We were spoiled in 2001

  On 9/22/2014 at 7:15 AM, Friendly Foil said:

I don't listen to music, I listen to innovation.

yeah that was weird ey. Pointless position from which to raise the not happy flag. Lets push some boundaries man, they can meet with our heads up our own arses.

  On 9/22/2014 at 7:07 AM, ghOsty said:

I'm gonna give Rich the benefit of the doubt and say that even if the album isn't his most mindblowing ever it's still probably some pretty damn good music. I can be content with that alone.

it is, and you can be. I had the pleasure of listening to it in its entirety for the first time last weekend, with no previews, no pre-release hype indulgence, and having largely avoided the huge fanboy/noob shitstorm in the AFX subforum that this has brought on. and I can confirm it was lush and delightful from start to finish, and you're gonna love it when you give it a proper listen. it is, at the very least, quality AFX.

but that ain't gonna stop the neckbeards from hurrdurring that the best is behind us. the immediate naysaying of new material from the I-only-listen-to-extreme-IDMz crowd crops up with almost clockwork regularity on here every time one of the featured artists releases something.

  On 9/22/2014 at 4:55 AM, impotentwhitecapitalist said:

 

  On 9/22/2014 at 3:08 AM, StephenG said:

 

  On 9/22/2014 at 3:05 AM, thrones said:

why isnt there a venetian snares sub forum. just saying.

lel

 

 

it's a long story. PM joyrex pls

 

it's not really that long of a story actually. a while back everyone was complaining so much that there wasn't one, so joyrex finally made one. which lasted like a day, cause aaron himself messaged or emailed joyrex to remove it as he didn't like the idea of one to begin with. end of.

 

ya you're right it is a short story lol

  On 9/22/2014 at 7:07 AM, ghOsty said:

Holy fuck there's so many jaded cunts on this website...

 

WATMM, can't we just appreciate some new Aphex as some quality IDM that it is? I haven't heard Syro in it's entirety yet myself, but regardless of whether or not it's on a Druqks level of "holy shit this is fucking brilliant" can't we just appreciate some new Aphex for what it is? New music from a legend that we all love? I'm gonna give Rich the benefit of the doubt and say that even if the album isn't his most mindblowing ever it's still probably some pretty damn good music. I can be content with that alone.

 

Why must we become over-analytical of every release? And why does every release have to be the most cutting edge in innovative sounds and recording techniques? Sometimes just tackling an established sound and doing something interesting within some pre-defined constraints is okay too. If we write off everything that's remotely derivative we may as well just stop listening to certain genres as a whole. Hell, techno hasn't been innovative in a LONG fucking time, but that shouldn't suggest there aren't some damn fine releases that have come out in recent years. Sometimes you gotta just listen to shit for what it is, without comparing it to what preceded it.

Amen!

  On 9/22/2014 at 4:39 AM, Chartreuse said:

 

  On 9/22/2014 at 4:17 AM, Candiru said:

 

  On 9/21/2014 at 10:18 PM, entropi said:

I lost interest in afx after windowlicker, Drukqs was the first afx-album I still haven't bought (bought the tuss directly, but I am just listening to it on 33 rpm). I like his earlier stuff better, a good melody doesn't need hyperedited breakbeats in 180 bpm, weird voices or a freaky video by cunningham - tha or heliosphan works without it anyway...

Pretty weird logic here. Ragtime was just fine with its indentifiable melodies, we didn't need Charlie Parker to get all experimental on us.

 

 

That guy needs to chill and listen to some klopjob followed by deadcode

 

pfft, I prefer cilonen, PWSteal.Ldpinch.D & Backdoor.Ranky.S (5 + 4) - I like experimental stuff, but prefer some "music" to it too... Be it "melody", "groove" or whatever... ae does it best for me, "irlite (get 0)" is spectacular IMHO!

