Re: [microsound] new aphex twin

[Andrei <andrei@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 27 Aug 2001, Rob Theakston wrote:

> there are portions of these albums where it almost makes you wonder if he
> just scrapped some tracks together from various parts of his career just to
> get out of his contract with warp. there are alot of piano
> interludes/compositions that juxtapose the harder tracks. which is not to
> say they are bad by any means, quite the opposite...they are gorgeous..very
> reminiscent of cage's "in a landscape". anyways, there are some points in
> the set where i was thinking "hey this was probabl meant to be on (insert
> album here)!". overall, i really dug it...but i'm eager to see what everyone
> else's reactions will be.

I feel the same way.

This is something I posted to the idm list yesterday:

About half of the 2CD set is made up of straight acoustic piano and
sometimes prepared piano tracks without any sort of DSP treatment or
electronics. That's probably the most surprising thing about it. Otherwise
I have to say that I'm surprised at the lack of musical evolution for
Aphex, especially after the "Come To Daddy" and "Windowlicker" EPs on
which he did some really great things, imo. The "beat" tracks remind me
more of "I Care Because You Do" or "Hangable Auto Bulb" era AFX rather
than making me think he's exploring some new direction. It sounds like the
least distinctive AFX album so far to me. There's an unusual lack of
variety also. He's either doing the acoustic piano thing or doing the
190BPM cut-up breaks (with acid lines) thing (in the vein of the track you 
could download from the Warp site). Not much in between.

Andrei