4 posts tagged “aphex twin”

Portishead is reforming, putting out a new album, and curating the next installment of ATP (All Tomorrow's Parties, the music festival I attended at the surreal Butlins Minehead).

I DESPERATELY wish that I could go back for this!  Portishead is one of my all-time favorite acts.  This will be their first full set of new material in ten years.  Beth Gibbons' voice is seriously one of the sexiest things ever.  I'd listen to her sing just about anything.  Since they're curating the show they'll probably end up playing at least two or three sets, and show up at random sets to perform with the artists they've selected.  For those who aren't familiar with ATP, the curating artists invite acts that they dig, have been influenced by, or have been associated with.

I was pretty much entirely unfamiliar with the Dirty Three ATP lineup, but I still had a wonderful time (here's the lineup for the upcoming installment; perhaps you'll have more luck with it that me).  Groups like Portishead usually have pretty good taste in music.  If I were in the UK I'd be there in a second just to see Portishead, even if the rest of the lineup consisted of buskers and middle school marching bands.  But Aphex Twin is also going to be there <drool>.  PORTISHEAD AND APHEX TWIN!!!  To me, they represent all that is good about electronic music.  You never know what you might get with an Aphex show.  He might spin some hardcore DnB tracks, mix it with some tripped-out acid stuff, and then finish the set off with some of the most beautiful ambient music you've ever heard.  Or he might just get bored and make some weird noises.

The bottom line is that I really, really, REALLY want to go to this festival.  Too bad I'm not in England.

This subject hasn't been covered much, or at all really, in this blog.  Mostly because it's been a source of great frustration for me, and it's the main reason why my posts were so sparse for a while (not because I was writing nonstop; rather I just spent a lot of time worrying about it).  But it's due on Friday, and after that it'll be over.

In honor of my recent post about Daft Punk, I thought I'd regale you, dear readers, with what I bump to as I type.  I love listening to music while I write, but I really need stuff without lyrics (songs with lyrics that I know are out of the question).  Classical usually does the trick, though I tend to use that more when I'd reading.  For the writing, I turn to ambient techno.  One album in particular has fueled practically all of my late-night sessions (because let's face it, that seems to be the only time I can work for real) since my sophomore year of college:

I picked this album up when I was out in Seattle for Thanksgiving that year and never looked back.  It's beautiful, haunting, sprawling, inspiring.  I found that I was able to become completely enveloped by Aphex Twin's sonic landscapes yet still work inside them; I was fully aware without having to give my full attention.  Really amazing stuff.  I credit much of my success, as it is, to this album.

Aphex is still one of my favorite artists to this day, but recently Selected Ambient Works 85-92 has been supplanted as the writing music of choice by two of his brothers in arms:

I have been looking for more great ambient music ever since I picked up SAW, and have met with little success (Brian Eno's Music for Airports being a major exception).  Ambient is a bit nichey, even for the over-taxonomied glut of a beast that is the world of electronic music.  You won't really hear it in clubs because most people wouldn't dance to it, and it certainly isn't played on mainstream radio.  So you have to seek it out.  I haven't made it my mission, though I have wasted plenty of time scouring Wikipedia and AllMusic.com for something that might compare to the generally incomparable Aphex Twin.  Autechre is the group that seemed to be mentioned the most, so I finally picked up their debut album a couple of months ago.  And it's awesome.  A bit more dynamic than SAW, heavier on the beats, but still wonderful.  It has become my dissertation trail buddy, a companion in the lonely desolation that is the room of a graduate student trying to write a thesis.  SAW served faithfully for four years' worth of term papers; it has received an honorable discharge, but retains reserve status should a time of great need arise.

As usual, here are some samples.  The tracks are only on my iPod, so I am forced to resort to YouTube videos set to the songs.  Xtal (which I only recently realized is probably pronounced "crystal;" Aphex has a penchant for unpronounceable titles, so I just assumed) is the lead track from SAW, and one of my favorites.  Ignore the visuals if you like, it's some weird experimental stuff (it was either that or an upsetting reel of disaster footage including shots of the plaza in front of the WTC with bodies of those who jumped to their deaths on 9/11).  Kalpol Intro is the lead track from Incunabula, and it's set to some good clips from "Sunshine."  I blogged about that one earlier in the year, it's finally out in the States.  You should see it if you haven't yet.   Ignore the bit at the end; it's dialogue from the "Pi" soundtrack.

