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Aphex Twin - Collapse EP

Started by momatt, August 06, 2018, 09:20:39 AM

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momatt

http://www.factmag.com/2018/08/06/aphex-twin-collapse-ep-teased/

Great promotion on this.  The press release reads like an extract from Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaam.



Original version:


Porter Dimi

There was supposed to be an extract on late night Adult Swim last night, but it was pulled at the last minute due to failing an epilepsy test. Might be premiering online today?

Also, nice Cake reference in that promotion letter.

hedgehog90

I'm an aphex twin latecomer. It's Cheetah what did it for me, it unlocked the rest of his discography to me, then I dove in and got my brain adjusted.
Really looking forward to this.

momatt

Quote from: Porter Dimi on August 07, 2018, 09:56:42 AM
Also, nice Cake reference in that promotion letter.

I didn't notice that!  Which bit is that?

Porter Dimi

Quote from: momatt on August 07, 2018, 10:34:03 AM
I didn't notice that!  Which bit is that?

last paragraph of the second image above

momatt

Oh yeah, cheers.  I didn't realise the bottom image had some text the other missed out.

purlieu

Given that the video track has leaked (known among fans as 'the Houston track'), I'm surprised Adult Swim and Warp haven't got their act together and thrown it online yet.


grassbath

I like the tune - more of the wet, warm synth-funk he's been doing since Rushup Edge, with a welcome Drukqs-ish nightmare breakdown in the middle, sounds like someone trapped in a room hammering on a door.


purlieu

I'm slightly surprised at how similar it sounds to what he's been doing since The Tuss, but it's a solid track and the video is incredible.
Bleep's been down almost solidly since the announcement. Always surprises me just how incompetent they are.

hedgehog90

Really cool video, not that impressed by the music though.
WeirdCore must be the talent behind his live show visuals, I'd never heard of him until now.
Those 2 make a very fine pair, I hope he produces some more videos for this EP.

Cuntbeaks

Suckered into the Ltd vinyl.

On the face of it, the music does seem fairly 'AFX by numbers', but if the crowd reaction at the Houston gig is anything to go by, if you heard this on a heavyweight soundsytem it would take on a whole new, tripped out and aggressive complexion.

VelourSpirit

One of those things that made me go 'ok whatever' at first and now I can't stop watching the video, and I really love the song. someone transcribed the messages that appear on the buildings here https://www.reddit.com/r/aphextwin/comments/95dip0/deciphered_what_is_written_at_the_start_of_the/
interesting back and forth about ideas for the video, which made it even better since all the buildings disappearing into code did make me think about the simulation theory

Twed

One for the pretentious Pitchfork reviews thread:

Quote from: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/aphex-twin-t69-collapse/Not, at least, until the timer ticks over to 1:55: A dissonant synth lead cuts sideways across the tune and the beat seems to quake beneath it, the drums heaving like objects on a ship's storm-tossed prow. Chaos takes the reins; the kick drum zippers back and forth. It's as close to heavy metal as James has ever come—and he still has one more card up his sleeve. A false ending gives way to a third part of the track that's gentler and more bittersweet than either of its predecessors: an acid-tinged coda that jettisons some of the squirreliness and slips into a sleek, head-snapping groove. It's a lot of ground to cover in a little over five minutes, but James makes the whiplash feel strangely graceful.

Great music which would have blown me away perhaps fifteen years ago but which now seems almost pointless, since it's no different to anything he's done for a decade.

It's also interesting that the soundcloud stuff, as exciting as the process was, turned out to be pretty half-baked. Despite all his chat about the vaults and hours of unreleased Detroit techno and the like, the stuff he picked out just sounded like OK offcuts, largely forgettable. He's got every right to do so now but he's definitely treading water.

Cuntbeaks

After trawling through the Soundcloud stuff i think i managed to find about 7 tracks that were strong enough to keep. A mere albums worth.

They are very good tracks to be fair.

sevendaughters

I could take an endless supply of those RDJ tunes that's basically a neurotic 4/4 beat and some floaty analogue synth, I'm like one of those guys who just likes cock rock in all the ways a limited palette can be rearranged. Like most of his recent stuff has been like "I got this rare synth, it's dead hard to work" and the songs sound kinda like the last lot, just deeper or richer or weirder or more dated but basically similar? I can see why some would see this as a problem.

