Aphex Twin: Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 EP

  On 2/7/2015 at 3:23 AM, Mag said:

oh by "yesterday" i mean that tracks were made much faster than syro tracks. definitely didnt take months and years to finish. some of them are quick scetches, and that gives them special raw charm, that i like (opposed to overpolished syro). he probably gave warp a whole bunch of them, not caring enough about album structure, order and all that. but it's just my thoughts ofc.

Just the engineering and finding the right setup for recording must have taken months, if not years. Building up the robots, finding the right associations between different pieces of gear, etc., he said it: I've been doing robot compositions for years. Sometimes, it's longer to make something that sounds raw than what sounds overpolished. It's not because it seems simple that it was easy to produce. :) I think he gave as much time to those tracks as he did with Syro. Only the result is different.

This is a lovely, lovely, lovely EP. I'm excited by the direction Richard's heading in. More of this, please. More experimental stuff.

Listened to this again today. It's brilliant. Got a very strange vibe to it, new direction and sound from Aphex and that's got to be a good thing.

I wonder where he will take it next? Hopefully into further territories.

very alien

  On 2/7/2015 at 1:27 AM, valleyinaire said:

Not sure if this was posted, but Fantano did a mini-review of CCAI last week.

 

http://youtu.be/kB6OVpabOD4

(skip to 11:25)

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

tl;dw he doesn't like it

 

lol fantano is lost in the heat of it all

I suspect Richard was so disgusted by the philistines' reception of Drukqs ("what are these crap piano plonking interlude tracks? welp I'll just delete those off my ipod then") that he lost his enthusiasm for that stuff & turned to analog acid.

A decade later, he figures "OK, I'll give em an LP of fun, danceable tracks so they jump on the bandwagon again. Then I drop an EP that's basically all that drukqs stuff they hated before & watch them awkwardly try to rate it out of 10 without exposing themselves as clueless hypocrites after they just reaffirmed me as the messianic grandfather of modern electronic music"

Maybe I only think this because a lot of the drukqs tracks are better conceived & executed than some of CCAIp2, & I suspect that could be deliberate. That said, I'm very much digging this EP; it actually reminds me a lot of the ventolin EPs in that it's uncomplicated but never boring. It also feels like he actually had fun making it; it's "experimental" (unorthodox) but doesn't feel pretentious or over-thought (again like ventolin). Also I can get at the disc without having to unfold the digipak like 20 times, so that's a plus.

  On 2/7/2015 at 1:27 AM, valleyinaire said:

Not sure if this was posted, but Fantano did a mini-review of CCAI last week.

 

http://youtu.be/kB6OVpabOD4

(skip to 11:25)

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

tl;dw he doesn't like it

 

he does his hair after he puts a hat on. enough said.

  On 2/7/2015 at 2:47 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 2:29 AM, Mag said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 2:16 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

wut?

 

what I'm saying is: weather is nice, spliff is good, afex is lush

the ep is at least as good as syro you should listen 2 it some more, then you will swallow that 'here are some tracks i made yesterday' comment. spliff on ;)

 

Sorry to be the bearer of a contrarian point of view, but Ivan, despite loving this EP, I think you're a bit too hasty to consider another person's viewpoint as being hastily produced rather than their natural viewpoint to this style. I don't like aspects of aphex, and indeed I don't think everyone likes everything he does. I've met a good deal of competent listeners in my time, and I believe first that they are dealing with emotions in a different manner than I am and this, first and foremost, is how they respond to music in a different way than I do. Music is never a rational exploration, as much as I want it to be.

  On 2/8/2015 at 7:09 AM, totemcrackerjack said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 2:47 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 2:29 AM, Mag said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 2:16 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

wut?

 

what I'm saying is: weather is nice, spliff is good, afex is lush

the ep is at least as good as syro you should listen 2 it some more, then you will swallow that 'here are some tracks i made yesterday' comment. spliff on ;)

 

Sorry to be the bearer of a contrarian point of view, but Ivan, despite loving this EP, I think you're a bit too hasty to consider another person's viewpoint as being hastily produced rather than their natural viewpoint to this style. I don't like aspects of aphex, and indeed I don't think everyone likes everything he does. I've met a good deal of competent listeners in my time, and I believe first that they are dealing with emotions in a different manner than I am and this, first and foremost, is how they respond to music in a different way than I do. Music is never a rational exploration, as much as I want it to be.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking

  On 2/8/2015 at 6:50 PM, beerwolf said:

 

  On 2/8/2015 at 7:09 AM, totemcrackerjack said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 2:47 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 2:29 AM, Mag said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 2:16 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

wut?

