AFX playlist to convince music theory guy that RDJ is the man

My buddy has studied music theory for twenty years and usually sticks with Brahms and Captain Beefheart with occasional dalliances with Built to Spill and Cap'n Jazz. He's heard some AFX and is interested. I think the best way to bring him over to our side is show off some of AFX composition and tonal chops. But I don't speak the language very well ("uhh... I think there is some cool microtuning here?") so I need your help. I asked him to learn Avril once and played it for him and was like "yeah I can just sight-read this, although there's some weird third hand stuff I'd have to manage." So as I said, I wanna go heavy on the theory stuff, but of course I'll employ a few bangers too.

So far, I know 4 bit 9d api is in there because of the dynamic compression on the bass and because it's the greatest electronic song ever produced. Fredugolon is a good contender just because of the funky bass production. And Maybe Nannou??? Keeping track of the winding toy thing is a fun puzzle.

Help me out bros! What are some good tracks for the playlist and please tell me why they might be good? Again, my music theory stuff is very basic so don't go way over my head.

Boy Girl song because of its orchestral and somewhat classical leanings much like Avril but if your friend is listening to Captain Beefheart and Built to Spill why does he need music theory convincing that Aphex is worth his time ? Seems like he will enjoy it just fine

Toss a CDR with only Bucephalus Bouncing Ball burnt on it across the room at him while his hands are occupied with something (blunt, drink, text messages, etc.)

just give him the drukqs album say it's the best album ever and rip his spine out if he disagrees

What song originally made him curious?

I think this is a losing battle.

I mean, from a reductionist standpoint things like "Flim" and "Avril 14" are 100% diatonic and are thus almost invisible to theory-minded listeners (who specifically seek out theoretic novelty in music). And while alot of AFX is non-tonal (post-tonal?), to theory-indoctrinated ears such stuff often sounds amateurish in its disregard for diatonicism.

(As much as I dig theory, I tend not to see eye-to-eye with theory-heads: if you don't like the Amen Break or some acid bass, I have nothing to say to you)

Play him HAB or RDJ and if he doesn't like that stuff, just shrug and move on.

or just play him:

https://soundcloud.com/user18081971/nightmail-1

as long as your music theory teacher doesn't respond with German-tinged subtly coded racism about 'african' rhythms being beneath him, you're probably good (see: Stockhausen listening to aphex circa 1997)

  On 6/9/2015 at 1:53 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

as long as your music theory teacher doesn't respond with German-tinged subtly coded racism about 'african' rhythms being beneath him, you're probably good (see: Stockhausen listening to aphex circa 1997)

When a bunch of people said they didn't like Nozinja (including me) you explicitly accused us of racism and so yeah I don't really trust your Racism Detector.

i was definitely joking or being not funny impenetrably sarcastic if i said that. the alleged racism angle is less important than how amusing the stockhausen interview is overall check it out regardless

yeah the brilliance of aphex is that is ISNT really involved in western musical theory at all - and the problem with those type of people is that the think western musical notation/theory completely accounts for human's emotional response to music.

but I think aphex always has good sounds. things sound good. the timbre of the music. phonatacid seems like a great introduction to how aphex can give synthetic sounds a completely organic feel - the squelches, the groans - they have such personality. This of course seems totally normal to us in our enlightened head space of electronic music fans but people who are still unconvinced by the emotive or "pure" sound of synths find this conceptual step really hard.

but giving machines personalities, feelings, emotions - emotions that then imprint themselves on the listener - this is what makes AFX a genius. and that certainly can't be understood through the myopic lens of western musical theory. pish posh!~

  On 6/9/2015 at 2:35 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

i was definitely joking or being not funny impenetrably sarcastic if i said that. the alleged racism angle is less important than how amusing the stockhausen interview is overall check it out regardless

Look, I detest Stockhausen. I hate his music. I'd sooner listen to Piotr Zak.

But as much as I'd like to give an uncharitable reading of his 'post-African repetition' comment, I just don't see it.

Long before the term 'loop-based music' existed, there was a fork in the road in experimental music. Stockhausen et all took the "indeterminacy" route, and folks like Reich took the "African" (i.e. "loop-based") route. This is not a coincidence: Reich's appreciation for repetition (as well as for the timbral nuance of acoustic instruments) came after his trip to Africa.

(As an aside, during my 5-minute conversation with Dawn of Midi's drummer, I asked him what inspired his music and he said "African music")

Anyway, I think it should be clear that Stockhausen was simply referring to the "loop-based" aspect of AFX's stuff. Now, if you wanna talk about how Segovia's attitude towards Flamenco was racist...

no i get you, but i'm not the only person to allude to Stockhausen being a little gruff when it comes to using cultural schemas as musical critiques. For example when he used to talk about John Cage (before Stockhausen himself warmed up to and then ended up adopting most of the techniques) he implied regularly that Cage's obsession with the 'east' and asian cultures was hindering his music and that things like using I Ching as a semi random composition method were inferior to a deliberate western method. All this aside I don't think he's a racist, I always just saw him as a very strongly opinionated guy who didn't give much of a fuck of what other people thought (especially other musicians and artists) .

vordhosbn

Tell him to pretend the drums are playing a melody and the synth is the drums, in his head.

