5 ms·

The depth of knowledge of Richard James surprises me every time I come across articles about him. No wonder Aphex Twin's music stands out the way it does. He's

by BLKNSLVR 10mo ago

The depth of knowledge of Richard James surprises me every time I come across articles about him. No wonder Aphex Twin's music stands out the way it does. He's always a fair way ahead of the curve.

milleramp 10mo ago
Yes, not to long ago I was looking into the Easter egg in Windowlicker, amazing. https://eeggs.com/items/34824.html https://eeggs.com/items/34824.html
- arcanemachiner 10mo ago
  Wow, eeggs.com. Haven't thought about that site in years (maybe even decades).
spacechild1 10mo ago
He is indeed a very technical and nerdy person. For example, he was an early adopter of the SuperCollider audio programming language. Fun trivia: he was trolling the SuperCollider mailing list under the alias "eric hard jams" which is an anagram of Richard [D.] James. Some of his messages were truely horrendous and he got kicked out eventually. He is quite a character...
- Mistletoe 10mo ago
  Can you link to the horrendous messages or summarize them?
  - ideasphere 10mo ago
    “Ooh look, a girl on the sc list. Let’s rape her”
    - 0x1ch 10mo ago
      I assume if this was brought to his attention today, he would denounce anything said. People mature. Boy, if League of Legends chat logs from 2012 ever got out...
  - bondarchuk 10mo ago
    http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n223 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n223 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n224 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n224 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n225 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n225 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n226 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n226 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n227 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n227 (note I am not personally claiming this is RDJ)
- publicdebates 10mo ago
  Was it confirmed that eric hard jams was actually him? How strange it is that we so easily forgive bad behavior from people we love.
  - _alaya 10mo ago
    It’s strange but common. I love the music of Miles Davis and consider him a genius. I also give him a pretty poor review in terms of his behavior as a human being. People are complex.
    - coldtea 10mo ago
      There's also that fact that Miles Davis doesn't get to review our own behavior as human beings. He might not have liked us as his audience either. His behavior is publicized, and ours (whether it is) is not.
  - spacechild1 10mo ago
    It hasn't been confirmed 100% but I remember reading a post by James McCartney (author of SuperCollider) himself, going something like "Shut the fuck up, Richard!". Since they both knew each other personally, I assume that JMC thought that "eric hard jams" was indeed Richard James.
  - mft_ 10mo ago
    It's not in vogue these days, but rather than forgiving, we can compartmentalise and rationalise. Being a bad person in one domain doesn't mean that someone can't generate value in another.
    - Kreutzer 10mo ago
      The genius label we bestow on a select few is often a license to behave badly. I always enjoyed Richard’s music but never quite bought the stories told about him.
    - shimman 10mo ago
      Why are you putting "value" above human decency? Maybe you shouldn't be considered to generate any "value" if you put misery on others, how can any "value" make up for the direct suffering? There are plenty people just the same, with the same capabilities without the quality of being a tarpit of suck.
- brcmthrowaway 10mo ago
  Has anyone used SuperCollider or computer music framework to make anything resembling a pop song? Look at how easily a producer can make a pop song in Ableton https://youtube.com/watch?v=F5CPQ8LU36w https://youtube.com/watch?v=F5CPQ8LU36w
  - bondarchuk 10mo ago
    Yeah BT lol.
  - spacechild1 10mo ago
    SuperCollider would be the wrong tool for the job.
  - _annum 10mo ago
    Why would anyone use SuperCollider or a computer music framework to make something resembling a pop song?
  - bigyabai 10mo ago
    Ableton includes a fairly comprehensive SDK called Max for Live, it's been used in a handful of popular tracks before. Pure algomusic/tracker setups are usually a poor fit for pop music, though. DAWs have indispensable tools for vocal processing that you cannot forego most of the time.
  - topocite 10mo ago
    Ableton is like the modern day guitar. SuperCollider and music programming languages are like the modern day bass clarinet. There isn't much bass clarinet in modern pop music either. Part of what defines pop music is the familiarity of the sound and popular expectation of what music is supposed to be.
  - easyThrowaway 10mo ago
    A. G. Cook and the late SOPHIE used it, so maybe it ended up being used in "brat" somehow? Honestly I think they'd probably just render the audio out and then edit in Live.
- spacechild1 10mo ago