Johnny Yesno

I'm a bit ambivalent about the music but, by crikey, that video is amazing.

purlieu

I thought the Soundcloud dump had loads of great stuff in, could easily fill up four or five albums' worth of his best material. Not all of it was great, but I was amazed at how high quality so much of it was.
Quote from: The Boston Crab on August 08, 2018, 06:42:52 AM
Great music which would have blown me away perhaps fifteen years ago but which now seems almost pointless, since it's no different to anything he's done for a decade.
Although I agree that it's nothing mind blowing, it does seem a little unfair that he always seems to be judged on that alone, rather than simply how good the track is by its own merits.

imitationleather

Out of my high quality phone speaker I was pretty unimpressed by the tune. It sounds like it could have been done by one of the hundreds of copycat producers who now ape his style. The start was good, but when it went all bassy in the middle I got bored and nearly turned it off. Only the video kept me going.

Great video, though. And I'm sure it sounds thumping out of a proper rig, like. When I saw him in Barcelona last year he was playing some pretty crazy stuff, so hopefully that will end up on this EP.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: purlieu on August 08, 2018, 12:35:26 PM
it does seem a little unfair that he always seems to be judged on that alone, rather than simply how good the track is by its own merits.

The track's merits are predicated on the listener's other musical experience. In this case, that other musical experience includes James's other work.

purlieu

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on August 08, 2018, 03:01:31 PM
The track's merits are predicated on the listener's other musical experience. In this case, that other musical experience includes James's other work.
I just mean... y'know, whether it's a good tune or not.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: purlieu on August 08, 2018, 03:05:11 PM
I just mean... y'know, whether it's a good tune or not.

Which is predicated on the listener's other musical experience.

popcorn

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on August 08, 2018, 03:01:31 PM
The track's merits are predicated on the listener's other musical experience.

Preference is predicated on the listener's life experience.

purlieu

Possibly. I just find that Aphex is an artist where people tend to focus more on how far he's 'pushing the boundaries' or whatever, rather than focusing on the compositional elements of the track. I'm eager to hear him release something that's totally different (like he keeps mentioning he's going to), but at the same time, if he's putting out high quality music, I'm not too fussed if it's in a similar style to that he's been using for a decade.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: popcorn on August 08, 2018, 03:21:44 PM
Preference is predicated on the listener's life experience.

Indeed. Except for those you're born with, I guess. Either way, 'a good tune' doesn't exist in a vacuum (neither figuratively nor literally).

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: purlieu on August 08, 2018, 03:25:53 PM
Possibly. I just find that Aphex is an artist where people tend to focus more on how far he's 'pushing the boundaries' or whatever, rather than focusing on the compositional elements of the track. I'm eager to hear him release something that's totally different (like he keeps mentioning he's going to), but at the same time, if he's putting out high quality music, I'm not too fussed if it's in a similar style to that he's been using for a decade.

Tbh, I get bored of any artist who doesn't seem to progress.

purlieu

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on August 08, 2018, 03:26:40 PM
Either way, 'a good tune' doesn't exist in a vacuum (neither figuratively nor literally).
Maybe not, but I think the compositional elements of a piece of music can be discussed and enjoyed out of context of whether a work's style and/or production is similar to that of previous works.
Quote from: Johnny Yesno on August 08, 2018, 03:28:28 PM
Tbh, I get bored of any artist who doesn't seem to progress.
That's fair, and if Aphex kept putting out the same sounding material for another ten years I'd get bored of it. But in the last decade - and that's a slightly misleading time period, given that we're only really talking about one album (Syro) and four EPs (two Tuss ones, Cheetah, and seemingly this new one) - he's focused on refining a particular sound rather than continually trying out varying approaches, which I don't think is the same thing as not progressing. I think all of his recent analogue records have sounded different to each other, whilst retaining certain unifying elements. The middle section breakdown in this new track (which inspired the 'collapse' title, incidentally), for example, isn't like anything from Syro, The Tuss etc.

I just think that people sometimes set the bar too high for him, because he has done some staggeringly forward-thinking music in the past: now, unless it sounds as fresh as The Richard D James Album did at the time, some people completely dismiss it, which seems unfair. Especially given that he spent the first half of the '90s doing exactly what he's doing now: refining a particular sound over a number of releases.

sevendaughters

hardly anyone gets to redefine music twice in a lifetime.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: sevendaughters on August 08, 2018, 03:57:32 PM
hardly anyone gets to redefine music twice in a lifetime.

Yeah I know but enough about Chas and Dave it's an Aphex Twin discussion