Worst Aphex track

wow

disclaimer: Alberto Balsalm is one of my favorite tracks of all time

  On 11/11/2024 at 1:53 AM, Dragon said:

Heroes remix: dear god whyy

Indeed!

  On 11/11/2024 at 1:53 AM, Dragon said:

Heroes remix: dear god whyyy.

Ok a little history lesson - for the Bowie Heroes Remix, the story goes that RDJ only had a few hours in a studio with access to the Philip Glass version and had to come up with something fast.

You need to hear the Philip Glass version first to understand how it all fits together -

 - this is Philip Glass' usual (awesome) arpeggio style, note that it is all instrumental.

What RDJ did for his Heroes Remix is basically chop up bits of the Philip Glass instrumental and then put Bowie's vocal back in, and its this journey from instrumental back to a different interpretation of the vocals that make the track interesting.

  On 11/11/2024 at 1:08 PM, zazen said:

I feel like we need to distinguish 'difficult to listen to' vs 'crappy'

Ventolin is difficult to listen to but its very carefully crafted and a solid bit of art.

Milkman is just crappy

I don’t feel milkman ages well, but when I first heard it (pretty much the day that the girl/boy ep was released (a few months before the RDJ album), it blew my mind and made me LOL IRL. Not having heard the Hangable Auto Bulb EP yet (I was unaware of its release and it was only available on 2 separate 12”s at that time), this ep was the first new thing I had heard from him since Donkey Rhubarb and it all was mind blowing, even as a fan of “proper” jungle/dnb. It really felt like a total evolutionary shift from his prior sound, at the time. I still love it, but I can’t really listen to it around my kid

Flim

maybe not straight up "worst" but definitely his most overrated.

w t f

I really don't like stride portugal from the Tuss bonus tracks. Half the track is a muted feeling of squishy noodling and tinny drums until eventually it opens up into this lush vocoder bit that make me want to lift my arms in the air and then it just stops like what the hell. I want stride portugal pt2 ffs

none are wurst ya silly sausages

Flim one of my favourites. I can't really put it into words. It sounds so clear, crisp and simple that it sounds like it's been created from pure mountain air. Or something like that.

GAK 2

just sounds crappy

  On 11/11/2024 at 3:36 PM, zazen said:

Ok a little history lesson - for the Bowie Heroes Remix, the story goes that RDJ only had a few hours in a studio with access to the Philip Glass version and had to come up with something fast.

You need to hear the Philip Glass version first to understand how it all fits together -

 - this is Philip Glass' usual (awesome) arpeggio style, note that it is all instrumental.

What RDJ did for his Heroes Remix is basically chop up bits of the Philip Glass instrumental and then put Bowie's vocal back in, and its this journey from instrumental back to a different interpretation of the vocals that make the track interesting.

 

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nice! when you know more about the lore behind this track it does make more sense. i'm a big fan of Philip Glass although his later symphonic work doesn't do much for me.

it's crazy to think that the Heroes remix is, all things considered, a 1970s rock song created by a truly immortal legend, produced and mastered by Brian Eno, orchestrated by Philip Glass, and then given the remix treatment by the one and only Aphex.

but it's still shit  it's about as good as Pay No Mind (Snoozer) by Beck, but with less charm and no lovably trashy MTV video to go with it. whyyyyyyy warp why

  On 11/12/2024 at 12:59 PM, Ski Nell said:

GAK 2

just sounds crappy

 I do find this release rather strange. iirc the GAK EP was old tracks Richard had sent as a demo to Warp before he was signed, and after his subsequent success, Warp dug them out and released them (presumably with his consent)- they do sound pretty old and rudimentary by 1994's standards. (remember this is the same guy who shitcanned ABB5 cause he thought it wasnt next level enough). Phlanged and phased Roland percussion loops, the odd repeated piano phrase or eerie synth riff might make an appearance but things are extremely skeletal/minimal even more so than SAW85-92 or ABB3. [GAK4 is a real earworm though, I can't fault that one.]

