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Comment by MarcelOlsz | Hacker News Reader

Aphex Twin and BoC have changed my life. I've listened to Aphex Twin every day for the past two decades and not much else. The lore is so deep with both. Check out https://bocpages.org/wiki/About and the story behind Hexagon Sun studios. Very cool

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On the "not much else" note, it's worth pointing out that the kids these days are putting out some amazing work that lives up to the precedent set by BoC and Aphex. Skee Mask in particular is really great, and I think Four Tet's work is sometimes a little under-appreciated because he likes to make things very accessible and incorporate more commercial elements into his work. I really think his Sixteen Oceans album is a companion piece to Tomorrow's Harvest in disguise.

Love Skee Mask. New record came out last week and it's pretty good!

https://iliantape.bandcamp.com/album/itlp09-skee-mask-pool

Same story here (22 years actually). For me, Aphex Twin is the only music I "listen to." I listen to other music, but only in passing. My daily work music is always Aphex Twin. To me, it is the only music that captures the true sense of an uninterpreted future; it is not constrained by a style or a lifestyle, it doesn't contain an image or a purpose or a meaning, it is just the sound of the vast expanse of the world to come.

You'd love Ruby My Dear. A French outfit putting out some excellent albums. I've been an Aphex fan for more than two decades and their music is very much along the same lines, albeit a little less ambient and a bit more banging techno. https://rubymydear.bandcamp.com

I'm a huge Aphex Twin and BoC fan, they've changed my life too, since the early 90s, but there's so much amazing music out there! It's heartbreaking to imagine listening to only them. Although, great picks if you were going to be exclusive.

I'd definitely take Aphex Twin's music to the proverbial desert island. Some of his stuff is the most emotionally moving and rich music I know.

Indeed their official and unofficial discographies are fantastic. Especially the huge Aphex Twin SoundCloud dump containing 250+ songs sprawling his whole music career.

Aleksi Perälä has been this for me the past few years and is the one pushing mystical electronic music forward that’s approachable in the way BoC and RDJ are.

Expired link in the article on BoC .

https://web.archive.org/web/20060519060341/https://www.speak...

I'm slightly put out (personally) to see Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin in some kind of parity. Surely only one is making music to listen to and thus the genuine article, the other only making music to actively ignore whilst on. Takes allsorts, I guess.

What does “to actively ignore whilst on” mean? Also which one do you mean?

BOC are, I find, thoroughly unlistenable. Great pretenders, but nice people, I wish them continued success. Several programmers I know, and now more than several here, put BOC on to code to; this is undoubtably because they make background music, and not foreground music.

Isn't that sort of the point?

When I were a lad we referred to this sort of music as "ambient" music. A term coined by Brian Eno for his Ambient 1: Music for Airports album from 1978.

I think the quote was something like "as ignorable as it is interesting".

Both Aphex Twin and BoC are aiming for that space.

Yes it is the point (If indeed we are agreeing on the same point). I like 'ignorable as it is interesting'. I'm just quite astonished people are viewing these two artists in the same ballpark, I find them incongruous - BOC being an always laid back affair.

> Great pretenders ... undoubtably because they make background music

Pretenders to what? The certainty in this comment confuses me, since my perception of Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin seeems to be the opposite of yours :)

Pretenders as in I see them (BOC) as exploiting a genre rather than being anything approaching a band, in the broader sense - not to totally disparage that angle. Yes, I'm rather surprised people see a simpatico here. For example, the BOC's copious use of real and pseudo old sounding recordings and sounds is, I think, never appeared in an Aphex track.

Couldn't agree more - love seeing Boards of Canada getting some exposure here. IDM in general is such a fascinating genre.

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