Aphex Twin + TR-909 + TB-303 Live

I added this to Aphex Twin's TR-909 entry, thought some of you might enjoy.

Some great, evolving patterns in an acid-ish context:

https://youtu.be/961uG4Ixg_Y?t=96

I discovered Aphex Twin last week with Windowlicker (thanks to Max Cooper), it's awesome!
You can be sure I'll watch for what you sent.

I discovered Aphex Twin last week with Windowlicker (thanks to Max Cooper), it's awesome!
You can be sure I'll watch for what you sent.

I was 21 when Windowlicker can out, I remember going to a classmate's apartment and he pulls out this VHS tape (!!!) and pops it in, and we sat there mesmerized and laughing for the next 5 minutes. Music videos were still a big deal back then, and good camera equipment was still VERY expensive, so seeing something with that kind of production value, so dedicated to just fxcking around and weirding you out... it was great.

Still nowadays it's quite impressing.
I was truly flabbergasted to know that it was made in 99, but it sounds super super modern.
I first heard it with Max Cooper's Boiler Room Performance, and so I thought it was made in the 2010s, because of the french-Canadian voice synthesizer saying "J'aime faire des croquettes au chien".
And yeah, the music video is crazy good too, with funky effects.

That was like 99 right? I think I saw the video for the title track at a psychadelic house party (this was back when someone would ""VJ" putting trippy VHS tapes on at art school parties to set the mood) before hearing the album too. Videos were still a big deal. Really high production value for music videos was only a decade old, and really trippy stuff even less old... and then those videos were only for the lucky grunge bands and Trent Teznor lol. A video like that for this weird, seemingly noncommercial dance music was unheard of. Turned out to be one of the most influential records of the decade, who saw that coming? Remember when MTV was all grainy shots of dudes playing rock instruments in the snow or madonna stripping? The 90s were a sea change in media. It felt like twin peaks opened the door to every weirdo with a dream. 1999 was really the last gasp before all the weirdos were pushed back underground and their ideas were watered down for general consumption. As a young man, even at the end of the century I really thought that sort if festivity was going to see corporate funding and have a shot at mass exposure from then on. Damn was I naive pulling into my 20s.

That was like 99 right?

Yep.

Turned out to be one of the most influential records of the decade, who saw that coming?

I was surprised to hear Daft Punk cite Windowlicker as an inspiration for Discovery.

"The album's most intriguing tracks, accordingly, best embody Daft Punk's original goal of exploring a new musical landscape — one they claim is inspired by none other than Aphex Twin, specifically his undulating 1999 single 'Windowlicker,' which Bangalter called 'neither a purely club track nor a very chilled-out, down-tempo relaxation track.'"

1999 was really the last gasp before all the weirdos were pushed back underground and their ideas were watered down for general consumption.

Yeah, it went this direction instead. Emotionally, I blame everyone who voted for Ralph Nader in a state Gore could have otherwise won, but, intellectually, I doubt even Jello Biafra as prez could have held back the tide of bootcut jean suck for long.

Remember being young enough to seriously consider casting a vote for the guy from dead kennedies? I must've entertained the idea for a good 10 minutes. Different world, different me.

Thinking about window locker took me down this really dark train of thought. Did the 90s spell the doom of the music industry as much as file sharing? Inflated prices on CDs really created the profit marginsthat caused the labels to hand the lunatics (and I mean that in the most complimentary way) the keys to the asylum for awhile...