I LOVE DRUKQS+

It came on the back of Windowlicker and people were hoping for a kind of 'more like that, please' thing

Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. Windowlicker felt, conceptually and in some ways technically, like his apex (pun not intended). I was hoping for 12 wildly different "songs", each with a clear through-line at its heart (i.e. an extension of the Windowlicker and CTD EPs, or an update on ICBYD). Instead we got maybe 4-5 overall ideas shuffled around a double album, with many of those ideas being developments or retreads of what he had been doing on previous work: drill'n'bass work outs, or channelling other artists like Satie and John Cage.

I have Analord complete in a Dropbox, ILX mail me for a link as you wish

Was thinking yesterday about differences between electronic music that is “built” vs that which is “composed”— knowing that an insane track like “Full Of Fire” was made by Olaf meticulously working out the modulations bar by bar for days on end, in contrast to Autechre coming up with their foundation and building some amazing sounding generatives to fizz around and about on their own

syro is total jazz-fusion grooves. i am howard moon in the van with the thumb all about it

― massaman gai (front tea for two), Thursday, March 21, 2024 4:01 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

finally a otm post

this reminds me, has anyone heard the new Squarepusher yet? I've listened to a few tracks from it, seems like it's probably really good

No but I went back to give Be Up A Hello a proper listen and man, it crushes

Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. Windowlicker felt, conceptually and in some ways technically, like his apex (pun not intended). I was hoping for 12 wildly different "songs"

Yeah certainly from my point of view, I loved the kind of warped vocals aspect of Windowlicker and it felt like a good direction to be going in, and when it didn't (well, it turns out that some of it did, I just didn't notice), I guess I didn't like it. I didn't comment here when it came out, but it seems I did a few years later once I had made some sense of it.

I LOVE DRUKQS+

I have put together another playlist of Blackbox Life Recorder and the Collapse EP to keep me going on holiday. I have called it "Recent Bits".

Really enjoying Keith's write-ups and the discussion on this thread. I'm currently giving Syro another shot but my thoughts pretty much echo dog latin and fgti. It sounds great and it feels generous what with all the big, steady grooves (which mostly read as electro to me), but the RDJ-ness is really in the details.

Has me thinking about how his very personal sense of melody & harmony is really at the heart of it all...you don't really go to RDJ for sound design, even though he can seemingly bend any piece of gear to his will.

Thanks, Jordan.

Syro is totally his (acid) freestyle album, huh

I have the full analord on a hard drive, downloaded years ago from you send its or whatever else was being used at the time. But usually I just go to youtube to listen to it. I remember being really impressed by it at the time, and sometimes still think this is the best thing he's done.

I was hoping for 12 wildly different "songs", each with a clear through-line at its heart (i.e. an extension of the Windowlicker and CTD EPs, or an update on ICBYD).

Tbf his whole thing was, “This is a dump of old tracks, listen however you want,” etc. I’m not sure how true that actually was… I guess some of them must’ve been old, but they do seem pretty deliberately arranged.

I was revisiting Drukqs, due to this thread, and was surprised by how familiar each of the tracks was to me, just from its opening seconds… I must have listened to the album a lot back in the day.

“This is a dump of old tracks, listen however you want,”

Yeah I don't believe that for a second. Mind you, if it were true, it would be pretty funny.

Also, I know this is a normie opinion, but “Avril 14th” and “Nanou2” are just perfect compositions. The latter in particular still just floors me, it’s so beautiful.

Drukqs, I think I was giving too much credit to bad reviews at the time, I went in thinking this was going to be not so good. Over time I've come to enjoy it, definitely some career highlights in this, though overall it's maybe a bit too much to take in when listening from beginning to end.

Syro, I've come to appreciate more over time but I still can't fully get into it.