Drukqs will always be special to me (the first electronic album I ever really enjoyed - even though it confused me immensely). It's an ugly (and beautiful), lopsided and dense record which is just a whole lot of things all at once with little concern for the listener's sanity and/or ears. To me, Drukqs is more like a painting than a record, it's just there and you can make of it what you will - I don't feel it trying to influence me into feeling something unlike most other music.

Syro isn't anything like Drukqs (and neither should it be). It doesn't move me the way Drukqs does, but it's still amazingly produced and written. It works on the two levels (listening for vibe, and listening for production) that all of his work succeeds on in some way, although Syro's great strength is that it I can play it to pretty much anyone and they'll 'get' a part of it. I think Drukqs was too impenetrable too much of the time (and this is reflected in reviews circa 2001) for most people to enjoy.

Shouldn't we just be happy that we have two incredible, different albums from RDJ when, in all fairness, he could have accidentally hit the 'delete' button and we'd never get to have this discussion.

  On 9/22/2014 at 1:40 AM, whylessness said:

rhubarb might be my fav afx song. reverse it, and it can make you cry just as hard. that song touches on something deeper. i want to go there, i don't care how i get there. that's all.

agreed. That song is sort of on another lever for me. 6 seconds in and I'm immediately contemplative among other things.. the feeling is hard to describe.

I listened to drukqs from start to finish on a Syro break. It struck me how many amazing tunes I had forgotten and some seemed so new I wonder if I've heard them since just after its release. It is a masterpiece. It's his Bitches Brew.

don't compare drukqs to jazz fusion

thxx

I completely disagree with the premise of this post and I can tell you that the majority of people I know who are familiar/fans of his work would as well. I was first introduced to Aphex etc..with the release of I Care Because You Do in 95 and soon after picked up Ambient Works II, On ep. two things that struck me while reading a few interviews with RDJ recently....#1 - he prefers jungle/D&B and techno from the early 90's and #2- that he says something to the effect that artists create their best work shortly after they're discovered...This backs my own sentiments both in taste for his output and for the types of music I generally enjoy the most. The reason is that when it comes to music...the more complex something is the more it forces the listener to pay attention to every little thing that is happening at every second...where as simpler, more minimal and repetetive music creates a sort of hypnosis in a way and allows the listener to dream a bit...to drift off into their own imagination about the piece if you will.

For that reason I really only like his music up until and including ICBYD which is still my favorite album to this day and stands up really well after all these years. My first impression when hearing it back in the day were that it sounded like music that was transmitted from an alien planet or something as it was so different from and didn't have any of the elements or sounds typical in other forms of electronic music and the album still strikes me that way now.

Yeah drukqs is amazing. Probably his best yeah. The work that went into that must've been mindblowing.

I agree: Syro kinda sounds Tussy, although it doesn't have the warmth that The Tuss releases had imo :( Still not entirely sure what to think of the new album

I just can't shake the idea that these are The Tuss / drukqs outtakes

Yeah I remember listening to drukqs and it literally changed me. It felt like it synced up to all my teenage anxiety, OCD shit and nostalgia back then. No other album ever did that for me really.

I still haven't listened to Syro yet either.. waiting to buy the hard copy at stores tomorrow, but I agree with the sonic aspect of Drukqs, and how that era seems unchallenged.

For me, I feel the same example with Bjork's Vespertine (2001) and Medulla (2004) compared to her more recent output.. Her later stuff is still amazing but there's something about the sonic quality of her 2001 - 2004 era where the audio mixing, processing, production, etc was just bonkers! i don't know what it is.. but yes, i agree that something happened toward the later 2000's to now where the analog/warm/lo fi hype just kind of completely swallowed the progress that was being made in the digital/hybrid domain maybe for the sake of retro like you guys are saying.

i agree this is sad. i'd love it if it weren't only the skrillex's being the ones evolving digital music production.

anologue fetishism gets old. but then again so does everything else.

after a digital renaissance if that evolves fully, maybe that will get old too, and then we'll have an acoustic- only phase haha who knows..

but yes, there is so much innovation and exploring left in the digital domain.. drukqs was certainly the apex of electronic music in terms of sonic fuckery and innovation imo.. and it definitely cant end there, i dont believe it will.. something will come up.

