Aphex Twin - Melodies from Mars

Even when it seems that Rephlex has had to deal with the blows of declining sales like pretty much everybody else, imagine if they would release an AFX joint in the near future. There is speculation that Syro will sell an insane amount of copies on various formats. And the public seem to cannot get enough. In a manner of speaking they could release an album of RDJ tuning his synths and people would sprint to the shop to get their copy.

Am I the only Aphex fan who isn't fussed? I've always found MFM to be a bit lacklustre. If it's reworked then great but as it stands I'm not really fussed. AB5 is much much better.

  On 9/24/2014 at 6:49 PM, Tricone RC said:

Re Mike P, I wonder if there is any unreleased Knob Twiddlers material knocking about that they could put out?

Yeah, I've heard there were a few tracks - I think there was an unreleased Mike and Rich track floating around... forgot what it was called though (it was really low quality).

  On 9/25/2014 at 3:04 AM, pissflaps said:

 

  On 9/24/2014 at 9:49 PM, colunga said:

Wish RDJ would REALLY say fuck all the nonsense of "releasing an album" (promo, interviews, meeting with label, choosing artwork, blah blah etc etc....) and use the .onion site to release collections of shit with no organization whatsoever. just drop a fucking load on the deep web.

 

I mean, I guess the only reason to properly "release" stuff is to make some money and provide that dividing line/closure he was talking about. but come on, you know hes already made closure on multiple styles without ever releasing them. Just dumping it would provide that line while bypassing the whole process of everyone looking at him and asking him questions. Teh ultimate expression of: "Here you go, just leave me alone"

Why doesn't he just create a bandcamp then? Or releases his stuff digitally only under the Rephlex label? He says he wants now to reach as much people as possible, but he has said he hates the hassle of record labels... why not get a bandcamp/Rephlex digital release only? And with the later you would get more amazing artists getting more noticed thanks to him. After 13 years, he's getting at the top of the charts again, clearly people love Aphex Twin and anything he releases anywhere, regardless if it's in Warp or not, it's going to be a success, so why the hell would you keep getting ripped off by Warp? Just look at the humongous list of stuff he has to pay arround, and who knows if they told him everything. If he goes the bandcamp/Rephlex route, he would control absolutely everything and be totally free, while continuing to be financially set because people all over the world is going to pay for anything he does.

 

The thing is, as much as Richard thinks releasing stuff and record labels are a hassle, he most likely dislikes the idea of self-managing all that himself even more and is glad for WARP to take the mantle when it comes to promotion, distribution, etc.

It's the same reason Rephlex didn't just set up a Bandcamp - someone still needs to do all the day-to-day work, which is the bulk of running a label - Bandcamp really only takes care of the orders and online payments, which is a relatively minor aspect of the business when compared to distribution, customer service, etc.

I got a good taste of that with the Caustic Window Kickstarter and my digipak sales - trust me, it's not fun at times and literally is a 24-hour a day job.

Analogue Bubblebath 5 is nice as it is, and tracks 1 and 8 are simply divine. The orchestral strings etc and homebrew synth percussion combination is still overlooked, and it's a really dreamy combination. More people should experiment with it. Anyway, yes, AB5 is nice as it is.

With Melodies From Mars, the timbres are simple and the playing in places is atrocious (although that may well be for comedic effect, it's hard to say). But if you look past that, the melodies are amongst his best yet. Just imagine tracks 7 and 10 played on nicer timbres that it took him weeks to perfect. It would be amazing. As it is, it's fun and quirky, but if he combined those tunes with his best patching, you'd really have something. Just picture track 10 starting off as an Avril 14th style set of broken chords and melody, then joined by pads or orchestral strings, then his modern percussion, just building up and up into an epic track. It'd be tricky to pull off, but he's one of the artists who could do it. For example.

The right timbres / instrumentation, along with good structure (and he's improved a lot there too) can really add a lot to an already very nice tune.

  On 9/25/2014 at 2:17 PM, Tristan said:

Would be so nice on Rephlex.

(and regardless of what's been said/ speculated, on their current website (Discogs) there is no mention of it being defunct)

Just in case you don't know Discogs database is built on submissions of its users/members. The fact that there's no mention of Rephlex being done just means that no-one hasn't bothered to submit that. Oh, Grant has an account but then again he didn't mention anything about ''RIP Rephlex'' on his Facebook which served as the official Rephlex info central. Just checked and Discogs page has also contact information for both e-mail and snailmail eventhough I guess that there's no-one anymore on the other side.

But yeah you're right. MfM on Rephlex would have been quite sweet Cat200. I wonder if they had reserved the spot for some special treat.

  On 9/25/2014 at 4:44 PM, jhonny said:

I've always found MFM to be a bit lacklustre. If it's reworked then great but as it stands I'm not really fussed.

