Aphex Twin

[Leviathant]

It's a shame that most of these tracks are crap.

The torrent era definitely altered my perception of both Coil and Aphex Twin in this way. Both have brilliant moments, but both also have an extensive collection of b-sides and scraps which may contain interesting ideas, but taken by themselves, or amongst dozens or hundreds of tracks all together, don't bear out repeated listening. The early stuff he's put out is more interesting from an anthropological standpoint for me. I'm happy to go digging through this mountain to extract things like the "dark" version of Girl Boy song, Red Calx (hearing it both at the removed 'normal' speed and at 'slow', as stupid and simple as that is, really spun my head), or hearing the tape-warbled Heliosphan from SAW85-92 reinterpreted with dulcimers or something as "Square Dance", to name a few.

Back in the day, I'd have to drive to Baltimore and spend a decent amount of money for an import single, to find out that 8 of the 10 tracks were kind of interesting, and only 2 were real keepers. This Soundcloud dump is like compressing several of those trips into one weekend and several hundred dollars, except it's free.

Also, I never really followed Aphex Twin's live stuff, but there's I've only just now heard that I figured I'd share.

[Jinsai]

It's a shame that most of these tracks are crap.

I very strongly disagree.

I downloaded all these s/cloud tracks to hear what all the fuss was and I've been loving them.
Where should I go next, any recommendations?

My suggestion would be either Selected Ambient Works 2 or Richard D James Album.

Drukqs is my personal favorite. the new albums are great as well... you really can't go wrong with the major releases.

[Magtig]

What the fuck ever. Sure, there's plenty of stuff that I don't want to listen to over and over but there's tons of great stuff in here.

14 07 B
Ssnb 19
28 Organ
Red Calx (both versions)
6 Plinky Plonk[orig]
19 [Slo]w early morning clissold sunrise
7 Cutting
the Luke Vibert remix
8 Lush Ambulance
7 ∂ƒ∆ [rough mix]
1 nocares
11 Donkey Rhubarb Remix
18 With My Family
1 Human Rotation
etc.

Every time I listen I find one I forgot I liked. There's probably at least 30 great tracks (depending on how much abstraction you have a taste for) and then another 30 good ones.

[Ryan]

What's a Calx and why are there so many different colours of them in the Aphex discography?

[Piko]

Knowing RDJ, maybe he made it up?

[BRoswell]

From Wikipedia:

Calx is a residual substance, sometimes in the form of a fine powder, that is left when a metal or mineral combusts or is calcinated due to heat.

Calx, especially of a metal, is now known as an oxide. According to the obsolete phlogiston theory, the calx was the true elemental substance, having lost its phlogiston in the process of combustion.


"Calx" is also sometimes used in older texts on artist's techniques to mean calcium oxide.

[Khrz]

Knowing RDJ, maybe he made it up?

Or maybe it's Welsh ?

Nah, Google Translate comes up with latin at best. @BRoswell is most probably correct.

[BRoswell]

Or maybe it's Welsh ?

Nah, Google Translate comes up with latin at best. @BRoswell is most probably correct.

According to Wikipedia, it's actually from Arabic.

[Lerxto]

So the deleted tracks are 5 Girl Boy Dark Version & 4 Red Calx (Original 2min 50s, not [slo])?
Including those I now have 112 tracks. I think that's all for now, right?

And my current favorite is 13 High Hats Tune Tamclap Orig. I love this track so much.

[Jinsai]

and... http://www.synthtopia.com/content/20...rom-aphex-twin

may be fake? I'm hearing a lot of people suggesting that it's fake... but the music is definitely not bad. There's nothing in here so far that tops the best of the best from those 100+ tracks he just uploaded... if it's fake, it's made by somebody who could be selling their music.

[Magtig]

and... http://www.synthtopia.com/content/20...rom-aphex-twin

may be fake? I'm hearing a lot of people suggesting that it's fake... but the music is definitely not bad. There's nothing in here so far that tops the best of the best from those 100+ tracks he just uploaded... if it's fake, it's made by somebody who could be selling their music.

Doesn't sound right. There was a guy in the WATMM thread asking for RDJ handwriting samples a couple days ago too.

[xmd 5a]

Doesn't sound right. There was a guy in the WATMM thread asking for RDJ handwriting samples a couple days ago too.

Fuck. I hope it's legit. I was silly/excited enough to practically throw money at the screen as soon as I saw the Bandcamp link. Didn't even check Soundcloud for the free DLs first. D'oh!

It's actually pretty good stuff so I'm no too worried about having wasted money. I just hope if it's fake the faker comes forward so I know who I've given $20 of my hard-earned to.

[Leviathant]

The bandcamp stuff was fake. There were a surprising number of fakes that kept getting pushed really hard in the WATMM thread. I'm kind of surprised Synthtopia linked to the Bandcamp stuff, but not irked enough to start my own synth news site :P

[Jinsai]

The bandcamp stuff was fake. There were a surprising number of fakes that kept getting pushed really hard in the WATMM thread. I'm kind of surprised Synthtopia linked to the Bandcamp stuff, but not irked enough to start my own synth news site :P

still wasn't bad though. I suspected it wasn't him, still has there been an "official" statement to clarify it?

I feel like i'm the subject of a Banksy experiment.... sort of like Exit Through the Gift Shop.

[Magtig]

I love the idea of making your own mixtapes out of this collection. Here's a link to a cover I made: "UNselected Ambient Works 88-95." It's made to look like it could be an official cover (hopefully). So there you go.

http://imgur.com/GGEWzLp

[lloyd_dhr]

5 more tracks have been uploaded over the last hour

https://soundcloud.com/user48736353001/tracks

[botley]

He was really into sampling that BBC 'Children Talking' program circa 1995, it’s all over the Hangable Auto Bulb EPs and on "14 Make a Baby".

EDIT: I Google'd "Bimbongo", and the only other reference to a song with that title is credited to Q-Chastic (an alias from the dawn of Rephlex Records circa 1992). Is it one of the fabled CAT002 tracks?

Has anybody tried to date all of these based on general sound and vibe? "28 Organ" sounds just like one of the Come to Daddy B-sides, so probably 1997ish. Some of the other stuff is way earlier.

[Leviathant]

Has anybody tried to date all of these based on general sound and vibe? "28 Organ" sounds just like one of the Come to Daddy B-sides, so probably 1997ish. Some of the other stuff is way earlier.

I went into MP3tag and started plonking down dates for the ones where he provided dates, and from there, tried to put them into a few different buckets: RDJ, ICBYD, SAW2... the earlier stuff I wasn't that worried about. There are definitely a few that are post-RDJ though, which mixes things up a bit. And then there's stuff like Square Dance, which I can't really come up with a good reference for. After I put those together, I had to take a break. I'll have to go back later this week and have a second pass, and post my era-based playlist ideas after reviewing everything. Unless he keeps posting more.

I think Sekonda and Jonny Hawkes Broken Guitar are my new favorites.

[emptydesk]

Amongst most tracks he bothered notating, they fall between 1989-1994, not that a hardcore fan needed to know that the ANALOGUE BUBBLEBATH-esque tracks warranted broad timestamping.

[Magtig]

RDJ is having trouble with Soundcloud's copyright bots mistaking his tunes for others and taking them down. I've let them know that this will enrage a giant nerdy community (albeit in a nice way), and you should too! http://help.soundclo...rtal/emails/new

[botley]

Considering he samples Joni Mitchell and Pink Floyd, at least (presumably without any clearance), that’s going to be a tricky issue.

[Magtig]

Sssshhhhhh

[Camille]

Bloody hell, he's like the electronic Buckethead as far as output is concerned!!

[frankie teardrop]

at this point, i'm feeling overwhelmed by it all. a lot of the material is awesome, but it's taking some time to digest. a lot of it is going to fall into boxset/bonus disc/narnia territory, where you listen once and then never touch again, sadly.

but i still think this whole thing is unprecedentedly amazing! especially now that he added 320kbps download links!

[exilajei]

Latest batch of tracks Rich uploaded are some of the best yet!

[SIR.LONDONCLEANLILY]

Bloody hell, he's like the electronic Buckethead as far as output is concerned!!

I have always said Buckethead and Aphex Twin should make an album. I feel like if they did the world might end.

[emptydesk]

Think Richard is doing just fine without some dude with a chicken bucket on his head wanking out a bunch of guitar solos on top of his tunes.

[BRoswell]

RDJ won Best Dance/Electronic Album at the Grammy Panties.

[Piko]

Grammys finally does something right.

[Frozen Beach]

Think Richard is doing just fine without some dude with a chicken bucket on his head wanking out a bunch of guitar solos on top of his tunes.

What Buckethead does is barely any different than to what Richard does, the only two real differences is he uses a guitar and occasionally makes tracks with vocals.