Autechre Autechre pulled me away from Aphex Twin

o00o, you say this change has only happened after Quaristice/Oversteps. Hasn't it occurred to you that it might be just a sort of "preference-phase"? I get this very often, some music won't make that much sense for a couple of months, sometimes years. I'm gonna bet there'll be a time where you're gonna feel the complete opposite about Afx and Ae.

I get these change of preferences very much in relation to the current season of the year. I hardly listen to BoC in Autumn and Winter, but I love Autechre then, and during these awkward months like March and April, usually. And in Spring and Summer I'm like all over BoC. Clark is kind of always appreciated, but in Summer I tend to like his older "warmer" stuff like ETBOY and in Autumn and Winter I like tracks like Talis, the whole of Totem really. Squarepusher (the old Squarepusher) is also an absolute Autumn thing. Theme From Ernest Borgnine is like the hymn of Autumn for me. And Aphex really depends on the album.

  On 11/25/2010 at 1:06 AM, jeyemusik said:

  On 11/24/2010 at 4:07 AM, Bob Dobalina said:

Seriously tho, I have this theory about how people cum to teh IDMz

 

If its via hiphop>triphop>djshadow>boardsofcanada you're gonna gravitate to Ae.

 

If its via metal>industrial>nin>snares you're gonna gravitate to afx.

 

Just a theory at the moment tho

 

not to be a prick but your theory is a bit jarlesberg at the minute. of your two paths, the 2nd is closest to my own experience but AFX bored me shitless when Drukqs came out. And i've more or less paid no attention to him since. That said, I bought Drukqs for the 2nd time when I came across it in a second hand record shop a couple of months back and it's not so bad 2nd time around. Not great but at least i can enjoy it to some extent.

 

Also, also. I don't understand folk who seem to equate AE with emotionless and AFX with something more human. AFX is maybe more catchy overall but I don't think it quite works for me deeper than that.

Whatevs brah, point was that what angle you came at it affects how you engage teh IDMz (unless you were born listening to aphex twins in utero), futz around here long enough and you'll see that by and large the correlation coefficient betwixt afx, NIN, and Snares is legit, as is autechre and hiphop. Of course since I completely forgot about radiohead theory is all focked now

why isn't this in the autechre or afx sub forum? at this point in my life i rarely listen to either, ????

  On 11/24/2010 at 11:42 PM, Braintree said:

It's apples and oranges, really.

 

Aphex is like time square with his blast of sensory overload, and AE is like taking a train through Detroit's industrial complexes. They're more of a huge, slow moving machine.

 

Aphex is a bicycle. AE is a tank.

 

I actually prefer Aphex to Autechre, but if you've heard my music, you'll know I'm more a fan of melody and quick changes.

 

Cipater is one of my favorite tracks, though.

total lols, detroit has no public trans

With the exception of SAW85-92, ICBYD and RDJ Album, I have entirely stopped listening to Richard's music. It just... bores me for some reason. Autechre on the other hand, I can listen to just about everything at any time and be happy (though I admittedly don't like Gantz Graf). Been this way for about four months now.

Also I have never liked Drukqs as a whole, but do like Mt St Michael and 54 Cymmru Beats.

autechre are academic. Aphex is emotional. Pick your poison

  On 11/25/2010 at 7:14 PM, marf said:

autechre are academic. Aphex is emotional. Pick your poison

nah. autechre just have an unusual groove. the rest is pretty strait forward. I like aphex twin still I just wanted to know if some of you listen to less aphex because of autechre

i have sacrificed one for the other in the past, but I dont think about it. now. I listen to what I want. Aphex is a song writer. He writes tunes. Im not so sure AE write tunes. I dont go to them for the melodies and song composition. I go to them for the novelty of their ideas though. Im enjoying the new Mark Fell record big time. If you like AE you'll like this

oh heavens no. if anything, Luke or Mike P has a better shot of stealing me away. not that they will

  On 11/25/2010 at 7:25 PM, marf said:

Aphex is a song writer. He writes tunes. Im not so sure AE write tunes. I dont go to them for the melodies and song composition. I go to them for the novelty of their ideas though.

I'm really, really disagreeing with this. Never been a big fan of AFX, didn't listen to all his stuff, but even if some of his songs belong to my favourites of all time, I actually think that Mrs Booth and Brown, in terms of musical research AND melody (Draun Quarter, Xylin Room, See On See to name a few), are waaaaay beyond Mr James. Autechre songs are more evocative to me than nearly everything off Aphex Twin catalogue (except "classics" such as Come To Daddy, Alberto Balsalm or April 14th). Maybe they less work when they are token off their albums, but Ae tracks are...yeah, you know what I mean.

But hell yeah, since I listen deeply to Autechre, Aphex annoys me a bit.

That being said, I now have to listen to the rest of their respective discography to go further in one of those two directions.

That being said pt. 2, others musicians need to be discovered.