 

what I'm saying is: weather is nice, spliff is good, afex is lush

the ep is at least as good as syro you should listen 2 it some more, then you will swallow that 'here are some tracks i made yesterday' comment. spliff on ;)

 

Sorry to be the bearer of a contrarian point of view, but Ivan, despite loving this EP, I think you're a bit too hasty to consider another person's viewpoint as being hastily produced rather than their natural viewpoint to this style. I don't like aspects of aphex, and indeed I don't think everyone likes everything he does. I've met a good deal of competent listeners in my time, and I believe first that they are dealing with emotions in a different manner than I am and this, first and foremost, is how they respond to music in a different way than I do. Music is never a rational exploration, as much as I want it to be.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking

 

very true totemcracker, nice post, and i am a bit hasty by nature

just didn't agree with "here is some tracks i pooped yesterday warp" i think the album deserves a little more respect

but...just imagine how godlike his skill is if he's done that EP in a day

i still don't get your opinion why track can be bad if it was made in small amount of time, but...

lets just forget it and have a beer

  On 2/7/2015 at 10:53 PM, jules said:

 

he does his hair after he puts a hat on. enough said.

 

Perfect.

  On 2/8/2015 at 8:45 PM, Mag said:

but...just imagine how godlike his skill is if he's done that EP in a day

 

i still don't get your opinion why track can be bad if it was made in small amount of time, but...

lets just forget it and have a beer

ha that would be godlike and you never know with this guy

i know you can make an awesome track in a small amount of time (especially him), i didn't say that

but he probably put a lot of time and care in the instruments and the programming to make this music

that's my opinion

cheers m8

it is one of those things that may not click immediately. it's nice he dumped 150 unreleased tracks at the same time, so i didnt overplay it, and was just struck by it the other day. it is great.

hat5c 0001 rec-4 gets my head bobbin like nothin else

  On 2/9/2015 at 12:24 AM, AliceS said:

hat5c 0001 rec-4 gets my head bobbin like nothin else

Yup. That's the one for me too.

  On 2/7/2015 at 5:17 PM, MassfreeKid said:

I think he gave as much time to those tracks as he did with Syro. Only the result is different.

 

lol it's sure! it is very obvious! you do not need to specify to anyone...

I've been finding myself putting it on most days when I get home from work. It's a perfect mix of funky and intricate to stop me from just slouching at my desk all evening. I thought it was a pretty dark album on my first listen but that's quickly dissipated, although the idea of a room full of robots is still pretty eerie.

and totally agree with these not being done as a throwaway, sometimes the most simple-seeming things take a lot of time and work, particularly with engineering related stuff.

So which Intelligent Daddy Musician did a better job with the robots? Tom or Rich?

I haven't listened to the Squarepusher album, but I've watched some of the live videos and it seems like an entirely different ball game. The projects are titled Music For Robots and Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments. MFR is based on robots playing stuff like electric guitars and keyboards. CCAI is MIDI controlled drums, percussion, piano, etc. 100% acoustic instruments. Not to mention that Rich and Tom are tackling completely different styles of music in each project. I don't think the two should be compared.

  On 2/11/2015 at 3:15 PM, valleyinaire said:

I haven't listened to the Squarepusher album, but I've watched some of the live videos and it seems like an entirely different ball game. The projects are titled Music For Robots and Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments. MFR is based on robots playing stuff like electric guitars and keyboards. CCAI is MIDI controlled drums, percussion, piano, etc. 100% acoustic instruments. Not to mention that Rich and Tom are tackling completely different styles of music in each project. I don't think the two should be compared.

exactly!

  On 2/11/2015 at 3:15 PM, valleyinaire said:

CCAI is MIDI controlled drums, percussion, piano, etc. 100% acoustic instruments.

To be fair, there are effects like delay and flange going on with some of the instruments, and what sounds like parts (reversed sounds, etc.) added to the first track after recording it.

Very true, but I'm pretty sure the rest of the EP remains untouched, with the exception of looping of course.

Either way, both projects are still extremely different.

  On 2/9/2015 at 12:24 AM, AliceS said:

hat5c 0001 rec-4 gets my head bobbin like nothin else

DISKPREPT4 for me

both the MFR and CCAI are really good.