Lost in the tune...

[Karlos]

Ever had one of those days that seems to be a haze from start to finish?

During the nightly code check in, I realised I'd been listening to the same tune on continuous play for most of the day (luckily for my colleages I had headphones on else they'd have gone postal after the first 15 minutes)...

Seems I was coding away in my own little world most of the day to Aphex Twin's "Meltphace 6". Now, all I can remember of the day is that tune, which is presently stuck on infinite loop entirely in my head :lol:

[Karlos]

better make sure you didn't code the music in

Trust me. If code were ever translated into music, it would be something by Aphex Twin...

This particular track comprises a very gentle but hynotisingly repetetive chord pattern. It's accented by the occasional deliberate detune of the notes and by various other harmonising (or anti-harmonising) melody sounds.

The whole lot is then sat on top of his signature "hyper edited" breakbeat style. Think of a normal drumming pattern that's gone through some sort of bizzare fractal process and you begin to get the idea :-)

[Karlos]

Of course, the worst thing about having an Aphex Twin breakbeat stuck in your head is that it will probably drill it's own way out :lol:

-edit-

I bet Vincent knows what I mean ;-)

[Karlos]

Vincent wrote:

I'd bet you'd be even more glad it wasn't Pac-Man!! :-D

"Eat them up! yum! yum!" :lol:

Regarding the speccy, it goes back even earlier than that. He claimed he was able to achieve a similar effect messing about on the zx81 :-D

You can tell he was a speccy fan. Half of his tracks have at least one spectrum tape loading sample in them somewhere!

[Karlos]

I was always surprised by the luke warm reception to Druqks. I think its some of his best stuff. Not that I ever disliked anything so far although some of his stuff can be hard to listen to at times :lol:

[Karlos]

NoFastMem wrote:
I think glitch happens to your ear, whereas most music takes a more passive role. That's why it's pretty easy to space out to it.

:-? Sorry Chris, that turn of phrase totally lost me.

[Karlos]

I guess I mean that there's so much bluster in the music that if you let go it kinda averages and becomes much easier to listen to than you'd expect.

Except for "ventolin" :lol:

[Karlos]

Vincent wrote:

Karlos wrote:
"ventolin"

Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure that single was the first thing I ever bought by him.  Not exactly the best place to start really :-D

The first thing I got was Selected Ambient Works I, back in 1994 or so. I just liked it straight away.

[Karlos]

Or to put it another way, it's just noise, and sounds like a child pressing random keys on a keyboard

Some stuff may sound like that, especially to someone expecting something more conventional but if you listen to a spectrum of his music you'll actually see that he's exceptionally talented. It isn't all the aural assault that people tend to associate with his work.

Listen to some of the prepared piano on Druqks or some of the pad-filled ambient tunes from Selected Ambient Works 2 or even some of the more conventional ambient stuff from Selected Ambient Works 1, to get an idea of his less rhythmic stuff.

Lastly, there isn't a human alive, machine or piece of software in existence that can program a more complex rhythm pattern that actually manages to maintain a regular beat underneath the breaks, rolls, trills and rushes than Richard James ;-)

[Karlos]

It's probably a love it / hate it thing. I can't imagine his stuff having much middle ground support :-)

Bit like marmite, eh?

[Karlos]

@moto:

As a classically trained musician...

Cool. Which instrument(s) do you play?

-edit-

BTW, two things you should remember when listening to anything by Aphex Twin:

1) He creates music that he personally likes or otherwise finds interesting. Whether or not anybody else does or not appears to be very low down his list of priorities.

2) It's said there's a fine line between genius and insanity. Clearly, the guy has tipped right over the edge and is free falling into his own personal padded cell, but every now and again you hear something that makes you realise he must have crawled right back out again :lol:

[Karlos]

motorollin wrote:

Any particular tracks on Drukqs you can recommend? I can't make anything out from the track names :-)

Five different styles from the same album:

Meltphace 6 (the one I was spacing out to) - ambient with heavily programmed percussion

Nanou2 - basic piano, slow basic chord alternation.

Avril 14th - lightly prepared piano, nice and mellow

Beskhu3epnm - heavily prepared piano (forks in the strings!), pretty dark sounding.

56 Cymru Beats - fast paced, acid synth, heavily programmed rhythm

[Karlos]

I sometimes think I've written all the music I will ever write

I get that feeling every time I look at my desk...

[Karlos]

I should add "taking control" to the list, if only for the fact it has samples of a Casio SK1's percussion (and many other old keyboards/drum machines) in it.

I can recognise that old click-pop sound _anywhere_ :lol:

[Karlos]

Luckily for me, I simply avoided opening any of the youtube links. I just knew it would be Crazy Frog style stuff :lol: