Aphex Twin - Melodies from Mars

  On 7/20/2015 at 9:00 PM, Joyrex said:

 

Which begs the question - if Richard does have his own 'names' for these tracks - what are they?

 

I know from experience that track names are important to him, as with the Caustic Window LP, I was given explicit instructions not to even capitalize, remove the catalogue number from the track names, etc. as that is how Richard intended the tracks to be released and those were the official names.

 

Would also love to know, just out of curiosity. SAW2 always feels like the outsider when discussing the back catalogue, for obvious reasons I suppose, but other than the "Lucid dreams" I haven't read/heard much about it from the man himself, would be very interesting I think.

But that's all for another topic another day I suppose, hopefully we'll hear some more news about Melodies From Mars soon and then this thread can get back to its intended purpose.

  On 7/20/2015 at 10:45 PM, Leonod33 said:

 

  On 7/20/2015 at 9:00 PM, Joyrex said:

 

Which begs the question - if Richard does have his own 'names' for these tracks - what are they?

 

I know from experience that track names are important to him, as with the Caustic Window LP, I was given explicit instructions not to even capitalize, remove the catalogue number from the track names, etc. as that is how Richard intended the tracks to be released and those were the official names.

 

 

Would also love to know, just out of curiosity. SAW2 always feels like the outsider when discussing the back catalogue, for obvious reasons I suppose, but other than the "Lucid dreams" I haven't read/heard much about it from the man himself, would be very interesting I think.

 

But that's all for another topic another day I suppose, hopefully we'll hear some more news about Melodies From Mars soon and then this thread can get back to its intended purpose.

 

Definitely pick up the book about SAW 2. A lot of it is about the track titles too, good story how the man who just quickly typed up the words that he thought matched what he saw on the photos of the artwork was asked to work at Warp later. He even was the one who decided upon the title of the "Radiator" remix on 26 Mixes for Cash as SAWII CDX TRKX, he didn't even think about using his made up titles for a second. Only downside there is hardly any input from Aphex himself, only excerpts from old interviews.

Paul Nicholson (the designer of the Aphex Twin logo and also the co-designer of SAW 2's concept along with Richard's photography) was interviewed about SAW 2's design:

http://forum.watmm.com/topic/52588-who-designed-the-aphex-twin-logo/page-2?do=findComment&comment=1218339

  Quote

Paul Nicholson on Selected Ambient Works Volume 2.

 

Prototype 21 faxatak: 11:11:94

 

f.a..o. Matthew james. Newport school of art.

 

Re. Can you help me prototype 21?

 

The basic concept behind the ambient 2 design was to create a non-written track-listing where categorisation of the tracks was based on their time signatures. Firstly i had to establish a system that would work across all 3 formats (l.p. c.d. m.c.) to this end the 25 tracks of the collection divided into 6 groups these being 5 groups of 4 and 1 group of 5. From this point on all design work was entirely structured on mathematics.

 

Each track playing time, the overall length of each group and the total playing time of the collection was worked out. Once all the various times were established (as in 60 seconds per minute) they were converted into decimal. With the times in decimal it was then possible to convert each of the track times into a percentage of its respective group. The reason for the conversion of time into decimal percentages was so that a graphic representation of time could be created. In the case of ambient 2 this was achieved through the use of pie charts.

 

As well as the pie chart each track's time is represented also by the dimensions of the photograph they appear in. To establish the dimensions of each photograph the total usable surface area dedicated to them had to be worked out and then divided by 6 for each group of tracks. The area allocated to each group was further divided by the percentages given to each track. From the area allocation of each track its dimensions were worked out. For example: each of the six groups on the l.p. format was allocated 130 cm2. Group a being 25 minutes 58 seconds became 25.96 (once converted to decimal.) Track a1 being 7 minutes 32 seconds became 7.53. Track a1 became 29% of group a.. 29% of 130 cm2 is 38 cm2 which ended up with a photograph of dimensions 5 x 7.6cm. this method was used to determine the area of the photographs across all three formats with the area allocation obviously differing due to the size differential between the formats.

 

Each pie chart within the photograph has 1 segment that is filled in which refers to the track it represents with the segments being arranged from 0-360 degrees clockwise. to help distinguish each of the 6 groups of tracks colour coding was adopted. For example: track a1 pie chart segment was located between 0-104 degrees and is coloured olive.

 

Once all the above was completed the layout of the photographs was based on aesthetic judgement following a loose grid system. The work for this collection was started december 1993 with 1 month given to its completion. With hindsight more time would have meant a closer realisation to what i had hoped to achieve as i feel there is not enough visual clues as to what i was getting at. As far as ambient 2 is concerned i have had no other opportunity to follow this line of thought, and probably won't through music related graphic work, but have continued to experiment generally with aspects of visual communication.

 

Article reprinted with kind permission of Paul Nicholson.

Interesting stuff, thanks! Never realised just how accurate the pie charts etc were meant to be, Mr Nicholson did a damn good job I'd say.

Might check that book out, but some of the reviews make it sound like it's mostly fluff...still, might be worth a peek at £5.

  On 7/20/2015 at 11:48 PM, Leonod33 said:

Interesting stuff, thanks! Never realised just how accurate the pie charts etc were meant to be, Mr Nicholson did a damn good job I'd say.

 

Might check that book out, but some of the reviews make it sound like it's mostly fluff...still, might be worth a peek at £5.

I thought it was 50/50. Some really unnecessary chapters that try to verbally describe the music. Too much obsolete chapters about things inspired or based on SAW2 (the movie Manic, some dance show, Alarm Will Sound, etc.) and imo a bit too much about the debate about track titles (trying to interview Gracenote and iTunes). There are a few chapters that make it worth getting the book, they are about how the album actually was produced, marketed and other insider anecdotes about the relationship between Aphex, Warp, Chrysalis and Sire that I haven't seen or read before. Also has Paul Nicholson (from the article above) and Grant Wilson-Claridge. Worth it for a fiver imo!