  On 9/23/2014 at 12:18 AM, Lane Visitor said:

i agree this is sad. i'd love it if it weren't only the skrillex's being the ones evolving digital music production.

 

I'm not sure that we can let you get away with this man!

  On 9/22/2014 at 10:29 PM, whylessness said:

don't compare drukqs to jazz fusion

 

thxx

  On 9/23/2014 at 1:03 AM, Ifeelspace said:

 

  On 9/23/2014 at 12:18 AM, Lane Visitor said:

i agree this is sad. i'd love it if it weren't only the skrillex's being the ones evolving digital music production.

 

I'm not sure that we can let you get away with this man!

 

lol i was being over the top and super generalizing.. what i meant was just that it would be cool if more of our favorite electronic.. idm/electro/ambient/experimental/etcetc producers were a little less absorbed in the vintage analog synth/modular world, and worked on pushing the envolope in the VST realm rather the whole edm/dubstep camp monopolizing it. i know it's not a clear argument.. im not really trying to make a full on point, just thinking out loud really

example:

why are there 10 million sylenth / massive tutorials on youtube explaining how to get "that swedish house mafia sound" or "that nicky romero sound" or whatever...

and why can't i find anything on how to create sounds using a VST that have a squarepusher feel.. etc.. that's all im saying..

i know why, not really asking.. and squarepusher is a bad example.

I like it and it's got me on another Aphex kick.

  On 9/23/2014 at 1:44 AM, Lane Visitor said:

 

  On 9/23/2014 at 1:03 AM, Ifeelspace said:

 

  On 9/23/2014 at 12:18 AM, Lane Visitor said:

i agree this is sad. i'd love it if it weren't only the skrillex's being the ones evolving digital music production.

 

I'm not sure that we can let you get away with this man!

 

 

lol i was being over the top and super generalizing.. what i meant was just that it would be cool if more of our favorite electronic.. idm/electro/ambient/experimental/etcetc producers were a little less absorbed in the vintage analog synth/modular world, and worked on pushing the envolope in the VST realm rather the whole edm/dubstep camp monopolizing it. i know it's not a clear argument.. im not really trying to make a full on point, just thinking out loud really

 

example:

 

why are there 10 million sylenth / massive tutorials on youtube explaining how to get "that swedish house mafia sound" or "that nicky romero sound" or whatever...

 

and why can't i find anything on how to create sounds using a VST that have a squarepusher feel.. etc.. that's all im saying..

 

i know why, not really asking.. and squarepusher is a bad example.

 

cause hardware

nah good point, just remember skrillex and im sure most edm festival fucks gets their tunes mixed and mastered in million dollar studios by proper engineers so they probably cant mix for shit..

I feel like out of the 100's of songs ive made, every single one has a new idea that i develop and slowly im getting somewhere, makes sense to me when i hear guys like boc or afx make an album out of 100 or so tracks. experimentation is the way forward

oh yeah pffffiut... 10 years after i'll read that Syro is better than the new album from 2015 or 2017... so i can't 2 b agree or not 2 b agree, cause it's not my problem... i enjoy with each album & i'm happy that each album is unlike... yeah happy 2 have some richard's music to listen depending on my emotion... that's rich because he's richard... peace & b wild, enjoy until the dawn!

edit :

so i can't compare it with drukqs... or with whatever from Lovely Richard

I've only listened to Syro a little but I have a feeling I'm gonna like it more than Drukqs. This makes me very happy, because I Iove Drukqs! But there are a handful of tracks on it that tend not to interest me, even some of the longer ones. Syro is more focused and devoid of filler - each track I've listened to so far has some real melodic highlights it reaches, and an overall sense of purpose.

But I'm in agreement with those who are tired of analogue nostalgia and wish for a return to the insane computer music of the late 90s / early 00s.

  On 9/22/2014 at 10:29 PM, whylessness said:

don't compare drukqs to jazz fusion