Aphex Twin - Melodies from Mars

Aren't you guys excited by the possibility of Aphex releasing an official, rerecorded, recomposed, reworked, remixed, remastered version of Melodies from Mars? It's been so long. I guess it's a bit like with his live tracks. Those of us who have listened to the poorly sounding version of MfM over and over won't feel like it's a new album altogether, but those of us who haven't, we're in for a bonus. I like to think that Joyrex using Melodies from Mars as his new avatar is hinting at something, like a sooner-than-later release date. Let's cross our fingers. So, anybody else is excited about this?

Yeah I love that mixtape. Most of them have been my morning alarms at some time. Also If I can recall he said he would make some changes to the tracks.

Yeah exactly, he seems to have completely recomposed the whole thing over the years. At some point it was a 4-albums compilation. That's the exciting factor for me.

I believe in one interview he said it was completely redone on modern equipment, no?

I wonder why he's decided to do that though.

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:40 PM, Brisbot said:

I wonder why he's decided to do that though.

I would love to hear the quirky melodies and synthwork of MFM but with high quality production.

I think that would be great and if he really did it, then I suppose that's the point =P

  Quote

He confirms that he was the artist behind the much-rumored-about Melodies From Mars album, which was made circa 1995 and has been circulating online for years: “There's a really bad copy of it on the net. I think I gave the tape to Warp, so one of those fuckers leaked it years ago. I actually went back and re-edited it, because I almost released it again, but then I got distracted again. Each time I go back to it, I realize there were loads more tracks. So it started off like a double album, but I think it's about four albums' worth. So it's really hard to pull together. I just need Warp or someone to come around and say, ‘Come on, let's fucking get these things out.’ But they don't, so it's just up to me. And nobody else hassles me.”

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:40 PM, Brisbot said:

I wonder why he's decided to do that though.

To give his fans even more amazing music? :D

Bwuh... So he said "I actually went back and re-edited it". Doesn't sound like "completely recomposed" or "completely redone on modern equipment"?

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:48 PM, MassfreeKid said:

 

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:40 PM, Brisbot said:

I wonder why he's decided to do that though.

 

To give his fans even more amazing music? :D

 

His work ethics was/is always based around making new stuff constantly (can't be arsed to make compilations of older unreleased stuff, rather stay at home making new music, when a track is done, it's done), so in that frame of mind this is a weird choice. But hey, if anyone is able to make weird choices, it's him :)

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:54 PM, goDel said:

Bwuh... So he said "I actually went back and re-edited it". Doesn't sound like "completely recomposed" or "completely redone on modern equipment"?

 

nope I've seen him talk about it in a different album where he says it's completely redone on modern equipment.

I'll do my best to find it but my research skills are shite.

herr might know though?

Redone on modern equipement or not, this is an unreleased album by Aphex Twin, at the end the day... I think it's at least 100% certain that if he was to release it officially, it wouldn't be the leak we've heard before. It would be much more. Something none of us has heard. I mean, how do you go from an album to 4 albums without changing the content at all? Who knows what "to re-edite an album" means in Aphex's mind? I prefer to see it as an unreleased album coming from one of his best periods, 1994-1999, reworked throughout the 2000's. But let's wait and see! Joyrex, are you excited about an official release of MFM? Say something to us. :) Your avatar leads me to believe that you also want it to be released but I could be wrong.

i feel like a lot of the charm in those tracks was in how minimal and weird they were. if he remade them with 'better' equipment or whatever, i think a lot of that charm could easily evaporate. like if he beefed up those sounds... a lot of what was good about it was how tiny and thin and small and weird and minimal it was. just weird squiggly synths, simple drums, the idea of doing something like that and it still being musically interesting, to me that's the main good thing about it. because it makes it more unique that way. i think i'd rather have the same style as they are but in better quality recordings and with more tracks, than actually reproduced/remixed versions. i really wouldn't want to hear those tracks made to sound like analord tracks, for example.

but what i would want is irrelevant and even if he did rework them, maybe theyd be good in a different way. but it would be different... and theyre already good the way they are on that tape. and honestly, i don't think the rip of the tape thats floating around really sounds all that terrible. sounds pretty decent to me. also i think the lofi tape quality kind of adds to the charm of the whole thing, whether that was intentional or not.

