"heres a load more completed modular trax... what a fucking racket"
November 10, 2014 6:24 AM   Subscribe

Over the past several months, Dave Noyze (né Dave Burraston) has been interviewing Aphex Twin. He's finally put the exchanges together as a "SYROBONKERS" interview. Part 1 was published on November 3, and Part 2 was published today. Both interviews were accompanied by a number of previously unreleased pieces of music, including a 21-track playlist of unheard songs made using Buchla and Serge modular synthesizers.
posted by Going To Maine (16 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Whoa. This evening's been booked, now.
posted by ardgedee at 6:47 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Is this the future of music journalism? Vast slabs of unedited chat log bolstered by offcuts of random jottings from a DAW's scratchpad?

Not that I mind in the slightest, but I'm getting ever closer to death and increasingly grateful for stuff where someone has put in a bit of editorial elbow-grease to ease my tired synapses. Perhaps this is the point where I sign off on my digital native status and collapse happily into grumpy old farthood.

You kids have fun, now. Don't mind old Devonian with his piles of yellowing NMEs and 'MP3 collection'.
posted by Devonian at 7:03 AM on November 10, 2014 [5 favorites]


I can't disagree more, Devonian. I haven't read part 2 yet, but part 1 was the best musician interview I've ever read. I actually read it twice so I could luxuriate in Mr. AFX's enthusiastic brain outpourings. (It probably also helps that I at least partly understand the gear speak.) I think it's a great argument for more interviews being conducted by friends.
posted by naju at 7:52 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


This is great, thanks for posting. The interview itself is good but the sprinkles of unreleased stuff throughout are really interesting. Also, I strongly identify with "This is two minutes of me fucking around on a Quadraverb."
posted by rubadub at 8:08 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


Oh, I really enjoyed part 1 (I'm the NASCOM generation, I've owned some of that stuff in the past, even been on the beta-test list for something he mentioned, so big nostalgia kicks and big gear nerd joy in general) but the format and lack of any editing was really, really hard work for me. But then, I'm an editor and my eyes are borked, so those buttons are easy to push.

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted this is out here instead of not being out here.
posted by Devonian at 8:40 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


LOL:
dave: ok, so finally don’t you feel a bit guilty about pretending to be richard for this interview!?

rich: nah, rich asks me or couple of his other friends to do most of his press for him , don’t think he did any this time around!
i’ve done several email interviews for him in the past, so im used to it, he always says to say whatever the fuck you like and not even sure if he reads them, he usually gives me some good freebies, I got copy 02 of the Syro limited edition this time, which should be worth a few quid!
laters!
posted by Theta States at 9:01 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Nice bit of 9/11 trutherism in there.
posted by empath at 10:02 AM on November 10, 2014


Nice bit of 9/11 trutherism in there.

There's also a fair amount of "Aphex Twin" trutherism so it's not entirely clear when he's being fully serious or just messing around. Either way, great interview.

Favorite bit:

"tell me a bit about your experiences with krzysztof penderecki

rich: Last time i saw him , we all got quite bloody drunk...the rest is a blur."

Now there's a buddy comedy I would pay to see.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 10:08 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Nice bit of 9/11 trutherism in there.

From his previous Q magazine interview, I get the impression that he seeks out intricate conspiracies and chooses to live in a world where they're all valid, even if he doesn't strictly speaking think they're true. It's an interesting perspective, at least.

"When you follow stuff on the internet about Illuminati, New World Order, aliens, even if none of it's true, it's just a thousand times better than any science fiction film that's ever been written," he said. "You can't only believe things which can be proven. It's boring. Loads of things are unproven, but it doesn't stop you believing them."

Personally I'd love for him to talk more about it. Nothing I've read in the 9/11 truthersphere has been even remotely convincing, and it's all been debunked as far as I can tell. But I'm game to let Richard try his best!
posted by naju at 10:19 AM on November 10, 2014


This is the most amazing interview with any musician I've ever read. I love the informality of it, the un-editedness of it. It feels like what it is, a sprawling, informal conversation between two friends. It's the peak behind an emerald city curtain at the man behind the demigod.

I'm surprised that he says everything on the new album is dumped straight into two tracks, from upwards of 64 channels. That he doesn't massage everything precisely on a computer is bonkers in it's own right.
posted by Catblack at 1:20 PM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


So many audio gems here, this makes me want to cry it's so beautiful
posted by naju at 1:41 PM on November 10, 2014


I'm surprised that he says everything on the new album is dumped straight into two tracks, from upwards of 64 channels. That he doesn't massage everything precisely on a computer is bonkers in it's own right.

Not necessarily to suggest that he doesn't do any edits or downmixes or recording to sampler or whathaveyou, but as well as being an incredible musician, he is also an incredible self-mythologizer and dissembler. In this interview alone he makes bizarre claims about not having any kids, while also talking about what his kids have been up with his friend who is interviewing him, along with who knows how many outright lies and half truths.

It`s an interesting trick, really - it gives him free reign to say whatever the hell he wants while remaining more or less as hidden from public view as if he had done no interviews or press at all.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 1:48 PM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


This interview really seems different though. When he's having a go, you can pretty much tell. Most of it is straight and untricksy, for the first time he's being more or less himself, I'm really convinced.

I can understand the decision to not multitrack everything to death, too, when you're working with this much complicated hardware. Just setting that all up seems like it would take days, when all you really want to do is get down to the creating. Limitations are often fruitful, too. Syro sounds like it's not super microedited on a track-by-track level, either - it sounds to me like live-ish sequencer fun.
posted by naju at 1:50 PM on November 10, 2014


How about people who store music in a stupid sound cloud? ha what a joke, like leaving all your records around someones house you never met and expecting them to be there still when you get back, :)

lol
posted by a lungful of dragon at 2:54 AM on November 11, 2014


is there anyone alive u aint worked with who u really want too? is there anyone dead u aint worked with who u really want too (would require time/matter/interdimensional transportation bizzo)?

rich: nice q, would love to do a track with florian schneider, gerald donald, he's got 2 first names like me, derrick may!,stockhausen

I've been laughing about this answer for 2 days straight. And yeah I'm in the 'this is possibly the best artist interview of all time' camp. It was cool when Autechre did the WATMM interview for a couple days, but only a friend is going to have that inside track knowledge to prod and get the gems out. I'm going to be revisiting this interview for years to come.
posted by mike_bling at 11:27 AM on November 11, 2014


I suspect it's out of RDJ's control, but that reissue of SAW2 is shit. It needs to be remastered from the tapes (NOT JUST THE CD PRESSED TO VINYL YOU COCKS) and reissued with the complete track listing. For fuck's sake it's probably the best record of all time and has no decent vinyl release.
posted by mike_bling at 12:01 PM on November 11, 2014


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