Machine Melody
April 14, 2024 5:13 PM Subscribe
Aphex Twin's 2001 double album drukQs is an unusual blend of Richard James' characteristically intricate, intense, and chaotic electronic soundscapes and a smaller set of more subdued neoclassical pieces performed on prepared pianos -- performed, that is, by computer. One piece in particular, Avril 14th, became a breakout hit for James -- at barely two minutes, its gorgeous, evocative rendition of a delicate Satie-esque melody in the clicking, lushly analog tones of a real Disklavier piano struck the perfect balance between human soul and machine precision, and remains to this day his best-known and most-beloved track. Explore the beauty and melancholy of this lovely piece with a wide variety of innovative covers, backstory theories, and a charming deep dive into the music theory behind it by YouTuber ixi.
Thanks, Nelson -- I was posting from my phone and didn't even notice the difference!
posted by Rhaomi at 5:56 PM on April 14
posted by Rhaomi at 5:56 PM on April 14
*Aphex . (Apex would've worked as good name too )
posted by Liquidwolf at 6:11 PM on April 14 [1 favorite]
posted by Liquidwolf at 6:11 PM on April 14 [1 favorite]
Yup, it's Aphex Twin. Auto-correct strikes again!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:36 PM on April 14
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:36 PM on April 14
I tried to cover the "reversed" version of Avril 14th on guitar, it almost worked.
posted by anazgnos at 6:54 PM on April 14
posted by anazgnos at 6:54 PM on April 14
Back when I lived with a piano player, I asked him to play me the sheet music for Avril 14th for my birthday. I still remember that.
There's a CD of Bach recordings that had a foreword from Douglas Adams, who wrote that some of the magic in Bach's music comes from the fact that it all pretty much works no matter what instruments you play it through.
I think to some extent that the same can be said for some of RDJ's more thoughtful pieces, and that will be why it lasts beyond fads over the last few decades of electronic music that come and go with various bits of gear or plugins or what-have-you.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:23 PM on April 14 [1 favorite]
There's a CD of Bach recordings that had a foreword from Douglas Adams, who wrote that some of the magic in Bach's music comes from the fact that it all pretty much works no matter what instruments you play it through.
I think to some extent that the same can be said for some of RDJ's more thoughtful pieces, and that will be why it lasts beyond fads over the last few decades of electronic music that come and go with various bits of gear or plugins or what-have-you.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:23 PM on April 14 [1 favorite]
Great post, as well as a track that is lovely I vaguely knew it had been deemed important in how Richard James' credentials as a capital Great Musician were established, but I clearly didn't know the half of it...
Another cover to add, which in a couple of versions takes it back towards the classical with a human piano performance:
Avril 14th - Murcof x Vanessa Wagner - album version - solo piano version
(From the album Statea (YT playlist) which is worth a further delve if you like the electronic / classical intersection).
(Also, if you love the analogue warmth of the original but find it finishes far too quickly, the album Felt (YT playlist) by Nils Frahm may well be of interest).
posted by protorp at 3:31 AM on April 15 [2 favorites]
Another cover to add, which in a couple of versions takes it back towards the classical with a human piano performance:
Avril 14th - Murcof x Vanessa Wagner - album version - solo piano version
(From the album Statea (YT playlist) which is worth a further delve if you like the electronic / classical intersection).
(Also, if you love the analogue warmth of the original but find it finishes far too quickly, the album Felt (YT playlist) by Nils Frahm may well be of interest).
posted by protorp at 3:31 AM on April 15 [2 favorites]
Best known? Above 'Come To Daddy' and 'Windowlicker'?
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:53 AM on April 15 [4 favorites]
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:53 AM on April 15 [4 favorites]
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Kelly Moran, who did a cover of Avril 14th a few years ago. She was then given access to a disklavier by Yamaha (the programmable piano Aphex Twin used) and wrote a new album on it, Moves in the Field (YouTube playlist). Looking forward to digging through some of these other recommendations in the comments
posted by The River Ivel at 4:22 AM on April 15
posted by The River Ivel at 4:22 AM on April 15
You can slice such a long-time successful and prolific artist's appeal / visibility up in a ton of different ways. 'Come to Daddy' and 'Windowlicker' doubtless do come to mind first for a majority of people reading 'Aphex Twin', but what proportion of that is down to Chris Cunningham's videos vs. the tracks themselves? Not to remotely diminish them, mind, I love that side of the RDJ world as well, both the music and the messaging.
posted by protorp at 4:59 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]
posted by protorp at 4:59 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]
Drukqs is two albums and I for one prefer the prepared piano one. I've never got round to making the playlist of just those tracks but definitely prefer it to the hyper processed fidgety parts of the album... and I'm a massive electronic music fan.
posted by treblekicker at 5:22 AM on April 15
posted by treblekicker at 5:22 AM on April 15
It is interesting that Avril 14th is declared "thoughtful" - probably also SAW2 - while his more technically intricate work, like Windowlicker and pretty much everything off of "The Richard D. James Album" and "I Care Because You Do" is presumably lumped in with the electronic music that "come[s] and go[es]." What it feels like is that the Western classical canon mindset finds something to latch onto with Avril 14th and therefore deems it "better" or "thoughtful", both because it can be represented accurately on sheet music and also because it is not danceable, both keystones of "serious" music. This is a very loud echo of exactly the sort of conservative anti-electronic-music mindset that I encountered while studying composition in college many, many moons ago. "Real music," one graduate student pronounced when I had brought a bunch of ambient tracks to our weekly summit, "is composed, not programmed."
