Why AE is better than AFX

  Rook said:

And that the beginning of Peek sounds a little like AE to me.

as i said once on the afx subphorum:

i've got a shift-keying ascii to wav generator i'd like to sell you.

  Rook said:

RDJ doesn't really have a single release that is pure gold 100% all the way through

drukqs' highlights are like 200% awesome so drukqs averages out to 100% awesome

AFX for me. Bradley's Robot is just too good imo.

The praise for Drukqs has always mystified me, as I feel exactly like Rook: a few good tracks mixed in with a bunch of filler that has always, and will always, sound to me like it was cobbled together from old tracks. There's something very stale about that album, unlike Come to Daddy EP and Windowlicker which both had so much more musical creativity, humor, and energy. I mean, I expect a track that says "I'm taking control of the drum machine" to actually have stunning drum programming on it, as opposed to wimpy sub-Squarepusher beats. And Mont St. Michel/St. Michel's Mount is actually not a very good track imo. Some nice drums with trademark Aphex melancholy vocals on top. Not bad, but not really memorable. The album sounds like an old man who is trying to prove two things at once - 1) that he is a serious "arteest" (ie., the prepared piano tracks), and 2) that he is well hard (ie., come on you cunts lets have some aphex acid, various cock references, the annoying part in 54 cymru beats). I think it's a bit embarrassing, to be honest. Overall to me the album sounds slightly pretentious, full of filler, and dull. I think there are only 3 standout tracks, Vordhosbn (or whatever, first track), Avril 14, and Ziggomatic, that's it. And even with these, Vordhosbn sounds a little bit paint-by-numbers, Ziggomatic has some annoying parts, and Avril 14 is fine but not as unique as Nannou imo.

I liked several of the Analord tracks - Crying in your face and bwoon dub come to mind - but again these were pretty inconsistent with a lot of filler. As far as Rushup Edge goes, it's fine, and fairly consistent, but it doesn't wow me. I guess I'm just not that much of an AFX fanboy. I liked his RDJ Album - Come to Daddy - Windowlicker period the most.

  Quote

genuinely hate The Waxen Pith.

:unhappy:

i agree about drukqs but disagree about the analords

meh I pretty honestly love just about everything on drukqs

I like his really earliest material best though.

well, i think there are more keepers on it than sir lumpyprole gives it, but i am meh on most of the piano tracks. never dug avril 14, contrary to popular opinion... but i do so love 54 cymru... what annoying part??

anyways, yeah, i skip a lot of tracks on that, particularly the quiet ones. most of the loud ones i like, but i like some of his other work a lot more.

i thought "stale" was an interesting choice of adjective to describe it. i'd more say "cold" or "clinical." analords are very warm. a lot of his other work is much more emotional. i prefer that stuff. rushup edge sounds like richard loves someone very much.

I actually love all piano tracks on Drukqs...

also the ambient ones, gwely mernans is awesome

Well let me first say that I still think that Vordhosbn and Ziggomatic are some of the best work RDJ has done. Also, I think Meltaphace 6 is waaayyy underrated and a great track. I also enjoy most of the piano tracks, organ tracks, cage type works. Particularly Jynwenth Ylow, Kladvgbung michk, Father, Petiatil Cx, Ruglen Holon, and Nanou 2. (lol butchered spelling)

But guys, come on, did we really need Orban eq trx4, Aussois, bit 4, Lornaderek, etc... And I agree about taking control. I don't like that track particularly. It doesn't even come close to the other three I mentioned. I usually cite drukqs as my fav aphex album because of the piano tracks and the greatness of the most of the computery beaty tracks, but I really don't know. It is hard to choose a great aphex album, and easier to choose great aphex songs.

As far as the Analords, I really enjoy them, but they are very obviously uneven. Except for Analord 10 which is a perfect prelude to tuss goodness.

As opposed to Autechre which though we can talk about whether we like each album/song or not, their albums are fairly obviously even, innovative, and complete.

saw 85/92

saw II

i care because you do

surfin on sine waves

only for these (not to mention the godness of most of his eps) he is probably unbeatable

I like AE and all but i think Drukqs alone propels RDJ way ahead...

  nacmat said:

saw 85/92

saw II

i care because you do

surfin on sine waves

 

only for these (not to mention the godness of most of his eps) he is probably unbeatable

I have never figured how people could adore the first 3 albums you mentioned.

It has something to do with how awesome they are I think.

  nacmat said:

saw 85/92

saw II

i care because you do

surfin on sine waves

 

only for these (not to mention the godness of most of his eps) he is probably unbeatable

I agree on the importance of all of these albums when it comes to electronic music. And that especially SAW, SAW II, and SOTSW, are all fairly balanced. Maybe it is because I wasn't listening to aphex at the time of these releases, but while some of the tracks on these albums are awesome, some are also decidedly meh. And in general, less intriguing than AE style ambient tracks of the time like Nine. (though to be fair, AE never did a proper ambient album in the style of SAW II.) And I don't know about you guys, but SAW I and II sound much more dated to me than early AE work.

