My final post for a while, as I'm off on my travels shortly and will be off-line until at least the weekend of 30th October. It'll do me good, I reckon.
ANALORD 10
I've been listening to some MP3's that purport to be Aphex Twin's "Analord 10". I've got "Track 1" (5m57s), a live version of same (6m17s) and part of "Track 2", which cuts out suddenly at 2m13s. Don't ask me where I got them. They might be authentic, if so there's been a massive betrayal somewhere down the line. They sound pretty good, in the same way that Ceephax Acid Crew sound pretty good. It's minimal, driving Acid Tekno. Track 2 has maybe a little more 'character' than track 1. I'm not prepared to post up any of these tracks here, cos they might be for real and I don't want to piss on anyone's bonfire. I believe in Rephlex and I know that some of their people occasionally read this blog (in fact I had a nice e-mail exchange with Ed DMX just this weekend) and I'd rather they viewed me as a friendly supporter. I know I've uploaded a couple MP3's from the Rephlex catalogue in the past, but that's more to encourage people to go out and buy the stuff. I can't think of any way that Rephlex would profit from me posting these particular tracks.
GUTTERBREAKZ ACID
So rather than giving away someone else's music for free, I'm gonna give away some of my own. Not that there's much sacrifice there, as my music isn't worth the price of the DAT tapes it's stored on. I have zero commercial profile. Whether that's due to lack of ambition or lack of talent, you can decide for yourselves.
Below are four tracks recorded during the year of our lord 1995, when I was really into doing minimal, driving Acid Tekno. Nearest comparison is probably with some of the early Kosmic Kommando/Universal Indicator stuff. If I'd made these tracks a couple of years earlier, maybe they would've been releasable. But things were moving so fast back then, that by '95 the level of production/sophistication had already moved on rather dramatically. It was the era of Autechre, Neo Detroit, Drum'n'Bass etc.
Although I consider the sampler to be my primary instrument of expression, that period was the only time when I was working exclusively with analogue synths. I was earning good money at the time and could afford to buy myself some of those fabled Roland machines that I'd lusted after for so long - the TR-808 drum machine, TB-303 acid bassline, Juno 60, SH-09 etc - and indulge my passion for pure analogue composition. Later, when I fell on harder times, I ended up selling them all again. The 808 went to Portishead's Adrian Utley. I don't follow his career, but if anyone's got any of his stuff that sounds like it's got 808 beats on it, chances are that's my old baby!
I may have played some of these tunes to my friends at the time, but this was essentially music made by One for an audience of One. I was locked into a self-sustaining feedback loop of expression/appreciation that was oblivious to all external possibilities. Actually, a couple of tracks from that time did end up on an underground compilation from a little Yorkshire-based cassette label called "Antenna", whom I got to know via an advert they placed in one of the classified sections. It was run by this guy called Adrian, who as far as I can remember was the only person who ever showed any interest in my Acid stuff.
I think these tracks probably sound better now then they did in 1995. Then again, maybe they just sound like shit. Judge for yourself. All I can say in their defense is that they were all made with the best intentions and come from the bottom of my heart.
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See you all in November!
