DJ Mujava

Warp is hyping this track, by DJ Mujava from South Africa, a lot. I only listened to it once but this will serve as a bookmark to come back and see if it grows on me.

Aphex Twin primer

Would it be possible to ever post too much Aphex Twin? Probably not. A certain homie expressed some doubts about him so hopefully this will go some way towards winning over the non believers. What the hell am I talking about, Aphex Twin is already one of the most successful cult musicians ever, no one else in modern music has been able to laugh so loud at the paying public than Richard D. James. The following things are true: a swank NYC club paid Aphex big bucks to play a gig and for his entire act he stood on stage and put a microphone in a blender; Aphex was commissioned to do a remix of Nine Inch Nails but never got around to it, so when the record company folks came round he grabbed a cassette he had lying around of kazoos and such, wrote 'Remix' on it and collected his check; he will sell his music to be used for any commercial purpose, except for advertising the British public health care service since they once screwed his parents over.

Well, enough mythologizing. This isn't even a primer, just the most recent AFX tracks I've had in my head. They're on the listenable side all things considered. That image is the cover of I Care Because You Do.

Aphex Twin - Alberto Balsam [I Care Because You Do LP, 1995]

Aphex Twin - Tha [Selected Ambient Works 95-92 LP, 1993]

Mate of the bloke (Luke Vibert)

It’s easy to cast the major players of the 90’s Warp scene by type. There’s Aphex Twin, the merry prankster, also the most insane: the dude lives in the vault of a bank and drives tanks in his parent’s front yard in Cornwall. Squarepusher's the egomaniac Wunderkind: rightly or wrongly, he’s proclaimed himself “the supreme musical genius of my generation.” Then there’s Luke Vibert: the most level-headed of the three, at least in his public manifestations, he’s been chugging along putting out a whole slew of records without calling attention to himself. He’s used a number of different names and dabbled in a few different styles (the disco-heavy Kerrier District alias being my favorite) without ever venturing too far into one sound or another.

Does slow and steady win the race? Well, he’s already outlasted Aphex Twin – although I don’t believe that Aphex has really quit making music for good – and one imagines that when Squarepusher runs off into the woods to go bang on trees with long metal poles, Vibert will still be releasing something with a squiggly synth line and an absurd vocal sample. Here’s to you, Luke, you model of consistency!

Luke Vibert - Brain Rave [Chicago, Detroit, Redruth, 2007]

Kerrier District - Illogan [Kerrier District, 2004]

ps. nice hiero sticker