This is definitely my favorite new Web 2.0 app.  If you aren't familiar with StumbleUpon, it's a Web toolbar that sends you to random sites that have been rated (by simple thumbs up or thumbs down) by other users of the service (there are over two million of them, so they've rated loads of sites.  You just click the "stumble" button and off you go!  You tweak your preferences by ticking off your interests from independent film to mythology to daytrading.  It's quite addictive.  You can rate any page you visit just by clicking thumbs up or thumbs down (not the most definitive rating system, but it's what makes the service work).  I invited a bunch of people to join (sorry if you weren't interested but I get excited about stuff like this, I had to share....I hope you're enjoying it if you were one of the folks who did sign up!).  Definitely one of the most formidable threats to procrastinators on the Internet radar.

I've "stumbled upon" a whole bunch of neat sites so far (you can see them here)  The second page it sent me to was this flash game called Double Wire.  Beware....AMAZINGLY addictive!  It's sort of like experiencing life as a drunken Spiderman with spaghetti limbs.  Lots of fun.  It's incredible that games like this work so well....I could play any number of overproduced and underwhelming games for a NextGen console, but a ridiculously simple game like Double Wire can keep me coming back for weeks.  Don't underestimate good design, I guess.  No matter how simple it is.

I really love things like StumbleUpon.  There's such an incredible amount of stuff on the Web.  A lot of it is garbage, but some of it is lots of fun, or amazingly useful, or reveals things and interests that you never even knew about.  Or just plain weird!  You'd never know that any of it was out there without innovative services like StumbleUpon.  Like the ambient music guide that I found.  I've been interested in ambient music since I picked up my first Aphex Twin album three years ago, but it's a bit of an intimidating genre to tackle.  It's hardly a pop radio smash machine, so if you want to hear new stuff you have to do some searching.  I wouldn't have thought to search for something like that.  And the only reason this stuff works is because people use it and build extensive libraries of what they do and don't like.  It becomes more and more effective the more people sign up.  It is an incredible social system, make no mistake about it.

Oh Internet....

I started running in the mornings this week.  It's been too long since I exercised on a regular basis, so in order to make it a more fun experience I created a playlist to get me through it.  Pleas excuse the cheesy inclusion of movie training songs.  At the risk of revealing some of my guilty pleasures, I submit it for the perusal of the denizens of Interweb Land.  Give props/express outrage as you see fit.

Jackson Browne - Running on Empty (sort of counterintuitive, but it's such a great tune and in my mind it is forever associated with Forrest Gump running across America for three years, two months, fourteen days and sixteen hours)
Thievery Corporation - Indra
The Smiths - The Boy With the Thorn in His Side
The Cure - Close to Me
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Mas Que Nada
Ben Folds Five - Army
Belle & Sebastian - Another Sunny Day
The Ataris - The Boys of Summer
Wu-Tang Clan - Da Mystery of Chessboxin'
Goldfinger - Spokesman
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.
Jack Johnson - Upside Down
Jamiroquai - Canned Heat
Keane - Bend and Break
Coldplay - Clocks
Led Zeppelin - Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Looper - Mondo '77
The Long Blondes - Once and Never Again
Nirvana - Breed
Paul Oakenfold - Ready Steady Go
Rush - Freewill
The Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb
Stereolab - Vonal Declosion
Talib Kweli - Get By
Vangelis - Chariots of Fire (VERY corny, but I'm in Cambridge and I'm running, so I WILL listen to this song!)
Tears for Fears - Head Over Heels
Vince Guaraldi Trio - Linus & Lucy
The Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
The Wallflowers - The Difference
Weezer - Crab
Yo La Tengo - Cherry Chapstick
Higher and Higher (training music from "Wet Hot American Summer"...if you aren't hip to it, you better get hip soon)
Bill Conti - Gonna Fly Now (training music from "Rocky")
The Beastie Boys - Ch-Check It Out
Cascada - Everytime We Touch
Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
The Prodigy - Breathe
The Propellerheads - Spybreak
The Chemical Brothers - The Boxer
Aphex Twin - Polynomial-C