Aphex Twin Aphex "Shocks, Angers and Confuses" Bjork Fans as he plays support for her at Bjork Hammersmith show

May 17, 2006

Aphex "Shocks, Angers and Confuses" Bjork Fans as he plays support for her at Bjork Hammersmith show

From Bjork fanpage:

OK Bjorks best friend DJ Smojface ( Aphex Twin) was a shock to the system to begin with, but hey, bjork's support was never going to be 'normal' was it? I guess the point is the Dj set was totally experimental for the hell of it and it seems to have had the desired effect on everyone involved!! The last part being totally off its face - it either made the bar loads of money or had people thinking 'what the f***??!!!' or both!! Personally I thought it was wild! Great (apart from the last 15 mins which did my ears in, this has to be the loudest and the most fucking weirdest music on the planet!)The Bjorkonites who think they are all hip and 'with-it' were given a lesson in humility last night!!!!

I enjoyed the warmup dj, it was like meshuggah vs aphex twin , the polyrythms were amazing in sections of that set! Aphex Twin is the Jimi Hendrix and Mozart of our age but he was clearly trying to fuck with the uninitiated Bjork fans.

Upon arrival we were told that a "DJ Smojface -another one of Aphex Twin aliases" or something similar would be playing from 7.30 til 8.30, and Bjork would perform from 9 til 10.30. Instead, we were battered by an incessant cacophany of screaming, swearing, white noise, machine gun fire and what sounded like the inmates of a deranged monkeyhouse. Until 9.20, with no respite and no damn let-up. I almost went mad from the noise, people around me had coats over their heads and generally I think that we were all freaked out by the sheer crude violence of it.

P.S. I know the Aphex stuff sounded really unbelievably weird, but don't forget - Bjork worships Aphex Twin as she should, the Twin is an unparalleled musical genius and she takes these maniac artists, harnesses their wild, demented sounds and transforms them in to work like Pluto. This is the mark of all great music artists - they recognise the potential in others. The new material sounds like more of the same.

It was physically like having a saw dragged across your psyche. I had travelled quite a way (Cornwall) and I didn't spend best part of 100 pound stirling to put my fingers in my ears and STILL wince at the pervasive cacophony that assaulted them.

...sounds like Aphex's 'psychedelic experiment' worked. Haha!

From the absolute horror that came from the absolutely insane support DJ (I am all for art but it sounded more like a live feed from the Iraq battlefield!) to the wonderment of Desired Constellation, the excitement of Hyberballed, the thrills of Pluto and the pure fun of 'It's In Our Hands' to mention a few.

AMAZING......... AMAZING........ WOW, So good! Pluto was possibly the best five minutes of my life.

And so what if the Aphex Twin was the most bizarre sounding artist ever, he was loving it! (and it wasn't matmos you dumb ass!)

Aphex only made Bjork sound even better.

The visuals were stunning...

The vocals were stunning...

Bjork is stunning...

Everything was stunning! Could not have been better!

B J O R K . . . Thankyou... we salute you!!!

It was a figure who bore a striking resemblance to Richard D James! - because his industrial stuff was so earsplitting that when Björk came on the excitement was mixed with an odd sense of relief. Besides, some of the ambient things he played beforehand were cool, although if it really was Aphex Twin he should have thrown in Flim or Xtal or something nice along those lines.

What the ++++ was that support act doing? it was pure 'noise pollution', shame on Bjork’s advisers for subjecting her fans to it! I'm not sure anyone could tell the difference between a de-tuned radio and that noise.

well...i might as well complain about DJ Aphex Twin first....MY EARS! owe..it was by far the loudest music I have ever had my ears subjected to.

In anycase to say that the support was 2 hours of noise is not true at all seeing as much of it was very atmospheric at first, and the "noise" only really kicked in much later. Aphex twin has always held disregard for what negative views people have on his performance, and no amount of suggestions that he needs to change his act will change that. He achieved something in making almost an entire hall full of people pissed off and he is certainly getting a response for it!

It seems like Aphex Twin's opener detracted from reviews of Bjork's concert

Here is an 'official' view from UK channel 4 TV teletext Planet Sound.

As can be seen from many of the other reviews here Aphex Twin caused a lot of distress with two hours of what I can only desrcibe as audio torture.

Was the purpose of this act to make the audiance feel agressive and un-loved?

No matter how well Björk performed last night I woke up this morning feeling very angry and confused about what happened.

I am staggered that so many people are complaining on here (and were shouting "off off off!" and booing last night) about Richard James's support slot (yes, /melagate, you are right it was him).

Björk is an innovator and has become the artist she is now through openness to conflicting ideas and respect for other people's creativity. What a shame that a few of her so-called fans are narrow-minded whingers (with a rudimentary grasp of spelling, it seems on here) who can't cope with a few bright lights shining into their faces and went home crying to their Mum that she didn't play "It's Oh So Quiet" or have a backing tape of a choir on AIFOL...

Richard was also reported to cheerily wave goodbye as he was begged to "please go" and "off" as he left. He kept on smiling..the desired effect worked on the crowd...

direct quote.

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IT'S OH SO UNLISTENABLE

Aphex Twin played a surprise two-hour set supporting Bjork at her Hammersmith Apollo gig Saturday - but was booed off after playing non-stop feedback.

Richard James didn't even appear on stage during his set except to peek behind curtains as fans booed.

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FROM RANDOM ( Forgot the name) ELECTRONIC MUSIC SITE:

---moral: bjork fans tend to get confused while trying to immitate the eccentricities of their idol...hence the name ';pixiepants'??

Moral #2 Richard James is still the original deranged SupaFreak :)

- It makes me happy to see someone with a sense of humor using his fame to piss people off. In my opinion bjork is a parasite who attracts fans of a similar nature so I say yay richard!

