Reynolds on Analord.

Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
Has everyone had a look at this?

http://villagevoice.com/music/0536,reynolds,67498,22.html

What are those surreal links about blissblogger? Certainly caught me off guard.

(Consumer Guide: Your best buys are 2, 3, 10, and 11)

This will presumably save me alot of money.

Have to confess the very idea of the series engulfed me in boredom. I think that seems to be echoed in Simon's piece. However, HOWEVER, I'll have to confess to having spent much of the Summer listening to Kraftwerk's "Tour De France Soundtracks" and the "Minimum - Maximum" Vinyl boxset (drool) which is essentially the same ticket, electronic "classicism", something which I find exquisitely appealing.
 
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3underscore

Well-known member
I understand the concept, but the kraftwerk stuff (Minimum - Maximum especially) is so much different. The whole afx limited box, then dribbling releases over several months just annoyed me. I guess you could call it good marketing, in the way it played each afx fan perfectly into buying the whole series, only to find it would have made a decent album. Considering the Analord collection (5 of 12 good) and Druqks (does anyone know where their copy of it is, despite the huge box? I don't) there is a lot of unnecessary weight. Do you skip a track on Minimum - Maximum? never. Mind you, that is because the sound on it is just awesome.
 
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hamarplazt

100% No Soul Guaranteed
WOEBOT said:
(Consumer Guide: Your best buys are 2, 3, 10, and 11)

This will presumably save me alot of money.
Click to expand...
I find it a bit uncomfortable that there doesn't seem to be much agreement about which are the best. I'm not sure I'll take Simons word for it without further explanation - I wish he got more into details.

There really seem to be a huuuge back-to-analogue/acid trend happening right now: AFX, Lika A Tim, Atom Heart, Funkstörung, Vibert, A Guy Called Gerald etc.
 
B

bassnation

the abyss
3underscore said:
I understand the concept, but the kraftwerk stuff (Minimum - Maximum especially) is so much different. The whole afx limited box, then dribbling releases over several months just annoyed me. I guess you could call it good marketing, in the way it played each afx fan perfectly into buying the whole series, only to find it would have made a decent album. Considering the Analord collection (5 of 12 good) and Druqks (does anyone know where their copy of it is, despite the huge box? I don't) there is a lot of unnecessary weight. Do you skip a track on Minimum - Maximum? never. Mind you, that is because the sound on it is just awesome.
Click to expand...

i know where my copy of drukqs is - does anyone want to buy it? (pretty please?)
 
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droid

Guest
3underscore said:
Druqks (does anyone know where their copy of it is, despite the huge box? I don't)
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The box is on top of some shelves, and the records are all permanently in my DJ bag. :p

For such a universally maligned LP, Drukqs has some amazing tracks on it. The amount of times you have to change the vinyl and the schism between the two styles are what lets it down. Even it it did work as an LP, who's gonna swap the vinyl the required 4 times, and flip it the required 8? Great tunes - bad formatting...
 
Landfill Elektronikz

Landfill Elektronikz

-
Druqks is one of those albums that is made for CD. Only two 'discs' to deal with and you can program it to play just the ones you like. Has anyone tried just listening to the piano tracks on their own? It's whole different experience...like some of John Cage's early prepared piano stuff.

I'd have to include Analord Vol.8 in the 'must have' list, but generally I think Simon was on the money.
 
M

mms

sometimes
droid said:
The box is on top of some shelves, and the records are all permanently in my DJ bag. :p

For such a universally maligned LP, Drukqs has some amazing tracks on it. The amount of times you have to change the vinyl and the schism between the two styles are what lets it down. Even it it did work as an LP, who's gonna swap the vinyl the required 4 times, and flip it the required 8? Great tunes - bad formatting...
Click to expand...

yeah drukqs is awesome - too long tho too many tracks . it's a full stop.
minuimum to maximum i found depressing esp as all the kraftwerks are getting remastered onto heavy vinyl and revisiting them afresh is just amazing. Everything that minimum to maximums homogenised beats are missing.
Computer world came out on lovely clear vinyl - i'm getting all of em shipped over from the states - love it.
 
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blissblogger

Well-known member
WOEBOT said:
What are those surreal links about blissblogger? Certainly caught me off guard.

Have to confess the very idea of the series engulfed me in boredom. I think that seems to be echoed in Simon's piece. .
Click to expand...


the Village Voice added the links, i haven't even clicked on them myself (you've got me intrigued though!), but you know they are all web-crazy there, the management is trying to generate tons of web content, getting people on the staff to do extra writing just for the net, having a blog element. so i imagine the hyperlink thing is part of that campaign.

i did find the series underwhelming at first but gradually became intrigued by the idea of the series -- nick gutter's posts on it encouraged that -- and then sort of remembered at some point, "this is Aphex, man -- he used to be a GOD to you" -- got the rest of them and went back to the first few -- a lot of the stuff is grower kind of material, i think there's a fair few gems in there. it did feel like someone tentatively getting back in touch with the source of his genius or something.

funny how there's little consensus on which are the good ones

there's some talk of it being put out on CD at some point, it would have to be a triple CD/quintuple album though, and the analog ness of the format seems intrinsic to the project somehow
 
k-punk

k-punk

Spectres of Mark
Those hyperlinks cracked me up too... like the net equivalent of Brasseye (trashbat I spose)....
 
