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EpicCheetahTrax reviews more aphex
 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-09 06:01 [#02505123]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



today was a day i declared for one purpose: spoil myself
rotten. post on forums. eat ice cream. drive around. torrent
the cheetah ep...

i logged into what.cd to torrent the cheetah EP, and it
curtly informed me that two of my torrents had been deleted
due to inactivity. it would seem the people prefer aphex
over nevenen, and who am i to argue? torrented.

there's what constitues a pre-listen: shitty PC multimedia
speakers, half-listening, half-reacting to half-wit
half-half-reactions in the cheetah EP thread, then a tangent
into the mechanics of dog-bopping chirality. gruetoof the
mp3s to my fone.

the set and setting continues with a long drive listening to
crystal method, buying a coffee at a cumby, and a pack of
savers, eating them one by one by one. throwing the
watermelon ones promptly out the window. there were four in
the pack; this may have negatively influenced my review.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-09 06:11 [#02505124]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



i roll up to an intersection and think: yes, here's our
synchronization pulse. i flick through the playlist and wait
for the green arrow. start the EP just as it turns green.
later, as the album ended, i was at the exact same
intersection, waiting for the exact same green arrow. ending
as it goes green. "oh, that's cute," i thought.

how? as we established in my other thread, music is a
rhythmic programming language to create a desired state of
mind, and the grammar consists of self-organizing structures
arranged to generate specific results at a distance, douglas
adams improbability-drive style.

driving to music is something that i've taken to almost
bruce lee levels, really, and most of this is me. listening
to the voice in my head telling me: yes, right here, drop
the aphex album. that i've half-listened to while posting on
the internet. the math of it is floating around in my
subconscious, and having something like that regurgitate at
the precise moment for something like green-arrow bookends
is a skill i have arduously developed.

however, proper tunes are important to the mechanism
working. that it came out properly means the album itself is
somewhat coherent; listening to it microwaved a bit of
something and the album became conscious inside my
subconscious mind for a very brief moment; yelled out when
it wanted to be played. consequently, on the job of "picking
tracks that go with the other tracks, and flow together" i
give this a 9/10. this completes section one of the review.

p.s. i'm squinting at it and i wonder if it'd play as well
if you sorted the tracks lexically as opposed to just going
by the official playlist. i suspect there's a lot of this in
his albums


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-09 06:59 [#02505125]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



it's not an aphex album without internet arguments; this is
part two of the review.

i spend a goodly amount of time thinking about
what wMw thinks and what SignedUpToLOL thinks but not much time thinking
about what RussellDust thinks about afex's thingks, because
he doesn't want to know how his favorite music is made, and
thus avoids thinking entirely (leaving me with scant thought
to think about, which means no writing about writing
either...). elusive thinks it's fukn surgical.

yes, alright: oh, it sounds so aphex, i just can't word it
with my fumbly wording worders halp. here it is: everything
is detuned slightly flat. like the whole song is melting, or
sinking downwards. it goes with this thing i began noticing
in car ads a decade ago: a mercedes cutting through the
mist. the colors are... what is that? desaturated.
the colors are desaturated. the moody aphex vibe is a grey
and foggy morning with those sort of colors, and i had
reasonably good success getting that sort of sound back when
i did music by just thinking of that, and now how do i do
the things to be like that? but, like bopping dogs, it's
staring into infinity. also, ram the release up to max on
all your envelopes, be very deliberate with reverb, and then
use gating to make all the timing snap like cher's bumhole.

is he a fukn surginal dark lord? well, sure, he's very good
at all the above, but it's nothing mystical. then we combine
wMw with elusive with SiLoL, and here it is: that circkloin
track lets him do these mental mathematical tapestries of
noises but there's absolutely zero funk to it. no humanity.
i think i need to listen to some mouse on mars just to feel
emotion again.

as a topic for internet shitposting, this album gets a 4/10.
we've had these arguments before, but it's nice to clear
some up