Yeh, the reviews on there are pretty funny, sums up the reaction he got from the majority of the crowd. He was barely visable, offstage behind a curtain, hiding behind his laptop.

---playing under an alias behind a curtain isnt exactly using his "fame" ;)

No... but it is perpetuating it... Richard James has always been fond of utilizing that which can't be revealed.

...Aphex is such a fucking asshole it's hilarious.

I heard a snippet of a set he played recently at a bjork concert as dj smojphace and the backround voices arre yanks complaining about how shit it is. don't blame them.

personally, i do think the man is touched by genius but i honestly believe that he is purely taking the piss at this stage.

aphex is god, and anyone who disagrees can "COME TO FUCKING DADDY"

He is the Damien Hirst of electronic music.

As Mr James has already released so much brilliant music, he can now afford to take the piss. he's proven himself with his selected ambient works 1 & 2, Come to Daddy, Windowlicker etc.

He has always taken the piss and i think that's brilliant. There was a gig once where everyone was wearing masks of him that were handed out at the door, there was a bloke in the DJ box wearing one too. Everyone had a great time only to find out that he had orchestrated the whole thing and was laughin his ass off at home. Fucking Genius.

The man is a fuckin genius;he's just different,that's all.

Aphex is the man, up his own arse but he can do whatever he wants for all I care.

Remixes for cash was a piss take.

Selected Ambient Works Vol I is brilliant.

I wish they did play his music in elevators and shopping centres.

yeah, the bjork gig was pretty nuts but at the end of the day everyone at that gig wasnt there to see aphex cos he was a last minute thing. so he wasnt really playin to his clan...just wantin to create a bit of a stir.I mean he didnt even come on stage, he just "hid behind the curtain, poking his head out now and again to laugh at the crowds reaction." but yeah, personallly i think hes the fuckin shit. noone can touch him hes the fuckin master of the musical universe

I went and stood in the aisle and stared at him through my binoculars for a while, just to see if it was indeed aphex. It wasn't until the more familiar noise/swearing/come to daddy style madness started that i was 100% sure. I hadn't heard about any support or anything. There were so many fucking retards booing, shouting and talking it was hard to hear what he was doing.

The start was real ambient, it was hard to tell when he started and the lame "sitting waiting for a concert" music stopped. Soon animal noises and voices began doing interesting things over the top in the same vein as that mike dred-peter green 'kymera' track off the braindance comp. Some of the vocal manipulation was insane, i really loved the "no loops" approach he was doing, sounded quite 'musique concrete' you could say, perhaps a reaction to the fact Matmos were there? But i don't know. Im pretty sure Drew Daniel from Matmos was watching from behind, as were a bunch of sound guys and techies. Would have loved to have seen what was doing/using.

Just as I was building up confidence to shout out "come on you cunt lets av' some aphex acid" a huge wash of noise came, then the next 45 minutes or so was a huge wash of very interesting, highly detailed noise. Again, reminding me of 'musique concrete' kind of stuff, like Iannis Xenakis or perhaps even Merzbow or someone like that, very very cool. People started booing in the occasional silence in the noise, shouting "off off off" etc, which pissed me off, I just wanted to get up on stage, plug in a pair of headphones and listen to what he was doing. Indeed, some of it was shit, quite hard to listen to, but scattered across the 2 hours or so were some really masterful moments.

First time i've seen Aphex live, and I didn't know it was him until it was too late, damn annoying. Bjork was fantastic as ever, Matmos were soo good, I really love their beats and hands-on approach, mixing sequenced stuff with live stuff, and having lots of interaction between themseleves and the sounds, and they use the alesis airFX thingy. They even did the Soft Pink Truth remix of 'It's In Our Hands' which if you haven't heard I highly recommend. The newer Bjork stuff seems quite a lot harder and industrial, even compared to Post, I really liked what I heard.

sounds wicked, I imagine it would be anyone with half a brains duty to hassle typical bjork fans (40 year old executive people and rich kids who can afford the fucking tickets). three cheers for aphex terrorist, sounds like it was off da hook

OMG

i actually thought bjork fans where better than that!

I like bjork!!

Who are these people that make the same mistake as yr average pramface and call him apex?

well i think he has redeemed himself to us if there was any doubt of his vitriol.

Well done rich!!

Um - Bjork fans by and large are not especially open-minded about music. They think liking Bjork makes them "eclectic" and gets them out of having to listen to anything else weird, so they can pop in a Red Hot Chili Peppers album after hers is over.

Serious as fuck, several years ago me and a friend went to see Aphex open for Bjork. He was a big Bjork fan, I wasn't. Aphex played most of HAB 1 and mixed it in with some slightly old jungle ("Lord of the Null Lines" and such) and it was great. My friend and I were dancing and trying to push our way past all the idiots in the crowd... they were all standing there stock and shocked... still like fucking zombies.

thats hilarious...i was gonna tell the exact same story....95 in toronto i saw aphex open for bjork and this was when i knew nothing about him or electronic music or whatever.....dont remember what he played at all or what it even sounded like, but at the end of his set he got up from his machines and walked off the stage....as his last track slowly started to slow down....it took like 10 minutes for the song to finally slow down to nothing.....

The song with all the voices and animal sounds in (that sounded like kymera from virtual farmer album)......

If it had the sounds of crows, horses and human oooooohs and single gong like hits then it sounds like part of the vox cycle (vox5)

On the flip, the two-part ‘ktpa’ finds Aphex engaging in the sort of noize warfare that Bjork’s "fans" so enjoyed at his recent support DJ slot for the Icelandic bombshell.

May 17, 2006