Aphex Twin - Avril 14th (from Drukqs)

I love following the evolution of electronic music. When I started listening to it the challenge seemed to be who could come up with the most original, strangest, fastest, or unique sounds out there. Many artists broke new ground for music as a whole in this period but as electronic music grew in popularity and became increasingly easy to produce thanks to the introduction of computers you could start to notice a shift in priorities among many of these musicians. I started to see more and more acoustic elements being brought into the music and many musicians started to realize that just about anyone could make a weird sound into a beat but how many electronic musicians were making music that took it a step beyond that. In this period Aphex Twin, a musician known for his marketing and typically trend setting music released a double album called Drukqs that was home to a number of songs created with a prepared piano which broke up the albums otherwise typical fast, loud, experimental IDM tracks.

The songs, in my mind, were brilliant little short works that have always stood out in my mind. Among these songs my favorite was always Avril 14th. A short piano piece that I have heard more times than I can count. I think this song holds the record for most consecutive listens in my personal book as I remember hearing it on repeat for somewhere close to six hours on a road trip once. It’s one of those songs that grafted onto my conscious somehow and whenever it stopped playing I felt as if I may fall to pieces. I love songs like that.

iTunes Link • Artist Site (it’s the old promo site for the record, closest thing to an artist site)

Tags: Aphex Twin