26 Mixes for Cash / Smojphace EP

Only a few more weeks and it's all over, it's been an amazing time, let's keep pushing! Last week was the most popular week we've had in this cycle (The album was well deserving of that accomplishment), let's see if this will reach this

I kid, I kid. Here we have the awesome remix album 26 Mixes for Cash and the under-appreciated Smojphace EP.

26 Mixes has some of the best Aphex remixes you can find, with Seefeel's "Time to Find Me (Come Inside)" given a hearty Aphex bassline and breakbeat and many many others. Very dense album, but well worth the listen.

I originally thought Smojphace EP was just utter noise with an insane remix (which is well worth the download/purchase), but listening more closely, I can find some pleasure in those 2 KTPA tracks. Kind of.

Anyway, have a good week, have at it!

"You Can't Hide Your Love (Hidden Love Mix)" is by far my favorite RDJ remix of all time. One of my favorite tracks, period!

Same thing with his "Run The Place Red" remix.

2 solid cases for the argument of his complete brilliance.

I find it rather that some of the tracks on 26 mixes were actually sourced from low quality mp3s. Serious warp fail. That being said, I never noticed I'm a big fan of a lot of those remixes though.

26 Mixes is one of his most often overlooked and most underrated albums. There are just a ton of little gems on this one. "Time to Find Me" and "Change" are a couple of my personal favorites.

Not a fan of smojphace, but I think it's hilarious that aphex can release utter shit and people will still buy it.

  On 6/7/2010 at 12:50 PM, Rabid said:

26 Mixes is one of his most often overlooked and most underrated albums. There are just a ton of little gems on this one.

truer words cannot be spoken.

"deep in velvet" is one of my favs on this one, along with the aforementioned dmx krew remix and the st. etienne remix. plus, i didn't have "flow coma" before i bought this one, and that songs deserves its own fucking album.

26 mixes deserves more praise than it gets.

I wish HAB or something was more like Deep in Velvet turnips mix. Or whatever, just saying that because it seems like it was made at around the same time

but yeah there are a lot of not even necessarily great tracks but they obviously come from all different periods and all different atmospheres and it's a little overwhelming compared to something like SAW85-92 which is atmosphere but congeals with each other a lot better

also I remember looking through all the covers of the albums his stuff appeared on most of them seemed pretty bizarre like almost too perfect like he had some hand in all of them

uh Wagon Christ remix is pretty epic too, kind of sad imo

In light of my recent re-evaluation of Drukqs, I resolve to give this album another chance.

I do remember at the time that my general opinion of Aphex Twin Remixes was that he'd just take the master CD and hold an angle grinder up to it. However, having gone back and YouTubed things like the Curve remix and the Flow Coma remix and especially the two NIN pieces*, I can find a fair bit of beauty in there.

*yes probably because I can detect no trace of the original artist there heh. I suppose that's the thing with all remixes - it depends how attached you are to the original version.

Smojphace, though, can just fuck right off. I'm not *that* much of a phangurl that I'm going to listen to that again more than once. I'd like my eardrums back now, please Mr D.James - is the only point of that record to fuck with people's tinitus?

mike flowers pop is cool, i never heard of the guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms-asJ_d9cw

wow this wasn't on the album but I've never heard this before and I've heard plenty of rare aphex tracks

I kind of like how some tracks are mastered from low quality mp3s. Only thing I didn't like about the tuss was you could kind of feel the grain of the equipment he used or something, to me some of the magic of his early stuff is being unable to detect exactly what's making the sound, wondering if it's just the distortion or if there's additional inaudible sounds layered in there or what. And it always seems like the darker the track the crappier the quality is which makes me even more curious if it's on purpose or what (come on you slags compared to the rest of ICBYD for example)

Edit: I know there are other aphex twin remixes that didn't make it to the album (like Beck) but this one eluded me because I never remembered the name of the saint etienne song and just figured it was the same song

  On 6/7/2010 at 7:50 PM, yek said:

mike flowers pop is cool, i never heard of the guy

Same with Nav Katze. Many of these artists are obscure, but that one really sticks out as a group that have probably more listeners via RDJ's remix than their original material. (according to lastfm anyway)

  On 6/7/2010 at 7:28 PM, Masonic Boom said:

yes probably because I can detect no trace of the original artist there heh.

I remember hearing one urban legend about how he originally submitted a "remix" of a NIN song that was unchanged except for the addition of an improvised kazoo solo over top of the original track. Probably no truth to it, though...

My guess is, at most, he just took some sound effects from The Downward Spiral & used them as percussion samples in entirely new tracks.