  I should clarify that it hasn't been 100% confirmed that "eric_hard_jams" was really him, but many people on the list thought so, including James McCartney himself: Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 22:20:06 -0600 From: James McCartney <---@---.---> Subject: Re: [ OT ]very low signal to noise ratio . on 1/17/01 9:18 PM, eric_hard_jams at eric_hard_jams@btinternet.com wrote: > >> ok boss. i'm really sorry. back to normal now. much better. >> my apologies. >> > ass licker. > shut the F up already, richard. https://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n226 https://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n226 JMC and RDJ know each personally and hung out together. Here's a picture of the two together: https://www.reddit.com/r/aphextwin/comments/6oheli/screen_rab_from_the_shop/ https://www.reddit.com/r/aphextwin/comments/6oheli/screen_ra...
  - runjake 10mo ago
    It's worth little coming from some random HN guy, but I can confirm eric_hard_jams was Richard D James. We used to hang around similar circles online, and there were a couple meetups. There were a bunch of other Rephlex and Rephlex-adjacent musicians using pseudonyms, as well. Richard was sort of annoying at times, in the way someone on the spectrum can be. A bit of a troll with poor timing, and poor social skills, but a good, kind lad who spent his time doing things completely orthogonal to anyone else and that made him quite interesting. I lost touch with him in around 2000-2001. He kinda went dark in those circles. I don't know what he's up to these days, probably raising a family like me.
    - bondarchuk 10mo ago
      Sure thing, Jake
      - runjake 10mo ago
        Funny useless trivia: Jake is not my actual name. It's from a movie. :-P
    - spacechild1 10mo ago
      That's interesting! There is also this email from Tue, 16 Jan 2001 19:02:12 +0000 in https://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n225 https://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n225 where he is clearly talking as Aphex Twin. He might be just an impersonator, but given that he speaks directly to James and James calls him Richard has me pretty convinced that it's actually him.
- MomsAVoxell 10mo ago
  This is probably the best thing I’ve ever read on Hacker News .. seriously, honestly. I mean, wtf, the mailing lists are astonishing if you think about them .. like, how UUCP and mailman and qmail/sendmail used to be all you need to get access to the archives …
  - spacechild1 10mo ago
    The fact that we can still access and search these archives 20-30 years later is really amazing. It gives you a glimpse into a different time period. That's why mailing lists and forums are so important! Fortunately, SuperCollider still has a quite active forum (https://scsynth.org/ https://scsynth.org/). It makes me sad that so much communication has moved to proprietory platforms like FB groups or Discord servers, most of which will be forever lost in time.
tea_cult_1 10mo ago
A different opinion about their music is that it all seems rather ostentatious in an aural sense, and leaves a doubt if some of the praise being heaped on it is 'perfomative'.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
- gilleain 10mo ago
  Uhm. If I understand correctly, you are saying that some people are pretending to like his music because it is over the top and showy rather than actually good or enjoyable? While it is possible these fake enjoyers exist, I'm fairly certain a lot of fans of Mr Twin's work like it in a straightforward sense of most music appreciation. Personally, 'Vordhosbn', 'Windowlicker', 'Rhubarb'... etc are all great tracks. Are there some that I don't get on with? Sure, of course. However I can speak for myself when saying I'm not listening to the music performatively. At least, not much!
  - colordrops 10mo ago
    I'm an example, in fact I've loved his music since the 90s and never played it for friends because I always assumed they wouldn't like it. And I'm definitely not being performative for myself. It was a bit surprising to me that his music became kind of legendary recently.
  - fleroviumna 10mo ago
    [dead]
  - lomase 10mo ago
    Even some AFX fans have the opinion that the stuff on Drukqs is "style over substance".
    - mprev 10mo ago
      To be fair, he was kinda forced to release it following a leak, wasn't he?
isoprophlex 10mo ago
> It’s very simple, but do you want your music to be based on an international standard or on what you think sounds right to you? [...] I’m very glad I trusted my instincts. Listening to that other voice is THE most important thing in creativity, whether you’re an engineer or a musician. To me, RDJs music always stood out as having uncanny, unique melodies and harmonies. As a teenager I fantasized about him being some sort of benevolent alien music shaman, beaming melodies onto our planet. Stuff on SAW II where you can't figure out if you're hearing single notes or mutating chords and everything is near-synaesthetic bliss. The wistful otherness of 'Italic Eyeball'. Whatever 'fingerbib', ICBYD, and things on Melodies from Mars are doing was very formative to my 16 year old brain. It's clear that whatever he does, he channels some unique creative juices.
- Xmd5a 10mo ago
  I knew it
  - lichenwarp 10mo ago
    I just need to post with my username in this thread
- eth0up 10mo ago
  >>>As a teenager I fantasized about him being some sort of benevolent alien music shaman, beaming melodies onto our planet. Fantasized? Facts are facts but I admire your humility. From my phone to Desktop to remote NUCs, his noises pervade them all. And indelibly in my mind. I think there's still a strong case that he ain't human.

