RE: [microsound] Cage's 0'00"... Aphex Twin

[Nicolas Grenier <greniercnic@xxxxxxxx>]

Here's a short extract from an article on Drukqs:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4270259,00.html
---
True enough, on Drukqs there are feats of
micro-programming and virtuoso editing to make the
mind boggle. But is this technique for technique's
sake, a triumph of speed-prowess over content? "It's
quite similar to guitar solos," he concedes, "only
with programming you have to use your brain. The most
important thing is that it should have some emotional
effect on me, rather than just, 'Oh, that's really
clever.' There's a lot of melancholy in my tracks."
His best ones, he says, are those which evoke feelings
that can't quite be described, where "you're not quite
sure what emotion it is".
---
A lot of AFX's success has(d?) to do with the twisted
romantic, nihilist, prodigious legendary image that's
been built around his character, up to the point where
it complements his music. It really has some magnetic
effect of "i wanna be like you", thus the multiple
faces in Cunningham's clips... at least that's my
interpretation. Plus his music delivers the promised
quality (or cleverly targeted?) cheesiness and warmth
that's kinda rare in techno-pop. There's all kinds of
reasons for his success, but AFX's an unreasonable
man. Now here's a quote from a George Bernard Shaw guy
I don't know at all : "Reasonable men adapt themselves
to their environment; unreasonable men try to adapt
their environment to themselves. Thus all progress is
the result of the efforts of unreasonable men." That
statement may be a symptomatic of a bad social
condition. " James describes himself as "a really
well-balanced person". The media image of the demented
raver who DJs with sandpaper discs "was made up
because I didn't want to come across as average and
boring". He has even thought about having kids, though
not just yet: "I'm only terrifying to people who are
nasty to me." The fact is, no one becomes this
successful, this far-reachingly influential, by
behaving like a loon. "You can't just make good art
these days," is his parting bit of advice to all those
Aphex wannabes out there. "You've got to be a good
businessman. I'm good at psychology - I can see how to
play certain situations. I'm a good chess player.
You've got to recognise all the possibilities." "
(from the guardian's article) Madness sells, and the
focus on the artist is often more direct in popular
music than in other areas of music where the art is
central. 

That may be a topic better suited for the IDM list,
which after all was created right after the release of
Artificial Intelligence on which Richard James is
featured as Polygon Window, but still, there's a
certain part of glitch in his music. "From the
mid-1990s forward, the glitch aesthetic appeared in
various sub-genres, including drum?n?bass,
drill?n?bass, and trip-hop. Artists such as Aphex
Twin, LTJ Bukem, Omni Trio, Wagon Christ, and Goldie
were experimenting with all sorts of manipulation in
the digital domain." [Cascone - Aesthetics of
failure.pdf]

And before you can call Aphex Twin the new Beethoven
or Mozart, you should know those composers well,
otherwise, it's just a way to say he kicks asses.
Mozart and Beethoven were "child prodigies", like
James in a whole different context. About the music, I
could't compare since I just don't know traditionnal
music theory, but I know there's a huge gap between a
rave and a classical concert. I guess innovation is
not James' mantra, he's not much into musical theories
as he is into publicity... but as far as I'm
concerned, he does kick asses, especially sheeps'
asses with his tank. 


--- Richard Kamerman <rfkorp@xxxxxxxxx> a écrit :

> Seriously, man.  No need to get pissed off because
> the community generates a broad range of discussion.
>  To address the under 40 jab, I'm only 20 but I
> understand the genius of men like Cage and
> Stockhausen, and Subotnick and honestly don't quite
> get the excitement over Aphex Twin and their like.  
>  
> However, that doesn't mean I don't want to learn. 
> If you're going to fuel a long interesting
> discussion on the innovations of Aphex Twin I'm sure
> plenty of people would participate and plenty of
> people would learn from it and people like me just
> might develop a newfound love for the music through
> the new understanding.  Likewise, there's likely a
> lot you could learn from this discussion if you
> would open up your mind.
> 
> I believe firmly in the use of technology as the
> future of musical innovation but that does not mean
> that works that implement acoustic instruments
> should be disregarded.  Quite frankly, the fact that
> you would consider Xenakis for one so old-school
> that he's are already outdated and usless scares me
> a bit.
>  
> -R.
> 
> Oswald Grain <Oswald.Grain@xxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> cage AGAIN ??? sorry for bad language, but wtf riily
> ppl,
> go creat a separate list only for cage and xenaksis.
> dont you understand here are younger ppl than 40
> also, 
> i dont give a s$£@@? bout cage. but i also dont
> force you 
> to understand why aphex twin is called the
> equiwalent of bethohwen in our time.
> 
> i am asking where is the world going if ppl like kim
> cascone and the like are
> the great mentors who are teatching others bout
> microsound and electronic music
> only pased on a narrow wiev (cage and the old school
> ppl). i think some of you fail to see the new
> inovative things nowadays and only discuss the GREAT
> effects of cages and xenaksis tunes, sure they made
> a great effort, but thats soooo long ago, lets
> discuss what is happening now... but wait you
> actually are not able to, because you live in the
> past and fail to see the present nor the future...
> 
> i know theese are wery disturbing and bald words by
> me but hey sb has to talk some sence to you... i
> have found it very interesting to read some
> discussions and to listen to the projects that were
> (not anymore as i see), and some links are supperb,
> but the old ppl have taken over to greatly...
> 
> just wanting to save a great list, because i know
> lot of ppl who have left this list cause of your
> dead horse beating...
> 
> oswald grain 
> 
> 
>
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