Ooh, that St.Etienne remix posted above is LOOOVVVEEELY. Very Seefeel-y sort of feel to it, it's those looped female vocals - but that's the thing. I find I enjoy the remixes more when I listen to them as entirely original pieces rather than trying to find some scrap of the original song in it. It is just like he takes a single element that he likes the sound of, loops it, and builds a new song around it. It doesn't matter if it's a sci fi film or a tampon advert or a scrap of a pop song. It's just a textural element.

And Mike Flowers Pops? They had a massive hit with their ridiculous cover of Oasis's Wonderwall. (Which was about 100x better than the original, not that that's hard, mind you.)

Reasons these threads are good exercises for me:

1) filling the holes in my collection. I never bought 26 remixes at the time, but now I've used this thread as an excuse to go out and get it.

2) if I hadn't gone to the shops, I wouldn't have remembered that Ellen Allien had a new album out this week, so double win!

Anyway. To listening, now.

  On 6/7/2010 at 7:28 PM, Masonic Boom said:

I'd like my eardrums back now, please Mr D.James - is the only point of that record to fuck with people's tinitus?

noise is a creative concept. but knowing RDJ's personality, your theory could be correct

Smojphace EP is the only work of Richard i haven't properly heard.

26 mixes is overall very good remix work.

But what i really like is title. Richard wanted to be honest

I downloaded the original Gavin Bryars and found it far too pleasant and lacking the melancholy streak Richard added to the Big Drum mix. Very disappointing. But that remix is probably my second favourite thing Aphex has ever done.

The Big Drum mix is amazing. The actual orchestration is pretty good.

I never ever EVER learn with Aphex Remixes.

Dammit. I should know, from hearing the remixes of songs I am familiar with, that the remixes have little to nothing to do with the source material, and if you really love a remix, that does NOT mean that you will love the source song.

And still I go and try. I found the Beatniks album because I really wanted to know what the original of Une Femme N'est Pas Un Homme sounded like. And although it's very... interesting (kind of demented 80s sounding Japanese darkwave) - it's nothing like. He just took this one little backing riff on the chorus and turned it round and brought it into the foreground and made a new song out of it. Amazingly brilliant.

Why was the Meat Beat Manifesto remix cut in half?

Krieger, Flow Coma and Normal are my favourites amongst the mixes.

  On 6/8/2010 at 4:07 PM, Caretstik said:

Why was the Meat Beat Manifesto remix cut in half?

The mindstream remix isn't that great imo

  On 6/7/2010 at 2:42 PM, benc812 said:

plus, i didn't have "flow coma" before i bought this one, and that songs deserves its own fucking album.

hellfuck yeah. I love that remix.

good album.

  On 6/9/2010 at 7:02 AM, Capsaicin said:

The mindstream remix isn't that great imo

FUCK YOU. YOU ARE DEAD TO ME CAPSAICIN.

I actually really like the Bowie remix

somehow it reminds me of a couple tracks Daniel Johnston did with Gibby

26 Mixes for Cash has two tracks that I never, ever skip when they come up on shuffle: Your Head My Voice, Voix Revirement and Mindstream, The Aphex Twin Remix. Other gems on this album:

Time To Find Me, AFX Fast Mix. It's utterly sublime.

Raising The Titanic, Big Drum Mix. He really made something beautiful here.

Journey, Aphex Twin Care Mix. This is so mysterious and hypnotic.

Zeros and Ones, Aphex Twin Reconstruction #2. This is an extreme piece of noise!

Une Femme N'est Pas Un Homme, Aphex Twin. So warm and fiery.

Deep In Velvet, Aphex Twin Turnips Mix. It's like Laughable Butane Bob crashed into modern pop music.

SAW2 CD1 TRK2, Original Mix. Grumpy, choleratic breakdowns.

I've also been listening to Smojphace. This is one of the most underrated EPs ever released by anyone. It's an acquired taste. The first track is a schizophrenic frenzy of jungle beats, with breakcore debris flying everywhere. When an ordinary person hears it, it seems they automatically perceive a stereotype of shitty, noisy music. The kind you'd expect bad neighbours to blast out of their speakers at three in the morning. It's a shame, because there is a lot of fun to be had with this mix. If you're an an energetic mood, you can swing to it and really feel it coursing through your body.

The other two tracks are genuine pieces of beauty. The rawest, most razor-sharp noise you can find without contacting the US Army. KTPA 1 and 2 have so many extreme moments, ear piercing squeals, bone cracking clicks and cuts. Maybe I'll write more about this later, I just love these tracks so much. I recommend "Satanstornade" by Masami Akita and Russell Haswell for anyone else out there who loves this kind of music.