The one thing he did in the last 10 years or so that really impressed me is "Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2". Nobody really talks about it much but I really wish he did more stuff like this, he's really good at it.

that's something that's kind of dogged him I think, some of his tracks are just so perfect that his fans can't stop wondering why he doesn't do more like them. maybe people assume because he can write 300 acid house tracks that he could do 300 Avril 14ths if he really wanted to. idk part of me thinks RDJ is embarrassed to admit how hard he works on some of this stuff. every time he's interviewed it's always "oh this is something I cooked up while I was waiting for the dishwasher to finish, I don't even remember it, but maybe *YOU* might like it" and it's the most intricate shit you've ever heard

Haha, yeah, it's myth of the artist stuff—yeah I was just dicking around with with my sequencer for five minutes and out popped Mont St Michel/St Michael's mount. I do think it's a pity lots of artists project the image their stuff just falls out of them like rain falling out the sky, when in actual fact it was years of effort—it's bound to put lots of young people off, who probably just give up, thinking that they just weren't born talented, when things are 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

I also think some artists do this out of insecurity, as if to say "well it's okay if you don't like it, I didn't work very hard on it". but RDJ doesn't really seem like the type to care what the audience thinks.

then on the other hand you've got guys like Max Tundra, who will straight up say stuff like "this one track took 6 months to complete, you better enjoy it"

I also think some artists do this out of insecurity, as if to say "well it's okay if you don't like it, I didn't work very hard on it"

Yeah I guess that's true too.

The Soundcloud dump is quite enlightening in this respect, as there are loads of 'different' versions of existing tracks—slower versions; backwards versions etc. etc. And this would imply he's trying a lot out with tracks and deciding which one he thinks is best for proper release.

y'all are really inspiring me to re-listen to Analords and the SC dump

Something else he said in the Drukqs era: “I’ve done loads of tracks which are really new in style and which don’t sound like anything else but I didn’t want to release those tracks."

Did we ever figure out what those were, lol? It certainly wasn’t Analord, right(?) Maybe the roots of Syro?

Part of the reason I like Analord so much is that its construction is somewhat-transparent. The synths are familiar, how RDJ made them "do that" is apparent; which allows for each moment of innovation and really shine. I don't think of Analord as being something that follows Drukqs tbh, I think of it more as something that follows... Vince Clarke. Like, Erasure's "Chorus". It's wonderful hearing RDJ working within limitations and kinda buffeting up against them.

Interestingly, too, as Analord series progresses, the methodology starts to break down. By the time you get to "Fenix Funk" there isn't even a pretence of it being "all analog" any more

That one was the first to be released, although it's possible the numbers reflect the order in which they were recorded.

Oh interesting! Maybe it was a reverse course, then. The drums on Analord 10 are extremely digitally sampled... but it's conspicuously analog-only on 1-6. iirc around 7 he starts using something that sounds (to my ears, anyway) like a DMX. I think 10 is MPC samples

You made me think that when it came out and was trumpeted as his return to analogue equipment that I didn't bat an eyelid and assumed it was all analogue, but yeah it really does sound quite different to most of the other EPs!

I was listening back to some of the later ones today, and didn't notice so much, but then I wasn't primed. TBH, excluding 10, to my ears, they get a chunk worse at the later end of it, despite there being a few great tracks.

I mean, “define analog” I guess. There’s wavetable stuff in there, and the MC-4 (pictured on the cover of Analords 1-3) spits out analog CV but is a digital sequencer

So do you all say Analord as in "analog" or as in "anal"

the former

maybe people assume because he can write 300 acid house tracks that he could do 300 Avril 14ths if he really wanted to. idk part of me thinks RDJ is embarrassed to admit how hard he works on some of this stuff.

I like this a lot. Something like Flim too, I love the original but the Bad Plus version really made me appreciate the writing, you can't just toss something like that off (or maybe you can once in a great while, but it's an inspired moment).

xp Well, it was the former until you just mentioned it.

Does 'Kladfvgbung Mischk', one of the percussive ambient tracks on Druqks, sound like Sonic Youth's 'Bull In The Heather' to anyone else?

there's maybe something to be said about the IDM crew being careful to write tracks that were *too* pretty, lest they start coming off like Jean-Michel Jarre or something. so the pretty stuff they do release has to be absolutely perfect.

xp haha, I don’t know it by title but I know exactly the track you mean from that description.

