thom Yorke and his mates would have faded away and got proper jobs :-)
Anyway onto Bob Seger, who slightly bizarrely given how famous he is I have never really listened to, so for me a Greatest Hits is absolutely fine and dandy. Really looking forward to it especially as the posts to date show a huge variance of opinion from all ends of the BM music spectrum.
I do think as others said this was a classic example of an album that must be viewed in the context of the time it was released. I think it was @denislawsbackheel who made a comment about using garageband auto settings to get the same outcome, It made me smile because I was actually sat in front of Ableton and Analog Lab when I read that and given such software allows even a muppet like me to do something ‘creative’ I can understand why listening to an opening track like Xtal it’s pretty easy to get lured into the idea it’s no great shakes.
But then I thought about the fact that when this album was released, Ableton didn’t even exist as a company and neither did the company that makes my highly integrated/easy to use midi-keyboard and I think you have to see it in a different light. I tend to think that without pioneers like James popularising and legitimising stuff and inspiring others, the market for the plethora of tech we all now take for granted probably doesn’t exist, at least not at the very democratized and laughably low consumer type prices that mean we can now access and enjoy truly fantastic software/hardware instruments. I also note that despite there being thousands of Aphex Twin soundalike Ableton Live projects that you can download, by and large they mostly don’t quite nail it; which is also the case with various musicians who’ve also had a go at his work and don’t quite get there. This is unsurprising to me because he’s always been obsessed with experimenting (or messing around depending on your viewpoint) with creating unique sounds as much as he is interested in music in the conventional sense of the word.
If you watch something like his Barbican performance of sort of Steve Reich’s Pendulum, you might oscillate (pardon the pun) between thinking he’s a total chancer or a genius. I veer towards thinking he’s basically partly a sonic mad scientist and partly a light on his feet geezer. Some of his experiments come to nothing; some you can’t make up your mind, but some are otherworldly. But given all the (self-declared) bullshit he comes out with I’m never 100% sure and I quite like that. For example, I still can’t decide if 2015’s Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt 2 (which is exactly what it sounds like) is basically crazed experimental jazz underpinned by a really interesting concept that he’d had in his mind since making a previous album Drukqs or just someone taking the piss and/or having a bit of a breakdown. He seems to take great delight in throwing the listener off balance which I personally think is an admirable trait in an artist and imo makes him pretty much always interesting. More to the point throwing all this stuff out there the good, the bad and the possible pisstake provides fertile soil for other artists and even companies to build upon.
In 2023 some of this album does sound a bit meh to be honest but as @Out on blue 6 said it was properly groundbreaking stuff that we now take for granted. Even judging by today's standards some of the tracks absolutely still stand up today; the fact that there seems to be quite a bit of disagreement in the thread about which those tracks are again illustrates to me how hard he is to pin down. If I’d scored solely on the album it would have been a 6 because not enough of it resonates for me personally, but to not recognise his value and contribution to modern music seemed churlish so I added an extra point to at least acknowledge this.
I also note that no-one was prepared to address the elephant in the room, namely that had he not produced this album maybe Thom Yorke and his mates would have faded away and got proper jobs :-)
Anyway onto Bob Seger, who slightly bizarrely given how famous he is I have never really listened to, so for me a Greatest Hits is absolutely fine and dandy. Really looking forward to it especially as the posts to date show a huge variance of opinion from all ends of the BM music spectrum.