The depth of knowledge of Richard James surprises me every time I come across articles about him. No wonder Aphex Twin's music stands out the way it does. He's always a fair way ahead of the curve.

milleramp 10mo ago

Yes, not to long ago I was looking into the Easter egg in Windowlicker, amazing. https://eeggs.com/items/34824.html https://eeggs.com/items/34824.html

arcanemachiner 10mo ago
Wow, eeggs.com. Haven't thought about that site in years (maybe even decades).

spacechild1 10mo ago

He is indeed a very technical and nerdy person. For example, he was an early adopter of the SuperCollider audio programming language. Fun trivia: he was trolling the SuperCollider mailing list under the alias "eric hard jams" which is an anagram of Richard [D.] James. Some of his messages were truely horrendous and he got kicked out eventually. He is quite a character...

Mistletoe 10mo ago
Can you link to the horrendous messages or summarize them?
- ideasphere 10mo ago
  “Ooh look, a girl on the sc list. Let’s rape her”
  - 0x1ch 10mo ago
    I assume if this was brought to his attention today, he would denounce anything said. People mature. Boy, if League of Legends chat logs from 2012 ever got out...
- bondarchuk 10mo ago
  http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n223 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n223 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n224 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n224 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n225 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n225 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n226 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n226 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n227 http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n227 (note I am not personally claiming this is RDJ)
publicdebates 10mo ago
Was it confirmed that eric hard jams was actually him? How strange it is that we so easily forgive bad behavior from people we love.
- _alaya 10mo ago
  It’s strange but common. I love the music of Miles Davis and consider him a genius. I also give him a pretty poor review in terms of his behavior as a human being. People are complex.
  - coldtea 10mo ago
    There's also that fact that Miles Davis doesn't get to review our own behavior as human beings. He might not have liked us as his audience either. His behavior is publicized, and ours (whether it is) is not.
- spacechild1 10mo ago
  It hasn't been confirmed 100% but I remember reading a post by James McCartney (author of SuperCollider) himself, going something like "Shut the fuck up, Richard!". Since they both knew each other personally, I assume that JMC thought that "eric hard jams" was indeed Richard James.
- mft_ 10mo ago
  It's not in vogue these days, but rather than forgiving, we can compartmentalise and rationalise. Being a bad person in one domain doesn't mean that someone can't generate value in another.
  - Kreutzer 10mo ago
    The genius label we bestow on a select few is often a license to behave badly. I always enjoyed Richard’s music but never quite bought the stories told about him.
  - shimman 10mo ago
    Why are you putting "value" above human decency? Maybe you shouldn't be considered to generate any "value" if you put misery on others, how can any "value" make up for the direct suffering? There are plenty people just the same, with the same capabilities without the quality of being a tarpit of suck.
brcmthrowaway 10mo ago
Has anyone used SuperCollider or computer music framework to make anything resembling a pop song? Look at how easily a producer can make a pop song in Ableton https://youtube.com/watch?v=F5CPQ8LU36w https://youtube.com/watch?v=F5CPQ8LU36w
- bondarchuk 10mo ago
  Yeah BT lol.
- spacechild1 10mo ago
  SuperCollider would be the wrong tool for the job.
- _annum 10mo ago
  Why would anyone use SuperCollider or a computer music framework to make something resembling a pop song?
- bigyabai 10mo ago
  Ableton includes a fairly comprehensive SDK called Max for Live, it's been used in a handful of popular tracks before. Pure algomusic/tracker setups are usually a poor fit for pop music, though. DAWs have indispensable tools for vocal processing that you cannot forego most of the time.
- topocite 10mo ago
  Ableton is like the modern day guitar. SuperCollider and music programming languages are like the modern day bass clarinet. There isn't much bass clarinet in modern pop music either. Part of what defines pop music is the familiarity of the sound and popular expectation of what music is supposed to be.
- easyThrowaway 10mo ago
  A. G. Cook and the late SOPHIE used it, so maybe it ended up being used in "brat" somehow? Honestly I think they'd probably just render the audio out and then edit in Live.
spacechild1 10mo ago
I should clarify that it hasn't been 100% confirmed that "eric_hard_jams" was really him, but many people on the list thought so, including James McCartney himself: Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 22:20:06 -0600 From: James McCartney <---@---.---> Subject: Re: [ OT ]very low signal to noise ratio . on 1/17/01 9:18 PM, eric_hard_jams at eric_hard_jams@btinternet.com wrote: > >> ok boss. i'm really sorry. back to normal now. much better. >> my apologies. >> > ass licker. > shut the F up already, richard. https://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n226 https://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n226 JMC and RDJ know each personally and hung out together. Here's a picture of the two together: https://www.reddit.com/r/aphextwin/comments/6oheli/screen_rab_from_the_shop/ https://www.reddit.com/r/aphextwin/comments/6oheli/screen_ra...
- runjake 10mo ago
  It's worth little coming from some random HN guy, but I can confirm eric_hard_jams was Richard D James. We used to hang around similar circles online, and there were a couple meetups. There were a bunch of other Rephlex and Rephlex-adjacent musicians using pseudonyms, as well. Richard was sort of annoying at times, in the way someone on the spectrum can be. A bit of a troll with poor timing, and poor social skills, but a good, kind lad who spent his time doing things completely orthogonal to anyone else and that made him quite interesting. I lost touch with him in around 2000-2001. He kinda went dark in those circles. I don't know what he's up to these days, probably raising a family like me.
  - bondarchuk 10mo ago
    Sure thing, Jake
    - runjake 10mo ago
      Funny useless trivia: Jake is not my actual name. It's from a movie. :-P
  - spacechild1 10mo ago
    That's interesting! There is also this email from Tue, 16 Jan 2001 19:02:12 +0000 in https://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n225 https://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n225 where he is clearly talking as Aphex Twin. He might be just an impersonator, but given that he speaks directly to James and James calls him Richard has me pretty convinced that it's actually him.
MomsAVoxell 10mo ago
This is probably the best thing I’ve ever read on Hacker News .. seriously, honestly. I mean, wtf, the mailing lists are astonishing if you think about them .. like, how UUCP and mailman and qmail/sendmail used to be all you need to get access to the archives …
- spacechild1 10mo ago
  The fact that we can still access and search these archives 20-30 years later is really amazing. It gives you a glimpse into a different time period. That's why mailing lists and forums are so important! Fortunately, SuperCollider still has a quite active forum (https://scsynth.org/ https://scsynth.org/). It makes me sad that so much communication has moved to proprietory platforms like FB groups or Discord servers, most of which will be forever lost in time.

