Drukqs

  On 7/1/2010 at 11:20 AM, Bewarethefriendlyfoil said:

Petial Cx Htdui makes me go

Definitely. This track makes me feel like I'm living in the 1700's in a candlelit mansion before being sent off to war, or something.

On an another note, I tried playing Meltphace 6 for one of my friends who likes "pop punk" music and within 10 seconds, he said "This sounds like 3Oh!3" If you know anyone with a less discerning ear, please let me know.

friend of mine has a harmonium -- great instrument! qkthr is an amazing track, love it. takes me to a happy place.

Penty Harmonium is absolutely a favorite, I imagine a boat out in the middle of the most vast ocean there ever was, yet not lonely at all, rather completely at peace.

what to say really?

richard's masterpiece, if you ask me.

i love how complex and highly detailed each track, each sequence is. it's just mindexploding

there are literally hundreds of details that i love to hear, like

in cock/ver10 from 1:34 minute mark, when a fast beat repeats itself 6 or 7 times in just five seconds,

or at 3:26, when there is a sudden break and a slowing down scratch, with snares still going,

and in the end it sounds like if a machine is working on the background

in meltphace 6, from 2:40 after the rhythm change, drums start kicking again and in contrast with the fragile melody, make the sequence sound so beautiful !,

at 3:19 there is this high pitch sound that causes spine chills to me

at 3:33 a slightly distorted metallic-sounding voice, love it,

at 4:32 [turning to 4:33] you can hear this sound that is so similar to one he used on ageispolis. in that exact moment, i get such a saw 85-92 feeling,

i just don't really like how it simply ends fading out,

in taking control at 1:49 there is such a nice groove going on, that becomes even better with that voice going like ow ow ow! ,

in afx237 V7, i love how he transforms the vocals into beats, right in the begining

there are so much more, but i can't seem to remember more at the moment, and i can't really write onomatopeias that can describe what i am listening.

A list of things that captivate me about this album:

-The excruciatingly simple melodies. They're so perfect. Mt St Michael and Meltphace being the best examples of this.

-How about 55% of this album is in mono and it uses wide stereo sounds very sparingly yet places them at the perfect moments.

-Richard's extensive knowledge of how to use a fucking synthesizer and do it right. Ziggomatic being the best example. I've never heard better use of electronic instruments before.

-Nothing else sounds like this. The non prepared-piano tracks, that is.

-It just takes you to an entirely different world. That's what's so amazing about Richard's music is that not only does it sound good, but it's a sensory overload. To the point, I'd say, that listening to this album (especially) put you in a headspace so vivid that it's comparable to being in a different physical location.

That's all I can think of for now. Fucking brilliant album, my first introduction into IDM too. I remember my near religious experience with Ziggomatic then Mt St Michael's... As a producer myself, it was pretty lifechanging. I remember just listening to what my friends listened to back in middle school for the sake of not being an outcast, then I'd come home and listen to the shitty 128kb/s MP3 tracks from this album (and SAW85-92) that I'd downloaded from Limewire. Eventually bought the album and it's safe to say that this music made me a completely different person. It's the thoughts I keep floating around in my head that I had no idea how to illustrate, put into music form.

Thank you for your attention, bye!

This is my favourite Aphex album! It blow my mind since the first time I listened to it, and years later it still does. Getting into production worsened my case and I was even more in awe with the whole album.

One of my fave album to trip to as well...

  On 9/19/2010 at 9:02 AM, kodomo said:

Getting into production worsened my case and I was even more in awe with the whole album.

Yeah, same here. Got this with lots of music though. But especially with drukqs

  On 9/19/2010 at 11:15 AM, Berk said:

  On 9/19/2010 at 9:02 AM, kodomo said:

Getting into production worsened my case and I was even more in awe with the whole album.

Yeah, same here. Got this with lots of music though. But especially with drukqs

what do you mean? Getting into production?

Getting into music making. At least that's what I think kodomo meant.

When I started making music, I got to see even more how intricate some music is.

  On 6/28/2010 at 3:31 AM, karmakramer said:

Seriously, this album is beyond anything else. Every track is a masterpiece.

I love you man but anyone who doesn't think this album has a ton of filler is...I dunno.

To my mind it has a handful of excellent tracks - Avril14, vordhosbn, ziggomatic - a number of "pretty good" tracks, and then a bunch of pisstakes/throways.

Not bad, but not his best. I think ICBYD, RDJ Album, Come to Daddy EP, Selected Ambient Works 2 are all better albums.

  On 9/20/2010 at 1:07 PM, lumpenprol said:

  On 6/28/2010 at 3:31 AM, karmakramer said:

Seriously, this album is beyond anything else. Every track is a masterpiece.

 

I love you man but anyone who doesn't think this album has a ton of filler is...I dunno.

