ratings times babes
GAK
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Classics
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Still need to listen to GAK. Will try and do that this afternoon amongst the new stuff out today.
Classics is patchy but when it hits it hits. Polynomial-C into Tamphex is some fun sequencing
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I have to admit I preferred Classics during my peak clubbing years. It doesn’t quite hit the same spot for me nowadays, despite some great tracks.
(There are also good memories of Aphex at a Store Street Warehouse Project dropping the full version of Didgeridoo and the place going absolutely nuts.)
Gak is a pretty nice EP to work to, but nothing special.
3 Likes
I think I was hmming and hawing about going over to that one, I was gutted to hear this happened then! Well, delighted for those who were there but it should’ve happened to me
Like, good as his sets are I’d pay top top dollar for a “hits” tour haha
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bad at listening clubs in general
He did lots of great stuff after but if the Windowlicker limo crashed into my house and forced me to pick one Aphex release it’d be SAW 85-92. Has a bit of everything he does so well (beautiful ambient techno, creepy dread-inducing soundscapes, the occasional burst of acid) with less of the puckish ‘tee-hee drums go everywhere’ stuff I’m not as into and with the benefit of not being 100 years long like the follow-up. Easy 10/10 for me.
Will admit that it’s sentimental as the first electronic album I got into/downloaded after learning how to use torrents after reading about it in the 1001 albums book and the occasional Hot Press piece that perhaps overstated his connection to Ireland and left me wondering what this stuff actually sounded like. Kicked the door down on a lot of my understanding of what music could be and do. Then I actually saw that Windowlicker video on TV during prime-time somehow and I had even more questions.
I’ll try to get GAK and Classics in over the weekend, hopefully my opinions on the later releases won’t make anyone mad.
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Yeah, this isn’t bad. Pleasant little EP.
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Honestly, it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve listened to Classics, and it’s quite a few, I’m always taken by surprise at how relentlessly abrasive it is. For a compilation album that supposedly had little to no input from Richard, it falls very neatly into his sense of humour - a gauntlet of some of the most pounding industrial techno ever, delivered with the grin of a joker who won’t let you in on the punchline until you realise the ludicrous temerity of collectively calling it all ‘Classics’.
It’s a hulking audio bully of an album, probably the most overall difficult listen in Richard’s ouvre that isn’t called Ventolin. I kind of love it and hate it at the same time. I think for me, like a lot of people, its main call was Digeridoo, the best thing on it by some margin and also one of the oddest Aphex Twin tracks out there; a relatively simple endorphin rush raver that doesn’t go anywhere but forward, a sweaty, tribal endurance test for dancing. So good it’s on there twice, since the barely indistinguishable live version closes the album. Bookends to a selection of the most brutal metallic rave to emerge from the Cornish underground with little beauty to be found bar the deep relief provided by Analogue Bubblebath 1 nearly an hour in.
Isopropanol and Tamphex are highlights of sorts; both showcase different aspects of the Aphex Twin experience while maintaining the unabating grind; the latter taking a ridiculously unlikely sample and stretching the joke beyond sufferance until it becomes funny again, a trick that happy hardcore would roll with and escalate in the coming years of the 90s. Stupid-clever, funny-crass, so very Aphex Twin. 7.
GAK is a different beast altogether - immediately Aphex Twin but chill-as-fuck Aphex Twin as opposed to eat-your-face Aphex Twin. It’s almost ephemeral; tbh I forget it exists and only rediscovered it earlier this year. I’d happily have a whole album of this style - it’s melodic and chirpy, a sunny sunday morning in the kitchen making coffee sound. Unconcerned, hydrated, staying in its lane. Even the relatively rave GAK 3 is absolutely horizontal in comparison to nearly anything on Classics. I like it, and the completionist in me wants to get hold of a physical copy one day, but I need to grab the digital off his webstore because it’s got 5 tracks I’ve never heard that were in the Soundcloud dump. Might make me change my opinion, but for now it’s also a 7.
9 Likes
Not enough said about Polynomial C in here imo defs in his top 5 tunes for me. Hits the same sweet spot as Heliosphan
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I think if Richard had any input into the comp he’d have had the nous to sequence it differently; putting Polynomial C between Isopropanol and Tamphex is a poor choice imo, it’s the eye in a storm of crazy, although if we’re being honest it still goes hard. It and Analogue Bubblebath 1 almost don’t belong here at all but I’m glad they do.
Classics is a seven from me. Analogue Bubblebath is probably in my top 10 Aphex tracks of all time and there’s a few other top tier tunes along the way, but perhaps not as well articulated as Selected Ambient Works 1. So the score has to be less. It’s still absolute essential listening though. This album was a lesson for me in learning that Aphex was never to be be pigeon holed and was always to be unpredictable. Like a magician with his top hat. First he pulls out a rabbit…then another… and then a crazy weasel…what’s next? You can’t guess. And it might just upset you, but you still wait for the next one to appear.
Gave Gak a five. It’s okay.
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Wow, that’s a fascinating watch.
Caustic Window: Compilation
sorry this is such a deep cut its a youtube one. here’s the tracklist
- 0:00 - Joyrex J4
- 4:30 - AFX 114
- 5:50 - Cordialatron
- 10:35 - Italic Eyeball
- 15:00 - Pigeon Street
- 15:23 - Astroblaster
- 20:53 - On The Romance Tip
- 25:59 - Joyrex J5
- 32:54 - Fantasia
- 38:56 - Humanoid Must Not Escape
- 44:39 - Clayhill Dub
- 48:04 - The Garden Of Linmiri
- 54:14 - We Are The Music Makers (Hardcore Version)
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Just a couple of days after my YT premium free month expired 
Quick flick through the stream and def going to save this one for when I pick the kids up later. Just going to put it on without explanation and see how they react
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hadn’t listened to most of the classics stuff in many years and totally forgot how great they were.
gak is more pleasant, all tracks i’d put on a rdj chill playlist
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i would suggest you do NOT let the kids listen to fantasia
20 minute journey. Should be ok unless we hit traffic…
Caustic Window Compilation
I had a bunch of these off kazaa back in the day - just sort of bundled in with Birdhouse in your Soul, and the first half of New Paths to Helicon or whatever.
Not entirely sure my mood is right for this today - definitely a no from me.
Aside from about 2 minutes of Italic Eyeball, it all just got on my wick.
Cordialiatron had some nice Surfing on Sinewavesy vibes, but yeah. Nah.
this is kind of daft eh. Pigeon Street is a fun 20 seconds
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