D

droid

Guest
blissblogger said:
there's some talk of it being put out on CD at some point, it would have to be a triple CD/quintuple album though, and the analog ness of the format seems intrinsic to the project somehow
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I reckon an analord megamix download would do the job nicely. In fact, im surprised no-ones done it already... If you were on the ball with your mixing, you could fit about half of it onto one CD - and maybe throw in a bit of acid house and early Warp to fill it out...
 
woops

woops

is not like other people
droid said:
I reckon an analord megamix download would do the job nicely. In fact, im surprised no-ones done it already... If you were on the ball with your mixing, you could fit about half of it onto one CD - and maybe throw in a bit of acid house and early Warp to fill it out...
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great idea, someone do this please
 
D

droid

Guest
mms said:
they're all considerably different bpms tho .
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Pah! ;) they range from about 112 - 150... theres probably enough of each BPM in there to allow a bit of sneaky pitch shifting between mini-sets at different BPMs..

woops said:
great idea, someone do this please
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its definitely on my to-do-list, but i really wish someone else would get it together so i can listen to the bloody things properly!
 
A

atomly

atomiq one
My beats are

cup.jpg
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
hamarplazt said:
There really seem to be a huuuge back-to-analogue/acid trend happening right now: AFX, Lika A Tim, Atom Heart, Funkstörung, Vibert, A Guy Called Gerald etc.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think it's been building since we cleared the 90s.

Atom Heart's never a particularly good barometer of trends tho - his latest album (as Los Negritos) is self-declared "speed merengue" and he's just put together that compilation of different contemporary dance sounds from South America. Plus the latest Flanger is basically all ragtime stuff, I think??

I look forward to a war on his post-modern sensibilities some time. :)

Um, back on track, I've never ever got the appeal of Aphex. I could probably fit the tracks of his I really like on 1 CD...
 
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mms

sometimes
michael said:
Yeah, I think it's been building since we cleared the 90s.

Atom Heart's never a particularly good barometer of trends tho - his latest album (as Los Negritos) is self-declared "speed merengue" and he's just put together that compilation of different contemporary dance sounds from South America. Plus the latest Flanger is basically all ragtime stuff, I think??

I look forward to a war on his post-modern sensibilities some time. :)...
Click to expand...

that compilation is him again i reckon - didn't really like that -
yeah he's a pain in the ass that guy esp as you know he could probably actually do some music that's not a sly send up of something else - some of his older tracks were great and stuff like the lisa carbon trio was good without just doing this silly ideas.
 
D

dHarry

Well-known member
michael said:
Um, back on track, I've never ever got the appeal of Aphex. I could probably fit the tracks of his I really like on 1 CD...
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Heathen, disbeliever, get thee behind me Satan, etc.

In fact, having got the impression between I Care Because You Do and the RDJ LP that he was taking the mickey I decided if didn't care then maybe he didn't either... so I did just that - put my favourite "nice" post-SAW tracks (On, Alberto Balsam, Fingerbib etc) on a CD and promptly forgot about all that horror soundtrack and drill'n'bass stuff... and though I occasionally get a hankering for the AI Surfing On Sine Waves tape I lost I'm not really bothered about even hearing Druckqs etc. Droid's link to the best of Analord looks interesting though.

And Droid - that you on Irish TV, advertising something or other? I just caught a flash of that green non-smiley next to a DJ and thought it must be you...
 
M

mms

sometimes
dHarry said:
Heathen, disbeliever, get thee behind me Satan, etc.

In fact, having got the impression between I Care Because You Do and the RDJ LP that he was taking the mickey I decided if didn't care then maybe he didn't either... so I did just that - put my favourite "nice" post-SAW tracks (On, Alberto Balsam, Fingerbib etc) on a CD and promptly forgot about all that horror soundtrack and drill'n'bass stuff... and though I occasionally get a hankering for the AI Surfing On Sine Waves tape I lost I'm not really bothered about even hearing Druckqs etc. Droid's link to the best of Analord looks interesting though.

And Droid - that you on Irish TV, advertising something or other? I just caught a flash of that green non-smiley next to a DJ and thought it must be you...
Click to expand...

i dunno i think richard d james is his most perfect album overall . in times to come i reckon people will go - ' bloody hell that one was great!' ;)
 
D

dHarry

Well-known member
So has anyone else listened to that Analord Mixtape download yet? It's the first I've heard of the project, and I have to say a lot of it is quite good, but of course I'm not sure I'd be so easy on it if I didn't know if was RDJ...

It's also a little dry (seems like he'll never go back to that frail wispy reverb and empty space of SAW vol.1), and lacks some kind of extra-musical factor, whether reverbed ambience, the grain of tape/vinyl, samples, vocals, a context of some kind. There's something fussy and claustrophobic about too much pure music, layers of synth basslines, chordal blocks, 303 worms etc. all fighting for ear-space, with no space or extrinsic factors...

In fact it reminds me of Surfing On Sine Waves, just a bit more even, without the extremes of Quoth or If It Really Is Me... it is good, but I'm not sure I'd like to sit through all 12 disks.
 
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