I just listened to my "Druqks: Chillers" playlist (all the ambient and piano non-dance tracks) and I maintain it is much easier to listen to like this. A nice highlight was Kesson Dalek, this great little Gothic piano mini-symphony

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5T1VrMYGtIzkbGswl4KZFA?si=e511f8b4d2904280

One of the things about Druqks that I'm not keen on is hearing all the ravey dance tracks broken up by these ambient pieces. Some might hear these wild changes in mood as pallet-cleansing. To me it's an unnecessary momentum killer. I'm rarely in the mood for listening to full-throttle drill'n'bass mayhem AND Satie-esque piano moods at the same time

Similarly, lumping all the bangers together makes for a really coherent and thrilling dance album https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ottxyuqVttiufuAQvygva?si=f240593f2a9e4b47

DJ Food vs Soundcloud dump :

https://archive.org/details/DJFoodMixAphexSoundcloud15021301

A nice highlight was Kesson Dalek, this great little Gothic piano mini-symphony

It's nice that the one named after a killer robot doesn't sound at all like that.

For me, I weirdly like the juxtaposition of the multiple, incongruous styles on Drukqs—I mean I can fully understand separating it out, and I suspect the reason I like it is partly to do with suggestion on the part of the artist, i.e. I wound up liking it simply because he 'says' it's good (simply by virtue of me rating him as an artist to begin with), and so it becomes part of the weird world you wind up stepping into with this record.

One thing that's nice is that the Cornish song titles do have translations, although it's unclear what's correct. Gwely Mernans translates to "Death Bed" and Kesson Dalek to "Harmonious Beginning". "Hy a Scullyas Lyf Adhagrow" I've read as translating to the rather poetic "She Shed a Flood of Tears", which is kind of in tune with Aphex on the whole, i.e this beautiful stuff that's hidden in some form or fashion (in this case, language). That said, I've also seen it translated as "She spilled my drink", so who knows? I expect Cornish isn't all that far removed from Welsh, so perhaps if there are any Welsh language speakers on ILX they can help.

The one thing he did in the last 10 years or so that really impressed me is "Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2". Nobody really talks about it much but I really wish he did more stuff like this, he's really good at it.

I listened to this again today, for only the second time since the day it came out, as it didn't do it for me, or perhaps more to the point, I really wasn't in the mood for something sounding like that, but yeah it's a lot better than I thought it was—I will definitely listen to it some more.

yes I love the sprawl as well, I understand the urge to sort it into similar sounding buckets but the sprawl is part of the fun

No one has mentioned Cheetah either, and there are a couple tracks on there that are closer to my heart than anything on Syro.

This'll explain what happened to the Analord electronic releases:

In 2009 Rephlex Records released digital versions (in the FLAC file format) of the 11 Analord EPs. Each of them (except for Analord 10) had bonus tracks, totalling 81 minutes of new music between them all. Richard later disbanded Rephlex Records, removing the website entirely.

One of the things about Druqks that I'm not keen on is hearing all the ravey dance tracks broken up by these ambient pieces. Some might hear these wild changes in mood as pallet-cleansing. To me it's an unnecessary momentum killer. I'm rarely in the mood for listening to full-throttle drill'n'bass mayhem AND Satie-esque piano moods at the same time

I think this is why I haven't gone back to Druqks much, despite liking most of its songs

Yeah the current rephlex.com is kinda weird

Haha, right enough. It is "Big on the web"!

Vinnie, check out the two playlists I posted above. If anything it's an interesting new way to experience rhe album

Yeah as I mentioned up thread, if he'd dropped an album of just the prepared piano pieces alone that'd probably be up there with some of his best work. I feel the music is somewhat diluted in how its sequenced on Drukqs, but the magic of digital libraries and streaming can easily rectify this concern.

FWIW, despite my critiques above and focus on the downsides of Drukqs and Syro to fit things into the context of his career, I find both to be good albums and each feature multiple career highlight tracks. I prefer Drukqs way more than Syro, too. I just don't find them to be his career peak or zenith by a long shot.

His Soundcloud song dump was a cornucopia of awesome though, further cementing how fruitful RDJ's 90's era cutting room floor tracks were (us fanbois at the time fantasized there was this archive of stuff just as good as his releases, as was hinted by Mike Paradinas and James himself, and for the most part this came true). His "deleted" or "unreleased" albums at the time hinted at this. See the Melodies From Mars album and Caustic Window LP (btw 101 Rainbows off the latter is like a top 5 career RDJ track imho; listen to it immediately if you haven't yet)

I feel I could compile two separate LP length records from the Soundcloud dump that would be better overall, more satisfying and memorable LPs than Syro (or anything else he's dropped since Drukqs), but that's my tastes I guess. I totally suggest comparing the Caustic Window LP with Chosen Lords sometime. Play them back to back for science!