  On 9/7/2014 at 5:17 PM, StephenG said:

 

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:54 PM, goDel said:

Bwuh... So he said "I actually went back and re-edited it". Doesn't sound like "completely recomposed" or "completely redone on modern equipment"?

 

 

nope I've seen him talk about it in a different album where he says it's completely redone on modern equipment.

 

I'll do my best to find it but my research skills are shite.

 

herr might know though?

Thought so too, but he mentions he did an edit of MFM in two interviews, in one of the Syro interviews mentioned above and that interview from 4 years ago (!) where he talks about having 6 albums ready. Nothing more I'm afraid, I think it's more what watmm thought "re-edit" would mean, all that speculation about how he could've recreated it, maybe that's where we read it?

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:13 PM, MassfreeKid said:

Those of us who have listened to the poorly sounding version of MfM over and over won't feel like it's a new album altogether, but those of us who haven't, we're in for a bonus.

In my opinion the opposite is true.

  On 9/7/2014 at 6:39 PM, Herr Jan said:

 

  On 9/7/2014 at 5:17 PM, StephenG said:

 

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:54 PM, goDel said:

Bwuh... So he said "I actually went back and re-edited it". Doesn't sound like "completely recomposed" or "completely redone on modern equipment"?

 

 

nope I've seen him talk about it in a different album where he says it's completely redone on modern equipment.

 

I'll do my best to find it but my research skills are shite.

 

herr might know though?

Thought so too, but he mentions he did an edit of MFM in two interviews, in one of the Syro interviews mentioned above and that interview from 4 years ago (!) where he talks about having 6 albums ready. Nothing more I'm afraid, I think it's more what watmm thought "re-edit" would mean, all that speculation about how he could've recreated it, maybe that's where we read it?

"I’ve got six [albums] completed... one is Melodies from Mars, which I redid about three years ago."

  On 9/7/2014 at 6:31 PM, MisterE said:

i feel like a lot of the charm in those tracks was in how minimal and weird they were. if he remade them with 'better' equipment or whatever, i think a lot of that charm could easily evaporate. like if he beefed up those sounds... a lot of what was good about it was how tiny and thin and small and weird and minimal it was. just weird squiggly synths, simple drums, the idea of doing something like that and it still being musically interesting, to me that's the main good thing about it. because it makes it more unique that way. i think i'd rather have the same style as they are but in better quality recordings and with more tracks, than actually reproduced/remixed versions. i really wouldn't want to hear those tracks made to sound like analord tracks, for example.

 

but what i would want is irrelevant and even if he did rework them, maybe theyd be good in a different way. but it would be different... and theyre already good the way they are on that tape. and honestly, i don't think the rip of the tape thats floating around really sounds all that terrible. sounds pretty decent to me. also i think the lofi tape quality kind of adds to the charm of the whole thing, whether that was intentional or not.

I agree with this opinion

This album has grown on me a lot over the years. Once you look past the timbres that I suspect aren't going to even vaguely resemble what's in the final version, it has some of his strongest melodies. I consider it a real turning point, for when he started to get as serious about his melodies as he already was about his timbres and rhythms. So if he releases a version of this album with nicer timbres, I'll be over the moon. It'd be the best of both worlds, like, say, Hangable Auto Bulb was.

  On 9/7/2014 at 6:31 PM, MisterE said:

if he remade them with 'better' equipment or whatever, i think a lot of that charm could easily evaporate. like if he beefed up those sounds... a lot of what was good about it was how tiny and thin and small and weird and minimal it was.

fingerbib and logan rock witch turned out well... and that was in 1996.

  On 9/7/2014 at 6:48 PM, ZoeB said:

This album has grown on me a lot over the years. Once you look past the timbres that I suspect aren't going to even vaguely resemble what's in the final version, it has some of his strongest melodies. I consider it a real turning point, for when he started to get as serious about his melodies as he already was about his timbres and rhythms. So if he releases a version of this album with nicer timbres, I'll be over the moon. It'd be the best of both worlds, like, say, Hangable Auto Bulb was.

well put

I've been excited about this possibility since the start of the Kickstarter campaign. Signs (interviews, Joyrex avatar, etc.) are looking good, hope it happens.