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-09 07:24 [#02505126]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



this leads us to the next stage of the review: how aphex-y
is this aphex? well, quite aphex, but more on that now:

SiLoL thinks it's like analogue bubblebath and i agree: yes,
that one track is pretty much an AB melody, but it has more
at the end; it's a bit better. now when i would have put
that on, i can put on this instead. then ZX2 whatever at the
end, yes, bwoon dub finally develops a sense of humor. those
moments when i want to hear bwoon dub, but, no, i'm not that
straight-lipped now. what do i do? ugh... but, no more.

the synth tones? yes, it's like he's doing prophet VS
patches on this little joke synth box of his, and it's not
quite as psychedelic as the VS but the bottom end sounds
better than the VS could ever manage. i like it. i recall
the pg800 or whatever has no filters; i imagine that forces
one to construct a track's harmonics upfront. he's done
this, with a circkloincloth whatever, no funk, but it has
the satisfying beauty of a level of breakout (before the
little ball and paddle get to work and ruin it all).

aphex has spoke of filling holes in his catalogue, a cheetah
is a cat, holes filled: 5/10. replaces various tracks off
AB, drukqs, and analord, but nothing that wasn't present
before. it's kind of hard for him to score a good number in
this CATegory at this stage of iteration


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-09 07:31 [#02505127]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



where does it fit into my personal collection of tracks?
this is the hardest to rate, especially right now. i'm not
overwhelmed. slightly whelmed, sure, but that's about as far
as it goes. the pre-listen on PC multimedia speakers was not
impressive; the car proper listen was better. it's
definitely getting more car time, but a certain sort of car
time. i used to hate the track "drown in the now" by crystal
method, but... why did i hate this track? fuck me, it's
great for driving fast. i don't really ever put on aphex for
those moments hunter s. thompson referred to -- the ones
that "drag the blood to the back of the brain." no, aphex is
more cruising around while stoned. not particularly fast.
half lost in thought. space on my fone is limited and i'm
deleting orphaned dj selek for this one instead. i should
also delete the acoustic computer one. this has more carplay
value than either, but not nearly as much as crystal
method's album "divided by night" and that's as close as i
can get to a number for now. keep trying, richard


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-10-09 12:17 [#02505131]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



i agree with part 2, i think its a nice review


 

offline SignedUpToLOL from Zuckuss fanfiction (United Kingdom) on 2016-10-09 12:50 [#02505133]
Points: 2853 Status: Regular



I appreciate the gift of prompting me to visualise Cher's
bumhole. You can't put a price on that.


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-10-09 17:54 [#02505164]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



i read somewhere that these cheetah stuff are hard to use,
maybe he just couldnt take the 'human' out of that machine.
maybe it doesnt give you the possibility to do so.


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-10-09 17:58 [#02505166]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



maybe its just not your tempo


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-09 21:57 [#02505173]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



so, yes, i realized i nailed it even better than i meant to:
everything is detuned slightly flat

if everything is detuned flat, then it's all in tune, and
nothing is flat, right? there's the trick -- it's a moving
target. what's my ear latching onto? ok, yes, there. now
let's melt that. then it's melted off somewhere; what next?
a thousand little tricks buried in iterating over like that.
half from listening to others' music closely, the other half
just from messing around. half of messing around is
accidental discovery, the other half is "i have it in my
head, now how do i get it into the computer?"

eventually everything tastes like robot tears on a misty
morning. the "acid" sound, i'd almost argue, more than 303
twonks.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-11 03:37 [#02505389]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



sorry, no, it's not off AB, it's SAW 85-92. the
(korbychevsky mix) track is a dead ringer for delphium or
actium or one of those. as flip as i come off about all of
this, though, when i said it was slightly better, i was not
exaggerating


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-10-11 15:46 [#02505393]
Points: 15925 Status: Lurker



"what wMw thinks and what SignedUpToLOL thinks but not much
time thinking
about what RussellDust thinks about afex's thingks, because

he doesn't want to know how his favorite music is made, and

thus avoids thinking entirely (leaving me with scant thought

to think about, which means no writing about writing ..."

