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Comment by rdtsc | Hacker News Reader

Aphex Twin is probably one of the few artists I have consistently liked and gone back to listen to over the years.

I don't know anything much about music, but I feel out of electronic music past and present his works are the most dynamic and interesting. Most other stuff I kind of like but it gets old so move on to other things.

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> I don't know anything much about music

Some recommendations...

For upbeat, fun electronica try Take's Only Mountain:

https://alphapup.bandcamp.com/album/only-mountain

For minimalistic, meticulously-composed sounds try Jan Jelinek's Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records:

https://janjelinek.bandcamp.com/album/loop-finding-jazz-reco...

For an impressionistic, watery sound try Limalo's Human Bloom:

https://limalo.bandcamp.com/album/human-bloom

For a dark, hazy sound try Lotide's Moonless:

https://lotide.bandcamp.com/album/moonless

For boundary-pushing weirdness try Bunbleman's Anthill (especially the track "Focus Tous" as an introduction):

https://inpuj.bandcamp.com/album/anthill

For chiptune-infused beat music try Snubluck's Square Wave Phonetics:

https://snubluck.bandcamp.com/album/square-wave-phonetics

For pure retro chiptune try cTrix's A for Amiga:

https://bleepstreet.bandcamp.com/album/a-for-amiga

These are pretty random but all are probably different than what people normally associate with electronica. I don't like most of the popular electronica out there.

I really liked some of these, especially Jan Jelinek and Lotide. I 'm not the OP but thanks for the recs! :)

No problem! Here's a few more. You might like the first two especially since you like Lotide:

Perfume Advert's +200 Gamma, dreamy with lots of atmosphere:

http://opaltapes.com/album/perfume-advert-200-gamma

Frank Riggio's Psychexcess II - Futurism, intense music that reminds me of highway driving on a rainy night:

https://hymen-records.bandcamp.com/album/psychexcess-ii-futu...

Kristen Zwicker's Hydrazine Dream, impeccable sound design:

https://kristenzwicker.bandcamp.com/album/hydrazine-dream-ep

Telephobia's You Must Feel Strange, uplifting futurebeat:

https://oligopolistrecords.bandcamp.com/album/you-must-feel-...

Teeb's Collections 01, a quite popular artist from LA, but awesome nonetheless:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5op3PCB8i0&index=1&list=PL0...

One guy I recently discovered and fell in love with is Jeremy Blake, who is also behind the YouTube channel Red Means Recording [1].

A few weeks ago, he released a song, Reggie's Song [2], which has been like an absolute mind virus. If I'm not playing it on my bike commute to work, I need to get it in during the day somehow. The song was mostly created on a Pocket Operator OP-1 [3]. The whole video is super entertaining, as he annotates the creation process via textual inserts, and has arguments with an alter-ego, Octocat (the GitHub one?).

Another EP that I really enjoyed recently, though not in the same style, is OVERWERK's Canon [4]. The same artist also created a Daft Punk anthology a few months back, which is a great way of going through the many years of Daft Punk's history, all in a single song [5]

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChnxLLvzviaR5NeKOevB8iQ

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK5cU9qWRg0 (This video covers the creation of most of the song. The whole song is available at 12m37s)

[3]: https://teenageengineering.com/products/op-1

[4]: https://soundcloud.com/overwerk/sets/canon-ep

[5]: https://soundcloud.com/overwerk/daft-punk

Edit: It's also through issues with playing OVERWERK's and Jeremy Blake's songs that I discovered that SoundCloud appears to have some pretty major issues with their CDN. They've never gotten back to me, but some people can't play a bunch of songs, and the Android app silently skips over them. https://twitter.com/teotwaki/status/847140656715837440

Re: Edit

Wierd. Same thing with Microsoft Groove

Thank you. Much appreciated. This is first time I heard about most of them.

I feel the same way, but ironically I attribute this to his knowledge of music outside of the electronic genre. I do listen to a bit of electronic music, but generally I prefer the sound of "real" instruments and what human hands play.

In other words, Aphex Twin is the most "organic" electronic music out there. This acoustic drum is a great example of how far he will go to achieve that.

I'm really impressed by the detailed work described in this page!

And at the same time, he is the most inorganic ️

In what sense?

I've got this weird place in my mind for electronic music. I listen to it in the background nearly 9 hours a day while working. I've got a pretty huge collection on Spotify and a well-tuned Pandora channel. Generally up-beat, few words for the most part, not too Vegas or rave like. It needs to be interesting but not necessarily so interesting I start paying attention to it.

I've got some classical mixed in, but I found that either I get bored of it or I start paying attention to it, and thus, it's purpose as background music is nullified.

When I'm in the car or at home, anywhere else other than in my office I never listen to electronic music. Heavy metal/rock for the gym, and then basically anything under the sun that I like when I'm just listening.

Anyone know of great albums similar to his songs Avril 14th or Aistsan[102]? I have little musical context if this is a dumb question.

I like all his albums but those songs are really some of the most relaxing sounds I have heard.

Avril 14th is one of my absolute favorite songs. It's my go-to song when I need to just relax and push away from reality for a bit; one of the few I can just put on repeat and be happy with.

I just discovered the violinist Daniel Hope recently, and in the following album: http://www.danielhope.com/listento/for-seasons/ you will find a beautiful cover of Avril 14th (Spotify link: http://open.spotify.com/track/3MjbuOV1RDEdXfyJwuzzOS)

Try Chilly Gonzales - Solo Piano (first one). Then try Erik Satie and John Cage. Then maybe Goldmund and Yann Tiersen (Amelie soundtrack). Then give up and go back to Richard.

If you like Satie and Cage, try Leos Janacek's piano music. I have sought out a lot of piano music in this style, but Janacek stands out for me.

Mishima by Philip Glass (Kronos Quartet plays Philip Glass would be a good bet). The album Asperities by Julia Kent, just out last year, is pretty phenomenal. Systems/Layers by Rachels and Vulnicura Strings by Björk might work. Soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream.

Note that there's an album of classical versions of Aphex songs by Alarm Will Sound which is very good (their Avril 14th is inferior though)

Nils Frahm's Screws Reworked is usually tagged 'new classical' but certainly has roots in the same space as Avril 14th. New classical as a whole is an interesting genre.

Philip Glass piano works, as someone suggested are somewhat near (through more angular and less sentimental).

Also:

Wim Mertens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEOeH9zZXwM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPdVhjXHdfE

Max Richter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yShmGUlylzA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvp91p5RgpQ

Yann Tiersen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQwmgAlsxjk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohEmFZI5PlQ

Pascal Comelade (more childlike): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaN6Tovekf0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF9bUBI5D0g

Eric Satie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Xm7s9eGxU

Yiruma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsTjI75uEUQ

Harold Budd (more abstract): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMbKyLIda9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om-iZHrE1S8

Joep Beving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRDo6PK09RE

Bach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCuALWK6ZNg

Gabriel Yared: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAkntDcYRJg

Johannes Brahms op.117 nr. 1

Pēteris Vasks fourth string quartet, nr.5 meditation

edit: also, some of the calmer tracks by Lullatone

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