  On 11/25/2010 at 8:22 AM, morphis2525 said:

  On 11/24/2010 at 11:42 PM, Braintree said:

It's apples and oranges, really.

 

Aphex is like time square with his blast of sensory overload, and AE is like taking a train through Detroit's industrial complexes. They're more of a huge, slow moving machine.

 

Aphex is a bicycle. AE is a tank.

 

I actually prefer Aphex to Autechre, but if you've heard my music, you'll know I'm more a fan of melody and quick changes.

 

Cipater is one of my favorite tracks, though.

 

total lols, detroit has no public trans

That's beside the point. I was trying to describe the atmosphere.

Autechre are dull and samey to me. Maybe from a technical standpoint they seem amazing, I know little about music production so maybe that's why I don't care for them. I can't imagine how someone could prefer them over afx, tbh.

  On 11/25/2010 at 1:54 AM, Al5x said:

  On 11/25/2010 at 1:45 AM, Billov said:

if you thought Drukqs was boring, what aphex twin do you listen to???

 

This and if you actually stopped after Drukqs you're missing out on same incredible shit.

ummmm, why i got bored of Drukqs... i think it was the feeling when Drukqs first came out that, despite the masses of unreleases material that RDJ supposedly has, the two CDs feel like a random selection of tracks. Rather than an album that has a flow. This probably makes me sound like some old prog rock fan. It also felt that it was a 50-50 split of introspective melodic pieces and "spannered omg IDMzzzz" type stuff with no middle ground and the juxtaposing track to track got really tiring. The upbeat stuff felt kind of "standard issue AFX" too. Maybe if the track order had been different, if it had only been one CD then i might've felt different. As I said, I bought the album again recently and I don't mind it so much - there is some good stuff - but i just don't dig it in a big way.

What incredible shit am I missing out on? I have Rushup Edge, and I've heard enough of the Analord stuff through VLR's mixes to know that. It's decent, but nothing to set the heather alight.

  On 11/25/2010 at 5:53 AM, Bob Dobalina said:

Whatevs brah, point was that what angle you came at it affects how you engage teh IDMz (unless you were born listening to aphex twins in utero), futz around here long enough and you'll see that by and large the correlation coefficient betwixt afx, NIN, and Snares is legit, as is autechre and hiphop. Of course since I completely forgot about radiohead theory is all focked now

Although my post count and registration date are both new I've lurked around here for a long time before that and I've never noticed the correlation. That said, I'm never in the artist sub-forums much. I was also thinking more from folk I know that like AE mostly tend to come from the rock-ist angle. But then again, that could be because I'm from a shitty little backwater country.

ae music:

afx music

  On 11/25/2010 at 11:22 PM, chook said:

Autechre are dull and samey to me. Maybe from a technical standpoint they seem amazing, I know little about music production so maybe that's why I don't care for them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWRHt5HqKfY

I read somewhere that the material on Drukqs was chosen and sequenced in order to scare off some of the new fans he had gained who only knew aphex twin as the guy who made Come to Daddy, or something like that. Someone should dig that interview or whatever it is up.

  On 11/26/2010 at 12:35 AM, jeyemusik said:

  On 11/25/2010 at 1:54 AM, Al5x said:

  On 11/25/2010 at 1:45 AM, Billov said:

if you thought Drukqs was boring, what aphex twin do you listen to???

 

This and if you actually stopped after Drukqs you're missing out on same incredible shit.

What incredible shit am I missing out on? I have Rushup Edge, and I've heard enough of the Analord stuff through VLR's mixes to know that. It's decent, but nothing to set the heather alight.

Get Confederation Trough.

If analord is "decent but nothing to set the heather alight" to you then I can see exactly why you wouldn't enjoy aphex twin's music all that much. I'm much more into the Twin and I've listened to analord more than any other release/series of releases by anyone ever, & it seems to me that loads of people from the subforum have a similar relationship with it.

Ironically though, loads of analords took years to fully grow on me, which is something I usually only say about AE.

even if you don't know shit about music, i still think Autechre is FAR FAR FAR from dull.

  On 11/26/2010 at 12:35 AM, jeyemusik said:

  On 11/25/2010 at 1:54 AM, Al5x said:

  On 11/25/2010 at 1:45 AM, Billov said:

if you thought Drukqs was boring, what aphex twin do you listen to???

 

This and if you actually stopped after Drukqs you're missing out on same incredible shit.

 

ummmm, why i got bored of Drukqs... i think it was the feeling when Drukqs first came out that, despite the masses of unreleases material that RDJ supposedly has, the two CDs feel like a random selection of tracks. Rather than an album that has a flow. This probably makes me sound like some old prog rock fan. It also felt that it was a 50-50 split of introspective melodic pieces and "spannered omg IDMzzzz" type stuff with no middle ground and the juxtaposing track to track got really tiring. The upbeat stuff felt kind of "standard issue AFX" too. Maybe if the track order had been different, if it had only been one CD then i might've felt different. As I said, I bought the album again recently and I don't mind it so much - there is some good stuff - but i just don't dig it in a big way.