Sorry, what?


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-11 17:37 [#02505394]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular | Followup to RussellDust: #02505116



I don't want to know about how the art my favorite
artists
make.
--RusselDust, Cheetah EP thread

i do suppose that's a grammatical trainwreck and i could
have misparsed your intent.


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-10-11 18:03 [#02505396]
Points: 15925 Status: Lurker | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02505394



Problem is I don't put much care into my posts, or activity
here. I can't even be bothered checking the thread you're
talking about.

I never double check for grammar or spelling either.

I believe in making the most out of very little, when it
comes to this art I mention. Often extensive focus on
equipment steers us off course, and beyond the actual point.
I know how most of the music I love is made, it's usually
not very difficult to work out. When it comes to ae or
Aphex, there can be an interesting element as to working out
how a certain sound was managed, what gear was used, but
that's about it. The gear isn't that important. I know some
very knowledgeable gear heads with tons of tools who
unfortunately seriously lack creativity, dare I say talent.

I guess I forget you can also be sarcastic, so I won't
mention the bit about thinking.



 

offline RussellDust on 2016-10-11 18:40 [#02505400]
Points: 15925 Status: Lurker



There's always something interesting to note about
technique, I'm not trying to be a spoilsport here.

I think you understand me perfectly, and I don't feel the
need to go on about this, so I'll just mention that when we
read a great book, we know how It was written, or more
precisely we know what tools were used. It's the creativity
that takes center stage. When I hear a great melody, hook,
or beat, I'm pretty aware of the process (in general) that
goes through in order to create it. It's just not what
interests me when I listen to a Prince track, or read a
great story. It's not about the author's typewriter brand.

I do enjoy technical tricks of course. How a machine was
used. But it still all boils down to the brain and
creativity.

Comparing writing to making music is of course possibly
really far fetched. I'm just trying to justify the
grammar-mess you used as a quote to make an overstatement
about me, and more importantly about 'thinking'.



 

offline RussellDust on 2016-10-11 18:46 [#02505401]
Points: 15925 Status: Lurker



I prefer the melody to the material process used to create
the melody, which generally requires fingers and an
instrument, or pen.

If i met an artist I love I'd compliment his work, but not
necessarily how it was made. I would definitely not
compliment his or her tools.

Sorry, I'm bored, possibly confused, generally well meaning.


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-10-11 18:47 [#02505402]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



i couldnt give a shit about how music was made.

gear talk is boring.


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-10-11 19:06 [#02505406]
Points: 15925 Status: Lurker



I love that this is in connection to the cheetah ep. He's
not exactly keeping his tools to himself. Syro's artwork
came with a list for fuck's sake. I think it's possible his
intentions for doing so are lost to some people.


 

offline umbroman3 from United Kingdom on 2016-10-11 19:33 [#02505409]
Points: 6096 Status: Regular | Followup to RussellDust: #02505406



it's kind of a pointless list because it lists nearly every
piece of gear ever made


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-10-11 20:17 [#02505411]
Points: 15925 Status: Lurker | Followup to umbroman3: #02505409



Actually no it isn't, and no it isn't.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-12 17:14 [#02505457]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



i was just having a goof with that anywaya, because i was
nicking bits from the cheetah proper thread to reply to, and
yours was mixed in with what i was grabbing...

i guess i was trying to make a point about state of mind. my
attitude has always been towards painting a mood or a vibe.
this manifests in technical ways, but it's more just...
write, playback, is this what feeling/mood i wanted? can i
make it moreso? rinse the flangers and repeat until returns
diminish


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-13 09:35 [#02505568]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



so, yes, in this track -- ~here~ -- i've thrown
the desaturated sound under the bus and gone supersaturated.
like a blinding stock image of sunflowers under a blue sky.
i wasn't trying to be contrarian, i was just trying to make
a sunny track because i wasn't feeling moody. cheer up, acid
lords