 

To my mind it has a handful of excellent tracks - Avril14, vordhosbn, ziggomatic - a number of "pretty good" tracks, and then a bunch of pisstakes/throways.

 

Not bad, but not his best. I think ICBYD, RDJ Album, Come to Daddy EP, Selected Ambient Works 2 are all better albums.

I disagree, each track serves some purpose on the album. Its possible he just threw in a bunch of things to fill up (a little) space, but I don't think thats the case. For one, the large gaps between most of the tracks gives a kind of echo to some of the melodies/moods which changes the entire flow of the album. Some of the jarring piano pieces for example create a mood that transitions nicely into the following track.

Lump, have you ever listened to something and the melody which you thought was still playing actually wasn't anymore? Well thats kind of how I see drukqs. At first the five plus second gaps seem to ruin any sort of flow the album could have potentially had (especially when most of the gaps are after these filler tracks). You are thinking "well this is a lot of silence." But as you become more familiar with the album these gaps begin to serve as a time of reflection (echo) and anticipation for what follows. Cause some of them are very short. To think he spent all this time on the longer tracks and then just peppered in some 15 second sound clip to prolong the length of the album is a little ridiculous imo. I mean these "filler" tracks don't really add up to a whole lot of time. For example of the tracks that I would call "filler" - (Aussois, Bit 4, Lornaderek, Father, Prep, Orban) that only adds up to about 5 minutes... which is about the length of the shortest electronic/dnb styled tracks (AFX 237)... So we are talking about a 2 hour and 30 minute album, which contains 5 minutes of what if heard alone could be described as filler/wank.

Interesting enough I think the velocity of many of these tracks is also what makes these "gaps" so effective. Your mind is in a very sharp mode, trying to almost keep up sometimes with the changes in tempos/rhythms etc... so when you reach a stopping point and you have this kind of awkward moment of absolutely nothing, your brain is like a jogger at a stop light (joggin in place), you are still processing the music. But as I said something interesting happens when you slowly start to familiarize yourself with the pace of everything. It all pieces together in your head, and those gaps disappear from your consciousness. It evolves into something very different than what you heard on first few listens.

This may sound like bullshit, but its the best I can do at describing it. I mean this album is still very much alien to me, and its constantly giving me new impressions/feelings etc... I think its mysteriousness and sporadic structure, both on a micro level (the fast afx acid tracks) and on a macro level (song placements, time gaps, range of musical styles etc.)... is controlled chaos at its very finest. Had this just been released with the faster tracks, we would not feel the same we feel towards them that we do today. Richard said he spent more time organizing this album than any other album, and I think in time it's song structure will become more and more appreciated.

But hey, thats just like my opinion man...

i would at least say none of the piano tracks are filler

@karmakramer > Abso-fakqin'-lutely!!! It's the work of genius!

I'm not sure what next I'd like to hear from RDJ... new SAW or something like stronger tracks from Drukqs.

Analords/tTuss was fine but we got enough of that and it's time to go on...

Got this album just before I went to uni and needless to say it was my soundtrack for pretty much the whole time I was there, blew me away.

I was djing Vordhorsbn (spelling? meh) supporting Daedalus at a gig and he came up and said 'nice choice this is an awesome track' so yeah.

Also I won a £50 bet because of this album. Much love.

Just want to go back onto the synaesthesia discussion that clogged up this topic in june:

you guys aren't synaesthete at all. I used to get seizures upon listening to the end of Mt St Michel Mix.

Fucking amateurs .

Also what about Double Drukqs ?

  On 9/20/2010 at 1:07 PM, lumpenprol said:

  On 6/28/2010 at 3:31 AM, karmakramer said:

Seriously, this album is beyond anything else. Every track is a masterpiece.

 

I love you man but anyone who doesn't think this album has a ton of filler is...I dunno.

 

To my mind it has a handful of excellent tracks - Avril14, vordhosbn, ziggomatic - a number of "pretty good" tracks, and then a bunch of pisstakes/throways.

 

Not bad, but not his best. I think ICBYD, RDJ Album, Come to Daddy EP, Selected Ambient Works 2 are all better albums.

I have to agree with this. But I'd go further. Think of all the crap that followed and I'd happily assign it to the dustbin of history if it meant the internet wasn't awash with breakbeat dsp wankery for most of the noughties.

i noticed mouse clicking at the ambient bit of gwarek at the end. Anyone else?

  On 9/24/2010 at 5:18 AM, marf said:

i noticed mouse clicking at the ambient bit of gwarek at the end. Anyone else?

ah! there's so many things to notice in that track, it's kinda overwhelming

I enjoy this ordering on the quieter nights...

1. 
    