tea_cult_1 10mo ago

A different opinion about their music is that it all seems rather ostentatious in an aural sense, and leaves a doubt if some of the praise being heaped on it is 'perfomative'.

deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
gilleain 10mo ago
Uhm. If I understand correctly, you are saying that some people are pretending to like his music because it is over the top and showy rather than actually good or enjoyable? While it is possible these fake enjoyers exist, I'm fairly certain a lot of fans of Mr Twin's work like it in a straightforward sense of most music appreciation. Personally, 'Vordhosbn', 'Windowlicker', 'Rhubarb'... etc are all great tracks. Are there some that I don't get on with? Sure, of course. However I can speak for myself when saying I'm not listening to the music performatively. At least, not much!
- colordrops 10mo ago
  I'm an example, in fact I've loved his music since the 90s and never played it for friends because I always assumed they wouldn't like it. And I'm definitely not being performative for myself. It was a bit surprising to me that his music became kind of legendary recently.
- fleroviumna 10mo ago
  [dead]
- lomase 10mo ago
  Even some AFX fans have the opinion that the stuff on Drukqs is "style over substance".
  - mprev 10mo ago
    To be fair, he was kinda forced to release it following a leak, wasn't he?

isoprophlex 10mo ago

> It’s very simple, but do you want your music to be based on an international standard or on what you think sounds right to you? [...] I’m very glad I trusted my instincts. Listening to that other voice is THE most important thing in creativity, whether you’re an engineer or a musician. To me, RDJs music always stood out as having uncanny, unique melodies and harmonies. As a teenager I fantasized about him being some sort of benevolent alien music shaman, beaming melodies onto our planet. Stuff on SAW II where you can't figure out if you're hearing single notes or mutating chords and everything is near-synaesthetic bliss. The wistful otherness of 'Italic Eyeball'. Whatever 'fingerbib', ICBYD, and things on Melodies from Mars are doing was very formative to my 16 year old brain. It's clear that whatever he does, he channels some unique creative juices.

Xmd5a 10mo ago
I knew it
- lichenwarp 10mo ago
  I just need to post with my username in this thread
eth0up 10mo ago
>>>As a teenager I fantasized about him being some sort of benevolent alien music shaman, beaming melodies onto our planet. Fantasized? Facts are facts but I admire your humility. From my phone to Desktop to remote NUCs, his noises pervade them all. And indelibly in my mind. I think there's still a strong case that he ain't human.