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-13 09:43 [#02505569]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



this isn't really a review. it started off as a parody of a
review, sorta formatted like a review. then peter
reviewyneux. it is a fragment of the end of the other thread
about the thing -- it got me thinking, you know? like...
yeah, that's a good point, but... and, until i argue it all
out and type it up, it's a lot more nebulous and circular.
so, ground floor, i've sat down and worked my own opinions
out a bit more thoroughly.

the replies help just as much. people arguing with me, or
misunderstanding in a funny way. then i am having to format
my nonsense in reply to their nonsense, i suppose, and this
begins to box in some semblance of an understanding. and a
sort of pressure on my bullshit that's akin to natural
selection. like i said to someone today, "what i say is bad
enough; you don't want to know what i throw out."

i felt like i should write this in case kettel minge storms
in here and demands to know who, exactly, do i think i am,
writing this and expecting it to be red


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-13 10:13 [#02505572]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



then snow is not sunny and my metaphor has collapsed. desaturated,
supersaturated? that's all i know about the instagram
filters they use on acura commercials. i figure the answer
is "that moody RDJ feel" is really how RDJ feels, possibly
when he's hiding away inside some 80s synth, or possibly
just in general.

then you lot are so into aphex that it comes to be like
recognizing someone's voice. how do you do that? it's
complexicated, but it's not just voice, but accent, the way
they say words... irony is, i don't have a particulary firm
idea of what his real voice sounds like...

so, yes, you're feeling someone else's feelings, and you've
spent so much time feeling them that it's immediately
distinct from all the other feelings you feel from other
someones. now you're asking: what's this feeling that i'm
feeling, and what synthesizer will make me this feel...y?

obviously, it's the prophet vs


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-13 10:32 [#02505573]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular | Followup to SignedUpToLOL: #02505133



I appreciate the gift of prompting me to visualise Cher's
bumhole. You can't put a price on that.


i got to that part of the sentence: "to make all the timing
snap like..." and then it just kinda showed up. cher's
bumhole? sure, alright, moving on.

later, i was puzzling over it. i can't even remember the
last time i thought of cher. usually, i can figure out where
these things came from, somewhat... but, no, it's like i
handed off my brain's microphone to the studio audience for
a moment. i decided: something in me has landed on this as
the resonant frequency of someone's funny bone. i wonder
who?


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-13 10:49 [#02505574]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



to clarify -- or muddle it further

"make all the timing snap like cher's bumhole" -- cher's
bumhole
is drastically different from the usual sort of
things i'd pick for that spot.

thinking about it, i could tell it was culled from stuff
i've read here. i don't use the word bumhole very often;
people here do. cher? people who know about cher are
typically a little older than me. obviously european... belb
would say bumhole....

so my conclusion was that i'd bodged up a joke for someone
in particular, or a general archetype of sorts on this
board.

then someone's to lol dropped in to say, "yeah, out of all
this stuff, this thing here, it's beautiful." then he's
gone. left the thread. so, yes, bumhole is a belb word, but
signeduptolol is stranded in london or something and he's on
here enough to recognize a belb word and

i am delighted that someone reacted in that manner.


 

offline SignedUpToLOL from Zuckuss fanfiction (United Kingdom) on 2016-10-13 12:45 [#02505575]
Points: 2853 Status: Regular



It's funny because even though I was born in London (albeit
the Bowie-belt of the Beckenham hinterland), and have lived
here most of my life, I do feel stranded here, like I
can't get away. And I have tried to get away, numerous
times.

I am not sure what magazine it is here, it's like National
Enquirer but called something like Now! or Take a Break or
Take a Shit but the front page currently carries the
legend "Dying Cher turned me Gay"



 

offline SignedUpToLOL from Zuckuss fanfiction (United Kingdom) on 2016-10-13 12:52 [#02505576]
Points: 2853 Status: Regular



Looking it up it is actually the National Enquirer UK, so I
guess it's almost exactly like the National Enquirer,
and not like Take a Shit, at all.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-13 15:47 [#02505580]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



you've tried to get away from it your whole life, but Take A
Shit magazine has still immanentized cher's bumhole into a
direct portal to your subconscious mind. the word shit comes
from the german scheiss, to separate. what do i want to
keep, and what do i want to flush? snappy envelopes allow
for crisp and responsive decision making


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-10-13 16:32 [#02505581]
Points: 15925 Status: Lurker | Followup to SignedUpToLOL: #02505575



A visit to see old RD would be fun......ONE DAY!!!


