Read Online Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II by Marc Weidenbaum - Free Book Online
Authors: Marc Weidenbaum
Ads: Link
of the Rainbow school of conspiracy mongering. It is the inevitable rumor of intended simultaneity. The root conspiracy for this sort of thing is the idea that the album
The Dark Side of the Moon
by Pink Floyd was recorded with the intention that it be played along with an otherwise silent screening of the film
The Wizard of Oz
—that the incidents in the music and the film appear as a series of eerie—nay, consensual, intended, programmatic—alignments. Likewise, it has been proposed that
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
on CD is intended for both sides to be played at the same time, that the track breaks align, and that parallels are self-evident, each side enhancing the other, a jigsaw puzzle with just two very long complementarily individuated pieces. It seems a bit grassy knoll, but every intentionally shadowy corner of culture—especially those that tease at references to hallucinations, alternate worlds, dark forces—will have its truther movement. In any case, playing the music against itself is recommended, if only to witness how the combined audio does not seem to increase the density of what is heard.
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
is background music, even to itself.
Howie Klein was president of Reprise at the time of Aphex Twin’s signing. On the phone from Los Angeles, he joked that he was initially brought on by Seymour Stein to deflect the antipathy of senior management: “He wanted me to take that pressure, so he could go to London and sign more bands.” Like Stein, Klein gave the credit for Aphex Twin signing with Sire definitely to Morley, and he talked about the matter of a company like Warner Bros aligning with someone so experimental. It was a challenge to the sales staff, but the challenge ended there. “To the company overall, an artist like Aphex Twin has another role besides just numbers, and that is: making the company look good, and attracting other artists. Seymour didn’t sign them for that. Seymour signed them because he heard their music, believed they could be just as big as Depeche Mode and Talking Heads. So that was definitely the reason they got signed. However, there is also the fact that having a band that’s respected by other musicians and looked up to by other musicians is a really good thing for a label for a lot of reasons.”
The record industry was in a period of transition at the time of
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
’s release. Consolidation was under way. Grunge rock had been running its course, and electronic acts were beginning to be seen as the next potential big thing. Less than a year after
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
, Moby would debut on Elektra with
Everything Is Wrong
. The label would also provide a home to the UK act The Prodigy. Despite the industry enthusiasm, few of these electronic acts caught on in a manner that aligned with the finances of major labels. Speaking of the EDM genre’s arrival some two decades after
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
, Morley said, “I think you really felt like you were part of this movement. This is the future of music. I just didn’t think it was going to take until 2013.”
The month after the Aphex Twin album was released, Kurt Cobain of the grunge band Nirvana killed himself. Cobain’s death was in part read as a sign that music welcomed as a respite from the excesses of rock would perhaps inevitably itself succumb to those same excesses. Morley told me a story about Aphex Twin having been intended to appear on the cover of a major British music magazine and the slot being cancelled to make room for Cobain’s obituary. While Warp was demolished, in her words, Aphex Twin was if anything relieved to keep stardom at arm’s length: “I just remember him being very weirdly happy that he was not going to be on the cover, in a twisted weird way.”
Synesthetic Codex
Anonymity takes many forms. Silence is one, confusion another. It is almost impossible to talk about
Selected Ambient Works Volume
The Dark Side of the Moon
by Pink Floyd was recorded with the intention that it be played along with an otherwise silent screening of the film
The Wizard of Oz
—that the incidents in the music and the film appear as a series of eerie—nay, consensual, intended, programmatic—alignments. Likewise, it has been proposed that
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
on CD is intended for both sides to be played at the same time, that the track breaks align, and that parallels are self-evident, each side enhancing the other, a jigsaw puzzle with just two very long complementarily individuated pieces. It seems a bit grassy knoll, but every intentionally shadowy corner of culture—especially those that tease at references to hallucinations, alternate worlds, dark forces—will have its truther movement. In any case, playing the music against itself is recommended, if only to witness how the combined audio does not seem to increase the density of what is heard.
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
is background music, even to itself.
Howie Klein was president of Reprise at the time of Aphex Twin’s signing. On the phone from Los Angeles, he joked that he was initially brought on by Seymour Stein to deflect the antipathy of senior management: “He wanted me to take that pressure, so he could go to London and sign more bands.” Like Stein, Klein gave the credit for Aphex Twin signing with Sire definitely to Morley, and he talked about the matter of a company like Warner Bros aligning with someone so experimental. It was a challenge to the sales staff, but the challenge ended there. “To the company overall, an artist like Aphex Twin has another role besides just numbers, and that is: making the company look good, and attracting other artists. Seymour didn’t sign them for that. Seymour signed them because he heard their music, believed they could be just as big as Depeche Mode and Talking Heads. So that was definitely the reason they got signed. However, there is also the fact that having a band that’s respected by other musicians and looked up to by other musicians is a really good thing for a label for a lot of reasons.”
The record industry was in a period of transition at the time of
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
’s release. Consolidation was under way. Grunge rock had been running its course, and electronic acts were beginning to be seen as the next potential big thing. Less than a year after
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
, Moby would debut on Elektra with
Everything Is Wrong
. The label would also provide a home to the UK act The Prodigy. Despite the industry enthusiasm, few of these electronic acts caught on in a manner that aligned with the finances of major labels. Speaking of the EDM genre’s arrival some two decades after
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
, Morley said, “I think you really felt like you were part of this movement. This is the future of music. I just didn’t think it was going to take until 2013.”
The month after the Aphex Twin album was released, Kurt Cobain of the grunge band Nirvana killed himself. Cobain’s death was in part read as a sign that music welcomed as a respite from the excesses of rock would perhaps inevitably itself succumb to those same excesses. Morley told me a story about Aphex Twin having been intended to appear on the cover of a major British music magazine and the slot being cancelled to make room for Cobain’s obituary. While Warp was demolished, in her words, Aphex Twin was if anything relieved to keep stardom at arm’s length: “I just remember him being very weirdly happy that he was not going to be on the cover, in a twisted weird way.”
Synesthetic Codex
Anonymity takes many forms. Silence is one, confusion another. It is almost impossible to talk about
Selected Ambient Works Volume
Similar Books