As far as ICBYD goes, I can never understand the first two tracks. But the album itself is very important.

  ieafs said:

  Rook said:

But guys, come on, did we really need Orban eq trx4, Aussois, bit 4, Lornaderek, etc...

well you can think of that as 4 tracks... or as probably about 2 minutes of actual album-time.

 

if those were just tacked on the end of other tracks and not designated their own place, i don't think people would mind as much.

Well even some of the other transition tracks, which maybe be OK on their own, the whole album doesn't seem to flow like an AE album does. It seems more like the plan was 1. ok this track sounds cool put it here 2. few seconds of silence 3. next track that sounds cool.

The whole album doesn't seem to have a concise statement.

maybe i'm being too sensitive but one of the things watmm has going for it is its tolerance

and so i'm kinda disappointed that this thread popped up when we usually just accept each other's preference

or maybe i just don't wanna admit that i agree with some of the points raised in ae's favor

i dunno i just prefer an implicit unity in the watmm six, and take them on their own merits without contrasting

where is vsnares subphorum????

You have to go the the BoC subforum, log out, then go back to it and press F5. You screen will shut off. When you open it back up, you will be logged into the Venetian Snares subforum.

sorry I haven't slept for a while

Can I try and settle this argument, if it's possible.

Firstly it's pointless comparing very different periods of both Autechre and AFX, and just because something is more advanced/forward thinking does not make it better.

Period 1 (Ambient Techno)

AFX - Just brilliant, SAW1 and Surfing on sine waves blows away Incunabula and Amber. Set aside the beats during this period, because they weren't exactly great, focus on the melodies and I think most would come round to the likes of Xtal compared to Bike.

Period 2 (Drill n Bass)

AFX- I also agree that Autechre's ep's in the mid 90's were a little bit to similar to AFX, Cichlisuite in particular, Autechre were not exactly bad during this period but this is when AFX was on top of his game, I.E Windowlicker. Bear in mind that when AFX is on top his game there is no one in music that is better.

Period 3 (electronic music onwards)

Autechre - Pretty comfortably to be honest, I mean Drugks was poor and lacked any sense of rhythm or consistency , which are two of the key attributes of Autechre’s most recent work.

To sum up, is there actually an Autechre album which people consider to be a classic? Probably not, now think of AFX, SAW 1,2 and the RDJ album are all regarded as genre splitting albums and will all turn up on most lists of best albums of the 90’s(as long as it’s not NME or Rolling Stone or one of those Rock obsessed mags).

But with Autechre you have to admire the consistency, they have only ever made one bad album (Amber), since then I think it’s incredible that they constantly improved, I can’t think of another musical act which have produced six consecutively good albums.

Based on that fact, I have to say Autechre, plus it helps when you produce the best song of all time (Pen Expers).

Comparing Afx with Ae is like comparing Caravaggio with Rembrandt or comparing 2001: A space oddysey with Stalker...

Its all top stuff; there's always detailes worth questioning in every genius' work but the only real problem you can have is liking it depending on your own subjective taste.

  tbio2007 said:

Autechre - Pretty comfortably to be honest, I mean Drugks was poor and lacked any sense of rhythm or consistency , which are two of the key attributes of Autechre’s most recent work.

 

T

Hold on a minute... who says it is meant to be a constant rhythmic album?

Drukqs is a masterpiece in it's own right.

T

Hold on a minute... who says it is meant to be a constant rhythmic album?

Valid Point, we will never know, I just naturally assume that Musicans will encorporate some saught of consistency/rhythm into their music, I mean why would something like the RDJ album have such brilliant consistency and rhythm whilst Drugks does not? Your saying that he done that on purpose?

first of all, wtf plenty of ae albums are considered classics you are retarded.

Second of all, ae and aphex are way way way ahead everyone else's electronic musics.

Thirdly, 90's aphex and 90's AE are completely different. I think there is more similarity between some of the rhythmic ideas on Untilted and HAB or Bucephalus Bouncing Ball, than there are between Cichlisuite and HAB. Both of their composition styles are completely different. If you ask me, the closest Ae comes to writing in a similar style as aphex is with Foil or Glitch or something like that. And what the hell does Tri Repatae sound like? Or Chiastic Slide for that matter? Or Lp5?? Jeez. Seriously though, Untilted sounds way more like Aphex Drill than 90's ae does. I can understand how ae may have been influenced by them, but it doesn't sound like it at all.

Hell Incunabula is my least favorite ae album, but it sounds waaaaayyy different than SAW I. wtf.

And Drukqs is teh buisness and contains the best aphex tracks, but seriously, it definitely doesn't flow well as an album. It's more of a collection of songs.

  tbio2007 said:

Valid Point, we will never know, I just naturally assume that Musicans will encorporate some saught of consistency/rhythm into their music, I mean why would something like the RDJ album have such brilliant consistency and rhythm whilst Drugks does not? Your saying that he done that on purpose?

I don't know, I tend not to look into it all that much really. All I know is that the sounds and compositions on Drukqs are incredible. It's not considered an "easy listen", but just because an album is not consistent, or an easy listening experience as such, why is it considered to be bad in some way or another?