Remember the atrociously named electronica genre Intelligent Dance Music (IDM)? A genre beloved of humourless, pedantic and invariably baldy male bores who are biologically connected to their record bags and wear runners that require mortgages to buy. Guys who probably use maths equations to compute how much an album appeals to them and who would prefer to jack off all over a rare Rephlex vinyl than kiss a girl. These guys' favourite song titles read like ingredients in a stinger bar, or unsolved clues in Estonian crossword puzzles-"actually, my favourite track on the analogirophlex album is e.1774, which has more appealing glitch sound than garly_zz.iphlex."
SWEET!! Its the tracklisting for the new Aphex twin EP
Well, I used to love IDM, but in a clumsy half-informed way. I only bought the big albums on the warp label, Aphex, Plaid, Boards of Canada, Autechre and Squarepusher. And I only bought them on CD. So I never had the pleasure of shelling out too much for a rare heavy pressed vinyl. Like 40 euro for a lump of plastic where gobbledygook catalogue numbers on the label might or might not indicate that its scuttery drill'n'base racket is actually Richard D. James repeating the word cunt interminably, or just one of his mates farting while he laughs all the way to the bank. I was at the normal end of the IDM spectrum; more a case of mild Asperger's Syndrome than the full blown autism of the vinyl geeks. Boards of Canada were (and still are) my favourites. I love the elusive widescreen riddles of their early stuff, which sadly got lost somewhere down the line. Second to Boards of Canada in my affections were probably Autechre, who seemed to me to be their evil twin, a bleak and alienating distortion of Boards of Canada's warm earthy drone- although I must add here, there was no comparison in terms of beats. BOC's simple and blocky hip hop patterns always stood only knee high to the awesome clicky machinations of Autechre's best work.
Right, finally, the point of this post is that Autechre are about to release a new album called Quaristice. And I'm excited for many reasons including the fact that all the tracks are about 3 minutes long- which makes a big change from the difficult 10-minute glitch-fests that required some serious active listening on the previous few records. But don't be fooled by the pop-song length. We're still a long way from 'little deuce coupe' here. Download this only if, like me, your definition of enjoyable music extends to the sound of ball-bearings skittering across a sheet of metal while something huge and discordant bangs in the distance. Its not likely to trouble Ray Darcy's morning playlist.
MP3: Autechre-
palalel suns
SWEET!! Its the tracklisting for the new Aphex twin EP
Well, I used to love IDM, but in a clumsy half-informed way. I only bought the big albums on the warp label, Aphex, Plaid, Boards of Canada, Autechre and Squarepusher. And I only bought them on CD. So I never had the pleasure of shelling out too much for a rare heavy pressed vinyl. Like 40 euro for a lump of plastic where gobbledygook catalogue numbers on the label might or might not indicate that its scuttery drill'n'base racket is actually Richard D. James repeating the word cunt interminably, or just one of his mates farting while he laughs all the way to the bank. I was at the normal end of the IDM spectrum; more a case of mild Asperger's Syndrome than the full blown autism of the vinyl geeks. Boards of Canada were (and still are) my favourites. I love the elusive widescreen riddles of their early stuff, which sadly got lost somewhere down the line. Second to Boards of Canada in my affections were probably Autechre, who seemed to me to be their evil twin, a bleak and alienating distortion of Boards of Canada's warm earthy drone- although I must add here, there was no comparison in terms of beats. BOC's simple and blocky hip hop patterns always stood only knee high to the awesome clicky machinations of Autechre's best work.
Right, finally, the point of this post is that Autechre are about to release a new album called Quaristice. And I'm excited for many reasons including the fact that all the tracks are about 3 minutes long- which makes a big change from the difficult 10-minute glitch-fests that required some serious active listening on the previous few records. But don't be fooled by the pop-song length. We're still a long way from 'little deuce coupe' here. Download this only if, like me, your definition of enjoyable music extends to the sound of ball-bearings skittering across a sheet of metal while something huge and discordant bangs in the distance. Its not likely to trouble Ray Darcy's morning playlist.
MP3: Autechre-palalel suns
4 comments:
Aphex Twin Classics and Selcted AMbiant WOrks 85-92 were both only around 20 euro to buy on vinyl, thats what they cost me
aphex twin jokes always a winner
x
Its too easy. But he is fuppin brilliant.
I hear what you're saying about IDM... but man that graph's gorgeous.
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