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:55 PM, Herr Jan said:

 

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:48 PM, MassfreeKid said:

 

  On 9/7/2014 at 4:40 PM, Brisbot said:

I wonder why he's decided to do that though.

 

To give his fans even more amazing music? :D

 

His work ethics was/is always based around making new stuff constantly (can't be arsed to make compilations of older unreleased stuff, rather stay at home making new music, when a track is done, it's done), so in that frame of mind this is a weird choice. But hey, if anyone is able to make weird choices, it's him :)

 

yeah this^

but in one of the recen interview he also mentioned that MFM is one of his most famous works, even though it never even released officially. It got a lot of attention from gamers and other nerds like me, because of its game soundtrack -like style.

I mostly love it for the composition, but I also agree with Mister E that the old gear he used plays a big role at creating its characteristic charm.

I'd be happy with an official release with a better quality. No need for a modern reinterpretation imo, but I think that would be the most likely thing we would get. I doubt Richard would see a reason in publishing a remastered version of it without making changes to the music itself, because of what Herr Jan said. That would be nothing but a lot of uninspiring work for him and I also doubt it would sell very well.

Just my 2p.

Regarding the merits of writing tracks with simple timbres: this is a great way of composing, as the melodies can't hide behind fancy timbres, so the melodies themselves have to be catchy. And once the composition's finished you might be tempted to think "hey, this sounds great as it is! Maybe I shouldn't pair up these catchy melodies with more interesting sounds after all!" But then you try it, just to make sure, and it always sounds so much better. Yes, I totally agree that one of the things that makes Melodies From Mars sound so interesting is that it's quirky through and through, but swapping out raw waveforms for quirky synth sounds and/or samples can only help that quirky vibe, at the same time as simply making it sound better. It's the imperfections of a sound, the impurities, that stave off listening fatigue!

  On 9/7/2014 at 6:48 PM, ZoeB said:

This album has grown on me a lot over the years. Once you look past the timbres that I suspect aren't going to even vaguely resemble what's in the final version, it has some of his strongest melodies. I consider it a real turning point, for when he started to get as serious about his melodies as he already was about his timbres and rhythms. So if he releases a version of this album with nicer timbres, I'll be over the moon. It'd be the best of both worlds, like, say, Hangable Auto Bulb was.

I totally agree with that!

On a side note, each time I hear the first half of the unreleased myspace Steinvord track Untitled 97 I think it sounds like what I imagine for a more "produced" Melodies From Mars track. Am I the only one to get that feeling?

edit :

  On 9/7/2014 at 7:40 PM, ZoeB said:

Regarding the merits of writing tracks with simple timbres: this is a great way of composing, as the melodies can't hide behind fancy timbres, so the melodies themselves have to be catchy. And once the composition's finished you might be tempted to think "hey, this sounds great as it is! Maybe I shouldn't pair up these catchy melodies with more interesting sounds after all!" But then you try it, just to make sure, and it always sounds so much better. Yes, I totally agree that one of the things that makes Melodies From Mars sound so interesting is that it's quirky through and through, but swapping out raw waveforms for quirky synth sounds and/or samples can only help that quirky vibe, at the same time as simply making it sound better. It's the imperfections of a sound, the impurities, that stave off listening fatigue!

I also totally agree with that ;-)

So we have "re-edit" and "re-did". Pick your own definition. Sounds like a completely new album to me that was made out of the MFM "demo" we heard.

re·do (r-d)

tr.v. re·did (-dd), re·done (-dn), re·do·ing, re·does (-dz)

1. To do over again.

2. To redecorate: redo the walls in blue.

n. (rd)pl. re·dos or re·do's

An act or instance of doing something again.

--------

ed·it (dt)

tr.v. ed·it·ed, ed·it·ing, ed·its

1.

a. To prepare (written material) for publication or presentation, as by correcting, revising, or adapting.

b. To prepare an edition of for publication: edit a collection of short stories.

c. To modify or adapt so as to make suitable or acceptable: edited her remarks for presentation to a younger audience.

2. To supervise the publication of (a newspaper or magazine, for example).

3. To assemble the components of (a film or soundtrack, for example), as by cutting and splicing.

4. To eliminate; delete: edited the best scene out.

That's what I gathered.

We'll never know unless he releases it, sadly. haha