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-10-13 16:41 [#02505582]
Points: 30733 Status: Lurker



Extraordinary


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-13 22:38 [#02505616]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



I'm the king of the JUNGLE
aint no girl here with a safe bumhole
and when it comes to the boys
I'm no homophobia-ist
I rent their bums to some close friends
who just happen to be nonces-es.

I read they need my vibrancy in the UK
Go as a student but then I over stay

--SignedUpToLOL in a belb rap battle thread ~
cite

elaboration: in the car, i said: googaggling
site:xltronic.com bumhole belb will turn up something. i
just know it. when i get back, i should googagglego on this
query and find out what!

tallying up: i decided bumhole was a belb sort of word,
here's signeduptolol using it in a belb rap battle thread,
and also mentioning the UK trapping him like a fly in
amber.

this arose from cher's bumhole. cher's bumhole? that sticks
out like a trombone sneeze. everything else in the post makes
sense, more or less, but...

then in trying to suss out why i'd done that, where it came
from, etc. it starts to feel like a bit of a machine. but i
don't have all the variables... so, i reach these points
that i absolutely love. i know googling xlt's archives for
"bumhole belb" will deliver something dope, trippy, etc. but
i have absolutely no idea what it will be until i actually
google it...

i vaguely remember that thread, but i still can't say if
that's where it all came from. it's just likely.

this aphex twin EP review is getting rather long. needs
snappier envelopes. careful control of information


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-13 22:57 [#02505618]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



this sort of absurd reverse-engineering of words and reality
is something i've always done. it was a hobby. stuff to
think about while riding the subway. idle amusement. somehow
it's turned into something with a lot of practical
application, so i put a bit more serious effort into it.
disciplined and structued as opposed to idle tinkering. a
bit later, there was a moment: how i am flying through air?
i think i was just fired out of a canon. tacobel's canon...
no, back! back, molynuex!

it's a subtle thing: oh, yes, that's a belb word. i'm
certain. the phrase still confuses me, but yes, my brain
assures me it's a belb word. i'm not provided with a reason;
i have to work that out myself. being able to trust myself
with that sort of unexplained certainty is one part. the
other part is becoming so familar with my own paths of
thought that i can trust myself with that sort of
unexplained certainty. eventually you start to say: i've
seen this sort of unexplained certainty many times before,
and i suspect it constitutes a pattern. after you work the
pattern out, you spot it whenever it runs by your mental
assembly line... that's where i am now. i spot it, i chase
after it to see where it's going. after enough of this i'll
begin to spot patterns in that, and achieve what the buddha
referred to as peter molyneux


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-13 23:02 [#02505619]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular | Followup to RussellDust: #02505400



Comparing writing to making music is of course possibly
really far fetched. I'm just trying to justify the
grammar-mess you used as a quote to make an overstatement
about me, and more importantly about 'thinking'.


yes, you were part of the thing where i have two serious
points and then a third mock point for a giggle. this guy
has this interesting point, this other guy has this other
interesting point, and russeldust prefers not to make
points.

writing, though, like music, is a thing where your style is
nothing more than thousands of bits of other peoples' style
collaged together. the individual voice arises in personal
preference. cher's bunghole vs. peter molyneux


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-10-13 23:09 [#02505620]
Points: 24398 Status: Regular



in conclusion, i give this EP a 7/10 overall.


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-10-14 11:19 [#02505635]
Points: 15925 Status: Lurker | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02505619



Yes all people are influenced. I like to think bits get
added though, if you're lucky, if you know what I mean!


 


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