There's a typically baffling/silly interview with Aphex Twin in this month's Future Music magazine. When asked for a kit list, he says: "Sure. Raveolution 309, the Raven Max, MC-909 limited edition, Quasimidi Van Helden, MAM Freebass 383, Roland DJ-70, E-15, SP-808, Akai S3200, Behringer MX602A and all the Behringer effects that copy other things." When he's asked which software he uses, he says "UPIC by Xenakis puts almost everything else to shame. It's under 1mb and it shits on everyone." UPIC was a '70s experimental French system developed by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, which is based on drawing on a graphics tablet. It's somehow connected with CCMIX, where they talk about it running on a Windows 98 system. UPIC seems to have developed into Iannix, which you can download from this page. He also talks about liking Ableton Live, but preferring LiveSlice for beat editing/stretching. He uses Etymotic Research headphones. My favourite Aphex Twin track ever is the demo version of Windowlicker, where you can hear that the whole track is put together with samples of him singing.
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It's Vemia auction time again (the private eBay for Vintage Synths And Cool Gear). If you can battle through the javascript errors to this page, you'll find a Yamaha CS5 synth, currently at £140: "This was superficially just a nice-sounding early Yamaha analogue monosynth...Then we turned it over and saw the beautifully-done inscription for an Aphex Twin record release... A little more research, and we found that these were the sleeve notes Richard inscribed and then photographed for one of his major releases ever, if not his biggest ever release: Selected Ambient Works Volume II. As well as the main inscription, there is... a false start on the main inscription, in the gulley at the back right of the bottom of the synth, which reads 'Written and prod'. See the big image here. Seems that Richard James originally asked them to sell the synth anonymously because he'd forgotten about the inscription. Other wonderful lots include: this, this, and the inevitable Synton Syrinx, Yamaha CS80, and VCS3.
Late as ever, I've just discovered YouTube (basically Flickr for video). Their slogan is 'Broadcast Yourself', but people mainly seem to be broadcasting cool music videos:
Since the real band plays 'Endtroducing' post, I've been deluged with 'Real band plays...' emails. A lot of people pointed me towards Alarm Will Sound, who do a 22-piece orchestra version of various Aphex Twin numbers (and of course Nina Gordon's acoustic version of 'Straight Outta Compton'). But the strangest things I saw were the video game interpretations. I know it's old news in the US, but I was thoroughly freaked out by the trailer for Video Games Live (stadium-sized orchestral performances of video game soundtracks). And not just because the sound on my laptop is broken so everyone in the clip sounded like a munchkin (particularly Elijah Wood). The 'Dear Friends' concerts are a slightly less fist-pumping orchestral performance of the music from Final Fantasy. But best of all is The Mario Opera, concieved by Johnathan Mann: "Had you ever written an opera before? 'This is my second rock opera. In 2002...I co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in 'The Last Nympho Leprechaun'." (Thanks pL)
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I've been thinking a lot about this crazy new range of Behringer pedals, wondering if it is possible to copyright the look, shape and colour of a product.