 

What incredible shit am I missing out on? I have Rushup Edge, and I've heard enough of the Analord stuff through VLR's mixes to know that. It's decent, but nothing to set the heather alight.

I'm with you on this. I still don't get the love some people have for Druqks. There are some great but safe tracks on it (vordhosbn, avril 14), some tracks that could be epic if they were given a different treatment with fewer cheesy "look at me" sounds (ziggomatic), and a bunch of so-so tracks that either sound like Aphex-by-numbers (mont st. michel, man the vocal samples are so predictable), leftovers he reheated and polished a little for release, tracks trying to be "hard that strangely aren't (54 cymru beats, taking control - for a track about drum programming, it's strangely toothless), a bunch of frankly embarrassing avante-garde-y (and worse, stuffy and ho-hum) piano tracks, and some utterly throwaway wank (the screaming one). I've made several attempts to connect with Drukqs but it's really not a "grower" for me.

That said, I'm not that big of an Aphex fan. I really admire his eclecticism and creativity, and recognize that all his releases from SAW 1 thru Windowlicker are classics, but I don't keep him on heavy rotation. Of course this is all truly apples and oranges, just depends on personal preference really. Aphex has rewritten the electronic music manual multiple times (saw 2, hangable autobulb, rdj album) and so have ae (tri rep, lp5, confield).

  On 11/23/2010 at 11:20 PM, Calx Sherbet said:

  On 11/23/2010 at 6:51 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

AE has much more depth than AFX.

 

they seem more serious. it's like their music is more "regal".

dude untilted and draft are FULL of fart sounds.

autechre are funny guys, i dunno how most people don't get that.

  On 11/23/2010 at 6:51 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

AE has much more depth than AFX.

this

  On 11/27/2010 at 4:23 AM, verticalhold said:

  On 11/23/2010 at 6:51 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

AE has much more depth than AFX.

 

this

sorry but - pfffft

can you chaps elaborate? is it because you feel that Ae is more academic? i really don't think they are, as much as people think. what is in the depth?

They both have their merits, but depths mmmmmmh

  On 11/27/2010 at 4:31 AM, David R James said:

  On 11/27/2010 at 4:23 AM, verticalhold said:

  On 11/23/2010 at 6:51 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

AE has much more depth than AFX.

 

this

 

sorry but - pfffft

 

can you chaps elaborate? is it because you feel that Ae is more academic? i really don't think they are, as much as people think. what is in the depth?

 

They both have their merits, but depths mmmmmmh

perhaps "rich" is a better word. But then again, how am I supposed to elaborate on the two artists' sound without it falling into ridiculousness. I think with AE (for me anyway) their sound is significantly more refined than Aphex's. Take RDJ album for example; I find it to be a fun record, but a lot of the sounds are immediately recognizable, whereas with AE there is a noticeable manipulation of sound that acts "transformatively" rather than simply drowning in short-hand filters. What gets me off about Autechre is that for the most part, I have NO reference point as to what I'm hearing, where it comes from. "Mechanical", and "Cold" get thrown around in discussion of Autechre a lot, but they're the most accurate descriptors, for my anyway. In terms of production, the only release by Aphex Twin that really WOWs me is probably Drukqs.... I love SAWII and RDJ album (for the most part), but I don't get lost on certain tracks, repeating over and over, like I would for say "Pro Radii" or "Pen Expers". I imagine a lot of people will disagree with this, but I think Aphex Twin's most relies a lot on cute samples as a point of entry. Really Autechre have pulled me away from Plaid, as I find their music to be melodically exhausting, (as with Aphex Twin, to a lesser extent)

  On 11/27/2010 at 4:31 AM, David R James said:

  On 11/27/2010 at 4:23 AM, verticalhold said:

  On 11/23/2010 at 6:51 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

AE has much more depth than AFX.

 

this

 

sorry but - pfffft

 

can you chaps elaborate? is it because you feel that Ae is more academic? i really don't think they are, as much as people think. what is in the depth?

 

They both have their merits, but depths mmmmmmh

How about, instead of "depth", "maturity". But yes, it's still vague. "Rich" is fine.

If Aphex continued to produce albums such as the RichardDJames / Come to Daddy Ep/ or SAW II, then I would have had a hard time saying which I prefer. But then, imo, AFx went into the dancefloor area, and not the smartest one (yeah, I don't like much the Analord). He took the funny / teenage music route and lost his depth.

Whereas AE kept pushing their music to new areas and producing interesting /multi-layered innovative stuff, if not challenging. And that's not a purely "academic" (TECHNICAL) appreciation, but also from the melodical point of view (last instance of melodic perfection and maturity : OSVeix).

Afx keeps repeating himself with his trademark childish melodies and boring acidish wink. Aphex really needs to pick his stuff together and go back to making incredible records.