Toxic sexist awot now?
What'd our mad Dicky boy say
On Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 9:43 AM kent williams <chaircrusher@gmail.com> wrote:
quoted 47 lines It's so weird to still be buying new Aphex Twin music, but I can't help it.
> It's so weird to still be buying new Aphex Twin music, but I can't help it.
>
> It's important to realize that if he's working in the studio, he's not
> being a toxic sexist conspiracy theory crank. The more music he
> releases, and the less he speaks in public, the better.
>
> Oh, you want to know what I think of the music? It's more of his
> obsessive drum programming and melancholy chord sequences. "Blackbox
> Life Recorder 21f" at the beginning has a weird scraping sound that if
> I'm not mistaken is a filtered version of the chair squeak from
> Alberto Balsam.
>
> It isn't as elaborate a harmonic composition as Alberto Balsam, but it
> is a catchy beat with that vaguely sad harmonic lushness.
>
> zin2 test5 sounds like a continuation of Life recorder, with a similar
> chord progression, but the beat is more persistent, really a 140bpm
> breakbeat, but hand made (as opposed to sampled and chopped), sounding
> like he might be back programming his 30 year old Roland R8.
>
> "in a room7 F760" is more weepy chords and subtle acid bass with
> beats. It's odd that he's essentially made a 160bpm breakbeat track,
> with the shape of a Drum & Bass tune, but with a vibe that's miles
> away. There's a whole aesthetic world in the choice of swing
> strength. He's gone past the customary 5% swing of house music, into
> something that actually recalls the swinginess of 1960s cocktail jazz.
> His touch is light, in contrast with the bombast and drama that drive
> the top drum and bass tracks.
>
> "Blackbox Life Recorder 22 (Parallax Mix)" really only shares drum
> sounds and swing quantization strength with the first version.
> Imagine an ambient piece from SAW II being disrupted by a deeply swung
> TR606 beat.
>
> Overall impression: I really enjoy these tunes, but its clear that
> whatever rabbit holes Aphex Twin has been down in the last 30 years,
> he's still fixated on the sounds and vibes he constructed in the early
> 90s. This isn't a bad thing, but you can no longer expect anything
> shockingly new from him. Instead, he's focused on refining and
> extending that legacy.
>
> If you want the new new you can look elsewhere, but if you want to be
> both lulled and disturbed by familiar things made strange again, this
> is a great release.
>
> https://bleep.com/aphex-twin--blackbox-life-recorder-21f
>