The wiki claims that the GAK project was a parody/love letter to LFO which I can't quite hear myself. Overall I wouldnt say these tracks are bona fide fails, but they definitely sit on some low tier for me. Theres just not enough going on sonically to keep me interested for the runtime.

  On 11/12/2024 at 1:44 PM, Key said:

 I do find this release rather strange. iirc the GAK EP was old tracks Richard had sent as a demo to Warp before he was signed, and after his subsequent success, Warp dug them out and released them (presumably with his consent)- they do sound pretty old and rudimentary by 1994's standards. (remember this is the same guy who shitcanned ABB5 cause he thought it wasnt next level enough). Phlanged and phased Roland percussion loops, the odd repeated piano phrase or eerie synth riff might make an appearance but things are extremely skeletal/minimal even more so than SAW85-92 or ABB3. [GAK4 is a real earworm though, I can't fault that one.]

The wiki claims that the GAK project was a parody/love letter to LFO which I can't quite hear myself. Overall I wouldnt say these tracks are bona fide fails, but they definitely sit on some low tier for me. Theres just not enough going on sonically to keep me interested for the runtime.

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but they’re expensive tho

  On 11/12/2024 at 12:59 PM, Ski Nell said:

GAK 2

just sounds crappy

This is one of the worst takes in the thread so far

  On 11/12/2024 at 7:23 PM, perunamuusi said:

This is one of the worst takes in the thread so far

oh my

  On 11/10/2024 at 10:51 PM, zazen said:

this thread is great, none of us can agree on anything.

OK here's something we can all get behind:

Milkman: Its trying to show that he can write a regular song, and also trying to be funny, and also trying to be edgey, and its unconvincing in all three of those dimensions. End result is a bit cringe.

 

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Yes, it's absolutely Milkman.

Came on shuffle and undid about 10 yrs of convincing my wife that aphex isn't spastic brained autist music for wronguns, now I've lost music privileges in the car

  On 11/12/2024 at 10:28 PM, Amen Warrior said:

Yes, it's absolutely Milkman.

Came on shuffle and undid about 10 yrs of convincing my wife that aphex isn't spastic brained autist music for wronguns, now I've lost music privileges in the car

can we remove the word spastic? not to be woke but it is hella offensive (seriously). ty

This is the worst track by Mr. James: 

Not saying it is musically bad, but it is musically boring.

  On 11/14/2024 at 2:05 AM, geosmina said:

This is the worst track by Mr. James: 

 

Not saying it is musically bad, but it is musically boring.

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i had never heard this before lol. its too silly and charming for me to hate it

  On 11/14/2024 at 2:05 AM, geosmina said:

This is the worst track by Mr. James: 

 

Not saying it is musically bad, but it is musically boring.

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I think this is the soundtrack of the machine elves

  On 11/14/2024 at 2:05 AM, geosmina said:

This is the worst track by Mr. James: 

 

Not saying it is musically bad, but it is musically boring.

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I actually LOVE this track. 

  On 11/14/2024 at 5:52 AM, YEK said:

I think this is the soundtrack of the machine elves

I always think of Dr Phibes’ band when I hear it. 
 

I cant hate Milkman, its just so stupid and childish it circles back round to great again. The way he sings the word 'tits' with an almost choirboy level of earnestness. And the synths have that great plasticy quality I miss since he stopped using softsynths. The song-era RDJ was very short lived, I can only really think of Beetles & Imperial Ring, maybe I'd have less patience for them if he kept doing them for ages.

milkman is a good deal cringier than it used to be tbh. i still like beetles though. its "heat" btw.

  On 11/14/2024 at 1:53 AM, Dragon said:

can we remove the word spastic? not to be woke but it is hella offensive (seriously). ty

I can't find an edit button so can only offer my apologies. My great uncle had very severe cerebral palsy and they were the generation before the word was offensive, so I'm pretty much desensitised to it through family use (in my head it's not really a slur). My bad