   
2. Kladfvgbung Micshk
   
3. Strotha Tynhe
   
4. Avril 14th
   
5. Hy A Scullyas Lyf A Dhagrow
   
6. Kesson Dalef
   
7. Btoum-Roumada
   
8. Penty Harmomium
   
9. Prep Gwarlek 3B
   
10. Father
    
11. Petiatil Cx Htdui
    
12. Ruglen Holon
    
13. Beskhu3epnm
    
14. Nanou 2
    

  On 9/22/2010 at 12:41 AM, kakapo said:

  On 9/20/2010 at 1:07 PM, lumpenprol said:

  On 6/28/2010 at 3:31 AM, karmakramer said:

Seriously, this album is beyond anything else. Every track is a masterpiece.

 

I love you man but anyone who doesn't think this album has a ton of filler is...I dunno.

 

To my mind it has a handful of excellent tracks - Avril14, vordhosbn, ziggomatic - a number of "pretty good" tracks, and then a bunch of pisstakes/throways.

 

Not bad, but not his best. I think ICBYD, RDJ Album, Come to Daddy EP, Selected Ambient Works 2 are all better albums.

 

I have to agree with this. But I'd go further. Think of all the crap that followed and I'd happily assign it to the dustbin of history if it meant the internet wasn't awash with breakbeat dsp wankery for most of the noughties.

It's funny to think that someone would discount innovative art for indirectly causing copy cats which anyone with free will is able to ignore...but I'm quoting you in order to reply to the post you quoted so enough about that.

What the fuck has happened to the album?

Every time I hear someone actually went out and bought a real live physical format LP of some sort there's a host of complaints relating to the fact that what they bought was an album with twists and turns and dips and rises and themes and not simply a compilation of repeat-listen head-bangathons all made in a similar fashion. Not everything is supposed Thriller or Appetite For Destruction. An album, at least as I have always understood it is supposed to play out like a movie, a book, a play of some sort. A Broadway production for your ears.

I don't think that Drukqs was slapped together with the impression that you'd be playing Bit4 and lornaderek over and over and over with mouth foam levels of excitement and a hard cock, slowly inching your cursor towards the play button before you geiser-cum all over your computer screen and faint (like some of you undoubtedly would before playing Vordhosbn or Mt Saint Michael). This is the inherent problem with having an unconventional track order, it's harder to find an underlying theme for most people so they just cherry pick the fast tracks and maybe bbydhyonchord, which from my perspective is a huge mistake because over time the piano tracks, for me, have held up just as well as any of the others.

Basically what I'm saying is, what you're calling filler is more aptly described as a "transition" or some sort of thematic break from the insanity of the drill n bass tracks. It would be hard as shit to sit through track after track after track of loud abrasive ridiculousness without all the soft pieces. I've only heard Gwely Mernans like 6 times but that shouldn't rate it above or below say, Ziggomatic which ive heard over 100 times at least.

Now does that mean that Drukqs is a well put together album? Personally I don't give a shit about arguing that. I think it's great and I can listen to it in one sitting and easily stay interested. Make up your own mind.

i like this release and i have grown fonder of it over time

but honestly the level at which dude's in this thread are riding for it seems a bit…….naive?

it's good but snares and many others were just as adept at the 190+ bpm fast electronic breakbeat stuff at the same time

technically speaking GO PLASTIC has more specific sonic innovations and preceded this release by 2 years

why aren't we JOCKING GO PLASTIC like this?

is it the unrelenting sonic fist or the absence of the satie influenced ear candy piano stuff?

You're comparing RDJ to Squarepusher and Snares technically, which is in my opinion, a huge mistake. While all three of them are capable of doing fast breakbeat tracks, and cutesy emotional tracks, Venetian Snares' breakbeat tracks are for the most part extremely shallow, and Squarepusher's emotional tracks are just usually accompanied by one layer of chopped amen break.

The beautiful thing about Drukqs, and RDJ's discography for the most part, is that all his songs flow together really well emotionally, and the fast breakbeat tracks (mostly) portray as much emotion as the purely melodic tracks.

Not to mention, neither Snares or Squarepusher ever do the level of complexity or layering in the drum track as Drukqs at it's most dense anyways, especially considering that a lot of the accompaniment is just as percussive as the actual drums.

  On 2/10/2011 at 7:49 PM, ganus said:

Not to mention, neither Snares or Squarepusher ever do the level of complexity or layering in the drum track as Drukqs at it's most dense anyways, especially considering that a lot of the accompaniment is just as percussive as the actual drums.

Most definitely. There's just a deftness and purposeful "soul" pervasive in every event throughout each track which imo is just not there with any other drum n' bass, drill n' bass, breakcore, whatever you want to call it.

  On 2/10/2011 at 7:24 PM, yikes said:

it's good but snares and many others were just as adept at the 190+ bpm fast electronic breakbeat stuff at the same time

technically speaking GO PLASTIC has more specific sonic innovations and preceded this release by 2 years

weren't they both released in 2001, drukqs just a few months after? Although im sure they both heard tracks from each other off the albums long before they were released.

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