Disquiet – Page 910 – Listening to culture. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

Aphex Twin SAW2 Countdown: Track 5 (“Grass”)

A track per day up through the February 13 release of my 33 1/3 book

February 9, 2014February 10, 2014 / By Marc Weidenbaum

SAWII4

I am going to do this track-by-track countdown to the release, on February 13, 2014, the day prior to Valentine’s Day, of my book in the estimable 33 1/3 series. It is a love letter to Aphex Twin’s album Selected Ambient Works Volume II, which will mark its 20th anniversary this year, less than a month after my book’s publication. More on my Aphex Twin book at [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/Aphex-Twins-Selected-Ambient-Volume/dp/1623568900/) and [Bloomsbury.com](http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/aphex-twins-selected-ambient-works-volume-ii-9781623567637/). The plan is to do this countdown in the reverse order, from last track to first. For reference, [an early draft of the introduction is online](https://disquiet.com/2012/08/31/saw2for33third/), as is [the book’s seven-chapter table of contents](https://disquiet.com/2013/11/14/aphex-twin-chapter-titles/). The book’s publisher posted [an interview with me](http://333sound.com/2012/12/04/the-33-13-author-qa-marc-weidenbaum/) when I was midway through the writing process.

*There is some irony to doing this countdown since the book is already shipping to folks who pre-ordered it via an online retailer such as [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Aphex-Twins-Selected-Ambient-Volume/dp/1623568900/), but the official date stands, and that’s the target — the end date — of this countdown, February 13. And for what it’s worth, while the physical copies are mailing now from retailers, the Kindle version won’t turn on until February 13. Still, the digital version costs less.*

*As I’ve noted on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/disquiet/status/427970434294751232), this track-a-day approach is exactly the opposite of the book’s approach, which is a collection of interrelated, reporting-based essays.*

*I am enjoying seeing the book pop up in people’s Twitter and Instagram feeds. Here is [a proof-of-life shot from Matmos’ Drew Daniel](https://twitter.com/DDDrewDaniel/status/432578557576241153):*

@disquiet look what arrived in the mail: pic.twitter.com/rVJkmOTnpB

— Drew Daniel (@DDDrewDaniel) February 9, 2014

“Grass” gets covered quite a bit in a section about the under-appreciated rhythmic qualities of the album (chapter two: “Background Beats”). This is one of a handful of tracks on the album that connect to the Fourth World music of Jon Hassell, music in which “rituals are brought to bear through unintended uses on new technologies, especially of castaway materials,” as I put it. Later in the book (chapter 6: “Embedding Vapor”) I touch on its employment in this black-comedic skit by satirist Chris Morris:

This is “Grass” and the track “Tree” playing simultaneously, courtesy of a YouTube-hosted fan mix:

And here it is reversed:

More on my Aphex Twin _Selected Ambient Works Volume II_ book at [amazon.com](www.amazon.com/Aphex-Twins-Selected-Ambient-Volume/dp/1623568900/) and [Bloomsbury.com](http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/aphex-twins-selected-ambient-works-volume-ii-9781623567637/).

Thanks to boondesign.com for the sequential grid treatment of the album cover.

Aphex Twin SAW2 Countdown: Track 6 (“Mould”)

A track per day up through the February 13 release of my 33 1/3 book

February 8, 2014 / By Marc Weidenbaum

SAWII5

This is a track that a good chunk of the book is spent on. It’s one of the few vocal tracks, though that simple distinction — vocal versus non-vocal — doesn’t do justice to how the vocal is, essentially, a form of percussion. Which is to say, its presence is a kind of double refutation of received wisdom about the album (that is devoid of vocals and beats). The way the vocal resounds, the meandering keyboard part, the loping bass — all of these make “Mould” a standout track on an album where tracks do their best to not stand out.

Just a side note: as is discussed at length in the book, various factors play a role in the murky definition of tracks, from the different number of tracks on different editions, to the absence of titles, to the presence of images, to the widespread employment of words in place of those images. In the case of “Mould,” there is the additional factor of Americans tending to spell it “Mold.”

And here it is reversed:

Thanks to boondesign.com for the sequential grid treatment of the album cover.

Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet

February 8, 2014February 8, 2014 / By Marc Weidenbaum

.@RoughTradeNYC Oh, and I just recalled: On page 47 of the SAW2 book there's a bit about the Sire Records corporate account at @RoughTrade. ->
My buddy Bob Levine will be on WQXR Opera Quiz today during 1st Madama Butterfly intermission, 2pm EST. ->
RIP, Anna Gordy Gaye (b. 1921), cofounder of Anna Records, songwriter, sister of Berry Gordy, wife of Marvin Gaye: http://t.co/2owSzoEoFh ->
In my Aphex Twin countdown, I'm posting people's photos of copies of my @333books. Yesterday: @jpbartee @emarg0ed http://t.co/W4pi1KfAgJ ->
Today will be day 13 of my 25-day Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works Volume II countdown. Halfway through means … "Blue Calx"! ->
Nothing as personal as PR email addressed to "Marc2" with faux personalized opening and an emoticon. ->
I look forward to a movie as interesting as the serial drama of casting announcements. ->
Marveling at the light rain like a character in a Paolo Bacigalupi book. ->

Continue reading “Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet”

Aphex Twin SAW2 Countdown: Track 7 (“Curtains”)

A track per day up through the February 13 release of my 33 1/3 book

February 7, 2014 / By Marc Weidenbaum

SAWII6

This is one of the first tracks I began to take extensive notes on, pages upon pages about just one song. Looking back at those notes today, I come upon this opening part of a sentence: “It’s around the second hour of listening that I come to recognize …”

The immersive experience I made of listening to a track a day, and to little else, for a year, rotating through them, comes backs to me as I work down this reverse countdown to this coming Thursday, February 13, when the book is officially released. That’s a somewhat less than meaningful date since: (1) physical copies in the U.S. are already shipping (and images are popping up on Twitter and Instagram), (2) it applies at this point to the digital version (which goes live that day, though in my experience of pre-ordering digital books that probably means that if you live on the West Coast of the United States you may have access to it on Tuesday night at 9:01pm, just as the East Coast enters the next day), and (3) the U.K. version isn’t officially on sale until April.

The track is built around two bars with a step-like melody, up and down and up and down. It comes to seem like the minute spaces between the notes in the theme alter, giving it a woozy, uncertain quality. The repetition has a parallel in the echo that allows the notes to repeat: they repeat in sequence, and also as suddering halos of themselves. This is the hall of mirrors, a languorous ambient techo rendition of the climactic scene in *Lady in Shanghai*. Ultimately, it isn’t an either/or distinction — it’s all about the merging, this place where all repetitions are themselves a form of note, a kind of instrument.

The track “Curtains” was used by satirist and comedian Chris Morris as a backing score to one of his sketches, “Man’s Bottom,” as heard below. Morris’ use of Aphex Twin makes an appearance in my book (in the chapter “Embedding Vapor”), but I focus on a different instance.

And here it is reversed:

Thanks to boondesign.com for the sequential grid treatment of the album cover.

Aphex Twin SAW2 Countdown: Track 8 (“Blur”)

A track per day up through the February 13 release of my 33 1/3 book

February 6, 2014February 6, 2014 / By Marc Weidenbaum

SAWII7

Aphex Twin’s music on this album can be so rudimentary that, in some manner, it comes across like the base notes of the machines, the sound of them newly turned on and running through their self-maintenance functions. It is the sound of the room tone — were the pieces of equipment themselves rooms, rather than lines of code and collections of circuitry. So, this isn’t so much machines singing their own song, as it is machines making a tour of their own essential sounds, a song of themselves.

There is no doubt that track eight, “Blur,” has a beat, despite the album’s reputation for the absence thereof. The beat sounds like something off an early Peter Gabriel album, an association not undermined by the cinematic synth washes and subtle keyboard motif. The beat is the thing here, though. It’s little more than an augmented click track, but it’s played loud, each imperfect facet exaggerated until it gains texture, like that of an old metronome heard up close. It brings an emotional weight in the form of antiquated technology, in the rich detail of its low-key clank.

And here it is reversed:

Thanks to boondesign.com for the sequential grid treatment of the album cover.