It is reworked, Aphex has been working on it since the mid-90's and is apparently pissed that this earlier version leaked. What you heard is like a demo at best.

  On 9/25/2014 at 6:25 PM, MassfreeKid said:

 

  On 9/25/2014 at 4:44 PM, jhonny said:

I've always found MFM to be a bit lacklustre. If it's reworked then great but as it stands I'm not really fussed.

 

It is reworked, Aphex has been working on it since the mid-90's and is apparently pissed that this earlier version leaked. What you heard is like a demo at best.

 

Sweet.

  On 9/24/2014 at 4:15 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 9/24/2014 at 1:11 AM, purplegoat said:

 

  On 9/23/2014 at 11:43 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 9/23/2014 at 8:23 PM, goDel said:

 

  On 9/23/2014 at 12:44 PM, azatoth said:

 

  On 9/22/2014 at 10:45 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 9/22/2014 at 9:18 PM, MassfreeKid said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, realistically my suggestion really wouldn't work, because it's all unreleased material - as soon as it could be heard, the interest in a boxset would wane due to the inevitable piracy of the very tracks meant to end up on the boxset.

 

What Richard needs is someone trustworthy with a good ear/understanding of his music to go through his archives, and do a few rounds of selections, get back to Richard, have Richard select the ones he feels meet his standards, etc. - I don't know if anyone at WARP currently has the history with his music capable of doing such a thing, and I think Richard has very high standards when it comes to his music, so I doubt he'd feel comfortable having anyone but himself doing that.

 

He might be intrigued at a communal aspect to selecting his best stuff - a "Community Selected Works" if you will - but to avoid piracy, only snippets would be possible - is that enough to judge a track on as a potential release candidate?

 

Yeah I've been thinking about it a bunch. Watermarks, distortion, etc. I just can't think of a way that prevents piracy and gives the community enough information to create useful data. :(

Well, the thing about communities is, there's such a thing as peer pressure, and a way to get to know people over time. I mean, the mods have our IP's, and I'm not sure how easy it is to put watermarks on tracks, such that it would be able to tracks the person leaking. for a group of people with the size of...say... all paying watmm members who've been part of the community for at least a year...!?

It's an interesting thing to think about having a group of people going through his archives categorising music and upvoting them to add to compilations. although i don't think this would lead to good compilations; i'd rather have people making their own entire compilation...and may the best of them win, so to speak.

But still though, in this day of open source and kickstarters i feel there must be some solution without the restrictions inherent to having a tiny set of people. i feel more for wisdom of the crowd kind of things. (what makes a tiny community able to decide about this stuff?) complete openness without the piracy crap.

The downside might be that there's so much stuff, it'd be overkill for anyone involved in the process. It's like being addicted to chocolate and going to charlie wonka's chocolate factory. I know I'd drown in the chocolate river...

If Rich doesn't know if they're finished or not then how can anyone else know?

He really needs to (if he's got the inclination) just go back and mark them up as done, and sort through them himself. Any other ideas are just pipe dreams imo.

You've also got to factor in that he literally knows these tracks inside out, how many times have you heard some of his stuff then days, months, years down the line gone.... "'Oh I get it now!".... It happens all the time to me with loads of artists.

  On 9/27/2014 at 2:39 PM, goDel said:

Well, the thing about communities is, there's such a thing as peer pressure, and a way to get to know people over time. I mean, the mods have our IP's, and I'm not sure how easy it is to put watermarks on tracks, such that it would be able to tracks the person leaking. for a group of people with the size of...say... all paying watmm members who've been part of the community for at least a year...!?

 

It's an interesting thing to think about having a group of people going through his archives categorising music and upvoting them to add to compilations. although i don't think this would lead to good compilations; i'd rather have people making their own entire compilation...and may the best of them win, so to speak.

I'm with you on that. I was thinking everyone gets to make their own compilations and then data can come from that (for example, 5 mixtapes place song X as track six).

I was also thinking about unique watermarks but I can't think of a way to do it without messing up the music that can't be easily edited out. I'd certainly be willing to pay and sign an NDA with my full information. I guess users could only get a cross section of tracks and that way it could be traced but that could mess up the sorting aspect. Maybe if Richard had them in rough groups it could work, for example, 50 MFM tracks.

  On 9/25/2014 at 5:29 PM, Grumpy Old Daddy said:

 

  On 9/25/2014 at 2:17 PM, Tristan said:

Would be so nice on Rephlex.

(and regardless of what's been said/ speculated, on their current website (Discogs) there is no mention of it being defunct)

Just in case you don't know Discogs database is built on submissions of its users/members. The fact that there's no mention of Rephlex being done just means that no-one hasn't bothered to submit that. Oh, Grant has an account but then again he didn't mention anything about ''RIP Rephlex'' on his Facebook which served as the official Rephlex info central. Just checked and Discogs page has also contact information for both e-mail and snailmail eventhough I guess that there's no-one anymore on the other side.

