IDM Mailing Archive

we have spent the past week discussing the video, and i guess it is time to throw my two bitc into the conversation- video aside, i was so not impressed by the track. ON sounded like it could have been put out a year ago, and maybe even earlier. i find that the twin doesn't develop his musical ideas very much/very well. his music, take analogue bubblebath 3 for example, comes off as a series of loops which he repeats for a while without much variation or track development. i like aphex twin because he has good ideas but i think he more often than not falls short of translating those ideas into something which is really amazing. aphex twin mentioned in an interview (i read it in the voice last summer) that he has 22 albums worth of material waiting to be released. that's impressive as far as volume goes, but what about quality? i am eagerly awaiting the arrival of SAW ][ to see what he does but i am not expecting to be blown away by anything. i think the only track that ever really blew my mind out was his digeridoo track... the ambient works 1 was pretty good, but i don't like much past track 5. furthermore, i discovered that what aphex twin does rythmically is no amazing feat, especially if you have the gear that he uses. sure there are all these tales that he builds equipment and what not which remains technically impressive but i don't find that many of the sounds he uses are entirely expressive and cannot be done off commercially sold gear. not to mention a lot of his drum tracks seem to be done off the roland r8. this machine (since i have worked with it extensively) lends itself to making rythems of his nature quite easily, once you figure out how to manipulate the various functions of it properly (which is no secret). i don't mean to put the twin down entirely. i am by no means telling everyone he "sucks" but i am saying that people are starting to think more highly of him than they should. he is suddenly getting this mystique, this reputation for being innovative when he really isn't all that. i dunno... any comments in the world of idm? manish

quoted 4 lines i don't mean to put the twin down entirely. i am by no means telling everyone

>i don't mean to put the twin down entirely. i am by no means telling everyone >he "sucks" but i am saying that people are starting to think more highly of >him than they should. he is suddenly getting this mystique, this reputation for >being innovative when he really isn't all that.

well manish, if you read my posts about his On video you know I feel the exact same way. This is not say that I think he sucks because I don't, but I _definitely_ think he is extremely overrated. Brings to mind the story about the famous artist (forgot his name) who anonymously donated a toilet as an entry to an art show. The critics laughed at it and said it was a piece of crap (as it indeed was), but once the artist revealed himself as the creator, all the critics were tripping over their own feet to praise it. someone else started a similar "aphex twin/emperor's new clothes syndrome" on alt.rave and since then many other people have admitted to feeling the same way. I know there are more of you closet aphex twin anti-fans so come out and together we'll fight aphex twin conformism <== (the underlying mentality with idm fans that you must think the aphex twin is a god to be a true techno fan). down with the sheep mentality!!! sorry for the melodramatic tone of this post...lack of sleep has been wrecking havok with my sense of reality. ___ (:)====/__/\=(:)(:)============================(:)====================(:) |\| _\_ \ \|\||=| Tai Nguyen |\| email address: |=| |=| /__/\_\ \=||\| Cornell University |=| thn1@cornell.edu |\| |\| / /\ __/\|(:)============================(:)====================(:) |=|/ / /\ \ |=||=| "These are not my figures I'm quoting. They're |=| |\/__/ \_\/ |\||\| from someone who knows what he's talking about." |\| |=\__\/\ \ |=||=| - unknown congressman in debate |=| (:)==\__\/===(:)(:)===================================================(:)

I find all this discussion of the Aphex Twin and such very interesting. I don't so much like the Aphex Twin but I love Polygon Window. I'm not sure where that places me. I love the song d-scape and the last remix of On on the british import single. There's a lot of SAW that I like quite a bit too. Overall I find that some of the Aphex Twins stuff is a bit loud and scattered, but then again sometimes I'm in the mood for loud and scattered. I think my favorite of the "Artificial Intelligence" bands is Autechre, but I find that they're all a pretty good listen (great to do problem sets to). By the way, and relatively unrelated, does anybody have details of the Autechre tour? I don't want to miss them if they come through Boston. [fletcher]

quoted 8 lines i don't mean to put the twin down entirely. i am by no means telling everyone

> > i don't mean to put the twin down entirely. i am by no means telling everyone > he "sucks" but i am saying that people are starting to think more highly of > him than they should. he is suddenly getting this mystique, this reputation for > being innovative when he really isn't all that. > > i dunno... any comments in the world of idm? >

Well, I've got to say that compared to a lot of the more trendy stuff out there, Aphex to me sounds a helluva lot more innovative. I mean, I can be listening to a random shuffle or something on my CD changer, or one of the local 'dance' shows on the radio, or whatever, and instantly recognize a 'Twin' track... His sound does stand apart from the usual thumpity-tump techno grind and 16-th note 4/4 time signature which signifies wayyyyy too much of the stuff that gets airtime on the so-called 'alternative' dance shows around here. But of course, if you listen to his stuff all the time, I can see where it would kind of all mesh together and sound bland, boring, and unenthusiastic. Personally, I've got SAW, Polygon Window, Analogue Bubblebath3, Quoth single, and the new On single, and I don't think I could stand to listen to more than a few tracks together at any one time. However, when you mix them up and put some of the more 'traditional' beats in, and every once in a while throw on a TwinTrack, then it adds a bit of flavor, since I don't have anything else in my collection that sounds anything near Twin. on a side note... what's the latest on the Future Sound of London's next release? (date, track list, etc...)? -- ccastge@prism.gatech.edu | All of us get lost in the darkness, a.k.a., Guy Elden Jr. | Dreamers learn to steer by the stars... Neil Peart ---->| All of us do time in the gutter, of RUSH | Dreamers turn to look at the cars...

quoted 5 lines Brings to mind the story about the famous artist (forgot his name)

>Brings to mind the story about the famous artist (forgot his name) >who anonymously donated a toilet as an entry to an art show. The >critics laughed at it and said it was a piece of crap (as it indeed >was), but once the artist revealed himself as the creator, all the >critics were tripping over their own feet to praise it.

are you sure you've got this story straight? it sounds vaguely like something Tristram Tzara, one of the Dadaists tried. he exhibited a toilet and called it art. everyone said "it's not art, it's an ordinary household appliance." he said, "it's art because it's in an art gallery." i don't remember the critics ever changing their mind about it. (don't get me started on the Dadaists... i love them... read Stoppard's play "Travesties"... i think it has a dramatized version of the toilet prank in it.) as frank zappa said, "art is what you put the frame around." /jon