So, its your subjective opinion, and there's nothing specifically meritorious about it that you can actually point to.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
lol so because i concur with critical opinion, i am participating in "groupthink"? dilbert i have listened to ambient and experimental music extensively since i was old enough to even know what an individual preference or taste was. 10,000+ hours of listening under my belt, easily. at least 2,000 different artists of that broad genre category. 250,000+ tracks. but my own formulated opinion is just sheep-herd "groupthink"? lol you come up with some retarded stuff.
yes, the stone in focus track is simple. it's ambient. what do you want? an instrumental monody? virtuosic solo riffs? epic arpeggiating synthesizers? IT'S AMBIENT MUSIC. the whole grace and perfection of it is that it is incredibly (and deceivingly) simple, on the surface. but, aesthetically, it just forms something so mesmerizing. yes, it is basically 'ambient drone', as your karma inveighed, but that's not a negative as you were trying to paint it. drone is a subtle genre; it's the little things that make all the difference. when you've listened to a lot, you fine-tune enough to know what is on the 'great' level and what is merely meh, background noise. stone in focus is a great track. it is basically 3 slow-released notes played in a loop for 10 minutes, yes. but those simple 3 notes - or more like 3 frequencies - provoke a great emotion. more so for me than a vivaldi or a rossini, with what adorno called their "dissociation into monodies". i don't know what you are trying to imply with your "nothing groundbreaking" critique, either: does that mean only the extreme avant-garde fringes of music merit attention in the "greatest electronic music of all time" canon? because, if it must be groundbreaking... i take it you're a big fan of merzbow? ELEH? keith fullerton whitman? these are electronic artists all doing 'groundbreaking' work, technically and musically... but, hmm, something would lead me to believe that you'd absolutely recoil in horror when hearing their alien, avant-garde electronic compositions. funny that. i guess your top composers of the century are schoenberg, mahler, stravinsky, boulez? seeing as it has to be groundbreaking to be worth a mention nowadays, and all. many people bring up this "it's nothing ground-breaking" line in art, even though they are horrified by avant-garde fringe music-- precisely that which is groundbreaking. derp.
anyway, like this track... very subtle in structure, and quite simplistic in musical terms. but... what a fucking incredible piece of music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSmBHnIydMA
if the genre does nothing for you, fair enough, but don't sleight it on stupid grounds of musicality. and you'd do a lot better than to resort to puerile 'groupthink' accusations towards me (how cliche and boring are the orwellian references btw; jesus what a dearth of imagination you suffer, along with half the internet who are still hung up on 1984, probably as the only literary work they've ever read). i've spent as long listening to this genre of music as you have looking at pictures of middle-aged asian women at comic conventions. let's not accuse one of being an idle crowd-follower. we all know that's your special shit, your inimitable jam, baby, and nobody will try and take that away from you, derps.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-02-13 06:57:10)
bro just check out the metalheadz back catalogue and never listen to any modern d&b. why would you? its a genre that had its hey-day in 97. the only ways it has gone forward or evolved since then is in ways you clearly wouldn't be very interested in, as it lacks a clear 'jump up', wearing-neon-uv-glo-kanye-glasses appeal.PrivateVendetta wrote:
\_/
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Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-02-13 07:48:55)
inb4 bf2s's 2nd longest post everJaekus wrote:
his music
The birth of Ambient was in the late 80s? Whatever you say son.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
karma: derivative rubbish? derivative, how, exactly? these recordings date from the late 80's / early 90's. they are there at the birth of electronic ambient music. nothing sounded like them at the time. not much has sounded like aphex's ambient recordings since. he is a unique voice. 'derivative'? it's hilarious you call aphex twin derivative. he's one of the weirdest and most idiosyncratic producers in all of electronic music. his whole thing is that everything he does is singular and impossible to imitate. he's been on his own 'don't care' trajectory for his whole career - it's his whole reputation and myth. calling aphex twin "derivative" shows that you are ignorant of this music in the extreme.
Its highly derivative, as most music is. Honestly I don't see whats so clever about taking a small sample of what would be a few seconds of one layer of a piece which has gone before and spreading it over 10-20 minutes.At age 17, Richard D. James mentioned these influences: "Phonic Boy, Computer World, Mental Telepathy, Industrial Inc., Tomita, Tangerine Dream". Mixmaster Morris mentions on the "I Luv AFX" BBC Radio 1 Breezeblock session that James' preferred moniker while working as a DJ in Cornwall was Phonic Boy on Dope. More recently, he has said that he gets inspiration from "everyday sounds that can be emulated/reconstructed electronically, quality techno, especially from Europe, which overshadows the current hardcore pop crap". When asked about what is next for electronic music, he said "acid-techno, ambient-techno". Avant-garde music has been an influence on James, including artists such as Kraftwerk, Can, Tangerine Dream, Tod Dockstader, Xenakis, Piero Umiliani, Bernard Parmegiani, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, and the French composer Erik Satie for his piano works and his ideas for furniture music.
In acknowledgment of another influence, James released Music from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a compilation of music recorded by the pioneers of BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which included artists such as Delia Derbyshire,[33] on his own label, Rephlex Records.
Aphex Twin has said, "I don't really like rock & roll." Despite this, he has mentioned being a fan of Led Zeppelin, citing them as a source of "great breakbeats", as well as Pink Floyd for their psychedelic music.
Many songs include sounds from and references to the ZX Spectrum. For instance, "Carn Marth" from Richard D. James Album includes the tape-loading noise of the game Sabre Wulf.
Way to go, dill-derpRichard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known by his stage name Aphex Twin, is an Irish electronic musician and composer. He founded the record label Rephlex Records in 1991 with Grant Wilson-Claridge. He has been described by The Guardian as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music".[1]