 

But yeah you're right. MfM on Rephlex would have been quite sweet Cat200. I wonder if they had reserved the spot for some special treat.

 

MFM already has a Rephlex catalogue number - CAT087...

  On 9/29/2014 at 6:05 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 9/25/2014 at 5:29 PM, Grumpy Old Daddy said:

 

  On 9/25/2014 at 2:17 PM, Tristan said:

Would be so nice on Rephlex.

(and regardless of what's been said/ speculated, on their current website (Discogs) there is no mention of it being defunct)

Just in case you don't know Discogs database is built on submissions of its users/members. The fact that there's no mention of Rephlex being done just means that no-one hasn't bothered to submit that. Oh, Grant has an account but then again he didn't mention anything about ''RIP Rephlex'' on his Facebook which served as the official Rephlex info central. Just checked and Discogs page has also contact information for both e-mail and snailmail eventhough I guess that there's no-one anymore on the other side.

 

But yeah you're right. MfM on Rephlex would have been quite sweet Cat200. I wonder if they had reserved the spot for some special treat.

 

MFM already has a Rephlex catalogue number - CAT087...

 

Thanks for clarifying since I didn't know that. All that I know about the said release is based on discogs and there's no information of it having an own Cat. no. I've always simply kept it as a tape that was just floating out there, originally given to friends or something. Never realized that it was about to be released or that there were such plans in the first place. But hey, if it was re-worked shouldn't it deserve an own CAT?

  Quote

ah thnx zoe, yeah it is planned, gotta get it together very soon, like in a week as warp say if i dont give it to them by then finished it wont be out till next year as pressing plants are so busy

Also richard please release the original MFM in HQ!!!!

Also please don't call it Melodies From Mars

is that a fan title?

  On 7/6/2015 at 11:20 PM, Zeffolia said:

 

  Quote

ah thnx zoe, yeah it is planned, gotta get it together very soon, like in a week as warp say if i dont give it to them by then finished it wont be out till next year as pressing plants are so busy

 

I wonder if that means he's completely remade the tracks or just retouching the original tracks. Or, will it be the release he first had in mind (with the Mr. Men titles, including the Mr. Tickle track Mike Paradinas spoke about)? Will it be released on vinyl like the test pressing (only 8 tracks)?

I think at one point Melodies from Mars [which was leaked a couple of years ago, and formed part of a phase of melodic, “funny” Aphex tracks along with Pardinas & RDJ’s Mike & Rich album] was going to be called Mr. Men, and each track was describing each character’s personality – and he kept tickling me while playing ‘Mr. Tickle’. In the end, Mr Tickle wasn’t on the leaked Melodies from Mars either – I’d not heard it since that time.

http://boilerroom.tv/mindphuqed-by-rich-digging-deep-into-the-aphex-twin-archives/

Haven't heard the MFM tracks in a while, forgot how much exceptionally good stuff is on it (trk 1, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12). It was never a favourite album of mine and it was not the first one in mind that I would want to have properly released (that's AB5) but it carries a lot of nostalgic feels for me (first heard just a 2 second loop of each track on hyperreal back in 2000ish?).

Curious how this will turn out. If these are reworked they would lose the nostalgia but I could see them as just new tracks and always have the original tracks to go back to anyway, so it's a win-win situation.

Btw, great to read back suggestions how he should release his older tracks, watmm voting for it, just dumping his archive on a site, etc. Not even one year ago and look what has already happened :)

edit: vh - no, I think the title came from one of the original cassettes.

i haven't even heard original mfm cause he never released it so i am super fucking happy fun slide hype

  On 7/7/2015 at 10:50 PM, very honest said:

is that a fan title?

I dunno I just don't like the name.

melodies from uranus

  On 7/9/2015 at 4:13 AM, qnio said:

melodies from uranus

That one already came out bro

http://youtu.be/boBR_CdNjpQ

  On 7/8/2015 at 9:14 PM, patternoverlap said:

 

  On 7/7/2015 at 10:50 PM, very honest said:

is that a fan title?

I dunno I just don't like the name.

Im glad afx is one of those guys who dont listen to his jaded cynical fans suggestions

  On 7/9/2015 at 4:58 PM, Deer said:

 

  On 7/8/2015 at 9:14 PM, patternoverlap said:

 

  On 7/7/2015 at 10:50 PM, very honest said:

is that a fan title?

I dunno I just don't like the name.

Im glad afx is one of those guys who dont listen to his jaded cynical fans suggestions

 

Deer, you are a beautiful man/woman. Don't ever change.

If there's one thing I've learnt from Aphex Twin, it's that track/album/artist names for instrumental music aren't all that important. :)