  On 7/21/2015 at 12:01 AM, Herr Jan said:

 

  On 7/20/2015 at 11:48 PM, Leonod33 said:

Interesting stuff, thanks! Never realised just how accurate the pie charts etc were meant to be, Mr Nicholson did a damn good job I'd say.

 

Might check that book out, but some of the reviews make it sound like it's mostly fluff...still, might be worth a peek at £5.

I thought it was 50/50. Some really unnecessary chapters that try to verbally describe the music. Too much obsolete chapters about things inspired or based on SAW2 (the movie Manic, some dance show, Alarm Will Sound, etc.) and imo a bit too much about the debate about track titles (trying to interview Gracenote and iTunes). There are a few chapters that make it worth getting the book, they are about how the album actually was produced, marketed and other insider anecdotes about the relationship between Aphex, Warp, Chrysalis and Sire that I haven't seen or read before. Also has Paul Nicholson (from the article above) and Grant Wilson-Claridge. Worth it for a fiver imo!

 

I can't resist a good anecdote, bought the kindle version so I can give it a gander tonight.

So is it true this was going to be a video game soundtrack or something?

  On 8/2/2015 at 9:04 PM, Jdub said:

So is it true this was going to be a video game soundtrack or something?

Just another off comment that became rumour, then pseudo-fact.

What do you guys reckon will happen with Fingerbib and Logon Rock Witch, you think he'll release them again or maybe remixes?

Nothing is confirmed. We don't know if it will come out, when, or if it will even have any of the original tracklist.

I really hope this comes out. And all done up to the nines, and with bells on. It would be magic.

  On 8/4/2015 at 9:11 AM, Time Tourist said:

What do you guys reckon will happen with Fingerbib and Logon Rock Witch, you think he'll release them again or maybe remixes?

not likely given that those two were released on a major label in the u.s. although maybe if he has significantly different alt versions would be ok.

  On 8/4/2015 at 7:33 PM, patternoverlap said:

Nothing is confirmed. We don't know if it will come out, when, or if it will even have any of the original tracklist.

Well, he did say it will come out, he was supposed to give Warp the final mix asap if he wanted it pressed still this year...

when and what is still a ?

True. My post reads a bit harsh. For that, I apologize.

  On 8/4/2015 at 9:11 AM, Time Tourist said:

What do you guys reckon will happen with Fingerbib and Logon Rock Witch, you think he'll release them again or maybe remixes?

AFAIK, Fingerbib and LoGAN Rock Witch were just tracks Richard was working on at the time (and were included on the leaked cassette), and not part of the MFM release that got a test pressing on Rephlex.

just wanna give a heads up to MfM track 09, such a cheeky, cheerly little tune. idk why i've always had a soft spot for it, just that it's so adorable, it sounds so perfect for an album called 'melodies from mars', and about a million people on slsk think it's a version of logan rock witch :) lovely stuff.

  On 7/20/2015 at 9:00 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 7/20/2015 at 8:12 PM, Timothy Forward said:

He did upload Rhubarb Orc. 19.53 Rev to his Aphex Twin Soundcloud account though innit (and in the Syrobonkers tracks etc). Seems like an acceptance of the 'fan effort', no?

He also has renamed tracks he posted previously... and in this particular case, the picture clearly is rhubarb, so I think we can assume he's not giving a nod to the fans on that one...

 

Which begs the question - if Richard does have his own 'names' for these tracks - what are they?

 

I know from experience that track names are important to him, as with the Caustic Window LP, I was given explicit instructions not to even capitalize, remove the catalogue number from the track names, etc. as that is how Richard intended the tracks to be released and those were the official names.

 

it sounds like he's OCD, but who isn't these days??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UUPiCVbZhE

searching for melodies

  On 8/5/2015 at 10:24 PM, Rubin Farr said:

 

  On 7/20/2015 at 9:00 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 7/20/2015 at 8:12 PM, Timothy Forward said:

He did upload Rhubarb Orc. 19.53 Rev to his Aphex Twin Soundcloud account though innit (and in the Syrobonkers tracks etc). Seems like an acceptance of the 'fan effort', no?

He also has renamed tracks he posted previously... and in this particular case, the picture clearly is rhubarb, so I think we can assume he's not giving a nod to the fans on that one...

 

Which begs the question - if Richard does have his own 'names' for these tracks - what are they?

 

I know from experience that track names are important to him, as with the Caustic Window LP, I was given explicit instructions not to even capitalize, remove the catalogue number from the track names, etc. as that is how Richard intended the tracks to be released and those were the official names.

 

it sounds like he's OCD, but who isn't these days??

 

Probably more to do with publishing issues...

Hilliary gloes down, pleasz you know 67 years ago...no one really knowz...

I wish she has knowsz...

So, this release seems closer than ever now :)

I keep saying this but I still have no idea what to expect of this MFM release at all. I'd really love to see the original tracks released properly (with maybe some added tracks from that same era), because the magic of those tracks can't just easily be reworked? Will it just be a rework of the tracks on a disc, or is it going to be two discs (reworks + originals)? Will the title remain the same? It's so cheesy although that does have its own charm.

This rework just feels very weird to me as it's not something I'd expect Aphex to do, and because it's just as unreal as CAT023 being finally released.

I would prefer if it was remade/reimagined. Still cheesy/wonky bits but ... new.

When the official nod comes I'm gonna punch a hole through the clouds and howl at the moon.

Probably because it was this era that made me fall in love with Aphex.

still no word..............

MFM (if released soonish) would make the 2 toughest, dullest and boring months of the year a whole lot better.