Aphex Twin released his Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt2 EP via Warp Records today while also making the new music available for streaming via Spotify. In addition, Richard D. James kicked off a new Soundcloud account yesterday posting an alternate mix of the EP’s lead track “Diskhat ALL Prepared1mixed“–the “…[snr2mix]” embedded above.
In an excellent Pitchfork interview with Philip Sherburne from late last year, James informed us that he had been working on a bunch of “electro-mechanical stuff with drum robots.” He continued, “I’ve got four MIDI pipe organs and a Disklavier controlled piano and computer-controlled percussion.” With none of that material making its way onto his 2014 LP Syro (Warp), the musician maintained that he really liked this new direction he’d been working in, even preferring it to the approach used for his most recent record. Allowing that Syro might be “more pleasurable to listen to,” James added:
“…there’s no next-level beats on there. I’ve kept it like that on purpose. All the other stuff, which is kind of uncategorizable, is waiting to be fitted into another folder somewhere.”
Well, it looks like that “somewhere” is Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments’ Pt2. While not one to be easily outdone by his competitors in the world of electronic music, and as an artist who has often been a vanguard in the field, James acknowledges that “electro-mechanical” techniques are not quite novel. “I was reading about one of the Autechre guys, and someone had said to him, “Have you done anything with MIDI robots?” and he was like, “Every cunt’s doing that now.” But, the musician goes on to say that these MIDI controlled robots are “better than a synth,” explaining:
“…if you’ve got a stick hitting a drum and you’re programming it on a computer, it’s so much more interesting than a sample playing back…it’s real, it’s something in the air, that’s the magical ingredient–when something moves through the air, it’s automatically going to sound more interesting.”
You can check out the rest of the Aphex Twin interview here, and while you’re at it, give Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments’ Pt2 a spin via this Spotify embed…