  On 6/9/2015 at 3:12 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

no i get you, but i'm not the only person to allude to Stockhausen being a little gruff when it comes to using cultural schemas as musical critiques. For example when he used to talk about John Cage (before Stockhausen himself warmed up to and then ended up adopting most of the techniques) he implied regularly that Cage's obsession with the 'east' and asian cultures was hindering his music and that things like using I Ching as a semi random composition method were inferior to a deliberate western method. All this aside I don't think he's a racist, I always just saw him as a very strongly opinionated guy who didn't give much of a fuck of what other people thought (especially other musicians and artists) .

Do you like his music?

I'm usually happy to give conceptual music its day in court, but there's something so cold and dead and joylessly post-modernist about him and his music...like this stuffy "yup music is dead so I just roll dice to represent the cold indifferent randomness of the universe" kinda thing.

to be honest i don't find myself listening to very much of his music. When i first heard Kontakte at age 15 I was completely blown away, but not because it was necessarily amazing but because of when it was released ( i had no idea people were doing that type of music so early at the time). I sample his stuff all the time though and his theories and style has served as an inspiration to my music in general. I also find his attitude off putting and how he only seemed like he was really 'having fun' making music when he got into that Sun Ra style imaginary star cult/belief system. Someone like John Cage I admire much more because even at his most stuffy and academic there was a playful and even sometimes anti academic bent to what he did. It was Cage who employed most of the random/chance based composition methods, it was almost entirely unheard of during his time to just put a section in a score basically telling a player to play a series of random notes or to use a radio turning on or off as an instrument regardless of what was playing on it.

yup having said all that I still occasionally listen to some of his lectures lol

Ya so what made him curious is that we saw each other for the first time in a while and I started talking about the soundcloud dump and us dedicated fans. I've always thought there was a case to be made for RDJ to the theory-inclined: unequal temperament, polyrythms, bizarre keys and chords, but i've never really developed it, and I said, I couldn't tell you what songs use what one might call sophisticated music ideas. I do know that if you just try play along to his stuff, your play-along never sounds quite right and imagined that was because of the kinds of sounds he uses but also the tiny tonal adjustments he makes.

so i'm imagining a playlist, maybe a drukqs-heavy one, that highlights some of the musical innovations or explorations i have always thought i was hearing (course i could be wrong).

Produk 29 is a fascinating track for its unusual chord structure and funky bass groove. I think anyone who's interested in theory and isn't dumb will appreciate that one. It's got a good deal of musical sophistication going on, and originality to go with it. I also second vordhosbn. That one's loaded with all sorts of interesting musical ideas.

Get an external hard drive and put a collection of all the tracks shuffled together.

Alberto Balsam should probably be on there. It has a simple beauty to it that's quite emotionally stirring, but there's also some clever melodic stuff going on in the turn around section that's a lot more complex than it may sound on the surface.

Most important... he needs to hear it on good speakers at a decent volume.

Alberto Balsam

Klopjob

Mangle 11 (Circuit Bent V.I.P Mix)

Box Energy Remix

Freeman, Hardy & Willis Acid

XMAS_EVE10

4 bit 9d

PAPAT4

Jynweythek

QKThr

Petiatil Cx Htdui

Finger Bib

Cornish Acid

On

Tha

Blue Calx

Stone in Focus

Try to pick one track from each Era, so from 85-92 to Syro, one for each album. Maybe 2 from Syro :3. I could name random ones but I think you should try to make it as 'round' as possible, so make sure something like bucephalus bouncing ball is on there, maybe xmas off syro, one of the circlonts. something nice and something 'more sinister' off of 85-92. Mayve Vordhosbn off of Druqks. I'd honestly skim over the piano tracks, they're very lovely, but potentially too simple which is understandable.

fyi, my very theory minded friend was absolutely floored by Death Fuck and rushup 12. He had never heard anything like it. They're pretty novel in terms of... novelty for first listeners, not much else like them. He didn't care for much else off that album, thought rushup 10 was a bore (it was a bore to me for my first few times of listening until it clicked back when) but since then I see he listens to syro a LOT on spotify :), and CCAI a fair amount.

I would also try to pick music that 'moves on'. Nothing that really stands still for a period of time. Nothing too repetitive.

stimmung (the gregory rose recording) is one of the greatest works of music of all time. there is something spiritual, transcendent and otherworldly in that music.

From the soundcloud dump, 28 Organ's a strong contendor. It starts off simple enough but gets pretty adventurous for the second half. Lots going on in that one. Also, definitely include the Icct Hedral Phillip Glass Orchestration!