And so it is here. The extraordinarily intricate drum and sample work of, say, Milkman and Girl / Boy Song, was meticulously programmed using tracker software and custom samples of his handmade synthesizers, and is therefore lesser because it isn't easily reduced to chord symbols and sheet music, can't be replicated by timpani and English horns. Youtubers who aim to be authorities on Real Music can't effectively dissect, overcomplicate and assert their authority over those pieces., mostly because there is no established theoretical framework to do so. And frankly I hope there never is.
Anyway, Avril 14th is his most well known track because it is his most accessible piece of music which can be hummed in the shower or plunked out on a piano. It's the closest thing he's done to a pop tune. And that's fine, it's great that people love it! But elevating it to his most "thoughtful" is to completely misunderstand his catalogue.
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:53 AM on April 15 [9 favorites]
And so it is here. The extraordinarily intricate drum and sample work of, say, Milkman and Girl / Boy Song, was meticulously programmed using tracker software and custom samples of his handmade synthesizers, and is therefore lesser because it isn't easily reduced to chord symbols and sheet music, can't be replicated by timpani and English horns. Youtubers who aim to be authorities on Real Music can't effectively dissect, overcomplicate and assert their authority over those pieces., mostly because there is no established theoretical framework to do so. And frankly I hope there never is.
Anyway, Avril 14th is his most well known track because it is his most accessible piece of music which can be hummed in the shower or plunked out on a piano. It's the closest thing he's done to a pop tune. And that's fine, it's great that people love it! But elevating it to his most "thoughtful" is to completely misunderstand his catalogue.
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:53 AM on April 15 [9 favorites]
The linked NYT article has a funny quote
It's a little too bad that this one track gets used so often out of context but hey good for him.
(I mentioned John Cage before, but a lot of James' stuff is also heavily linked to Erik Satie. Not just this piece, as the MeFi post mentions. James' early ambient albums are basically an extended conversation on Satie's idea of furniture music.)
posted by Nelson at 7:46 AM on April 15 [3 favorites]
[Avril 14's] popularity may expose classical music fans to the sometimes overwhelming, occasionally terrorizing music of Aphex TwinI'm sure that's true but I think it's a mistake to try to separate the album into two halves, one acoustic and one electronic. For me Avril 14 is inexorably linked with the tracks that proceed in follow it on the album. I see it all as a massive flex. Mostly the album is James' drum programming and incredible sequencing with difficult rhythms. And then right in the middle is this lyrical piano piece. He's showing off he can do both while also making beautiful music.
It's a little too bad that this one track gets used so often out of context but hey good for him.
(I mentioned John Cage before, but a lot of James' stuff is also heavily linked to Erik Satie. Not just this piece, as the MeFi post mentions. James' early ambient albums are basically an extended conversation on Satie's idea of furniture music.)
posted by Nelson at 7:46 AM on April 15 [3 favorites]
Tangentially related, see this medium post "Generating More of My Favorite Aphex Twin Track" from 2018 about procedurally generating an endless piece of music on the theme of Aphex Twin's aisatsana.
Interesting piece pitched at the level whereby I felt like I understood what was involved.
posted by doozer_ex_machina at 8:42 AM on April 15
Interesting piece pitched at the level whereby I felt like I understood what was involved.
posted by doozer_ex_machina at 8:42 AM on April 15
Thanks for this. All those cover versions really cheered me up. Just gorgeous.
posted by rolandroland at 1:20 PM on April 15
posted by rolandroland at 1:20 PM on April 15
It's also the main sample used in the Lonely Island, Iran So Far. I think the Lonely Island might have gotten sued for not preclearing the sample.
posted by jonp72 at 6:29 PM on April 15
posted by jonp72 at 6:29 PM on April 15
If you read the article Rhaomi linked for us to discuss you'll learn all about the Lonely Island song, how it came about, and how the legal stuff worked out.
posted by Nelson at 7:50 AM on April 16
posted by Nelson at 7:50 AM on April 16
This post introduced me to Erik Satie and John Cage. Sonatas and Interludes blew my mind. Thank you.
posted by Jonny Camaney at 10:33 PM on April 17
posted by Jonny Camaney at 10:33 PM on April 17
How wonderful! May I also suggest some Anton Webern? The Drukqs track Father sounds very much like a Webern piece.
I've been listening to Drukqs seriously again for the first time in 10+ years, there's a lot of excellent musicianship on display. I think the second track Vordhosbn serves as thesis of the whole album, the mix of 20th century classical with programmed electronic music. I'd love to hear this track with the melodic part on a piano (or Disklavier) instead of a synthesizer patch. But np matter the instrument, the overlay of aggressive fast syncopated drum machine triggers with a gentle melodic line is really nice. And what the album is whole about IMHO.
posted by Nelson at 7:03 AM on April 18
I've been listening to Drukqs seriously again for the first time in 10+ years, there's a lot of excellent musicianship on display. I think the second track Vordhosbn serves as thesis of the whole album, the mix of 20th century classical with programmed electronic music. I'd love to hear this track with the melodic part on a piano (or Disklavier) instead of a synthesizer patch. But np matter the instrument, the overlay of aggressive fast syncopated drum machine triggers with a gentle melodic line is really nice. And what the album is whole about IMHO.
posted by Nelson at 7:03 AM on April 18
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If you're interested in this kind of music give John Cage's Music for Prepared Piano a listen. It occupies an interesting place in classical music history.
posted by Nelson at 5:50 PM on April 14 [2 favorites]