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'.
If your expectation of good food is In-N-Out Burger, you might think praise of a three star Michelin restaurant is performative too.
I am not even much a fan of Richard but he is absolutely one of the greatest musical geniuses of the past 50 years bar none.
Avril 14th is my favorite. Clearly Satie influenced but maybe even a little sweeter than Satie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxTdTaNIUxo
Also consider Satie himself is exactly the type of musician people would have said praising is performative at the time. He wasn't taken seriously as a real musician much at all in his life.
A friend told me a story about Satie, that they found two pianos in his appartement, one stacked on the other, with unpaid bills tossed on the top. Seems very RDJ-like (or v.v.).
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!
Who cares? Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to crank up Vordhobsn and write some code.
Am I right in saying you like the _idea_ behind the music rather than the music itself? That's almost as strange to me as people who do not listen to music at all - it's fine, of course! They are your ears, and you can do what you like with them :)
shrug Different people are different, I suppose.
You can find something to like about a lot of things. I also enjoy watching videos about wristwatch repairs and seeing the construction of them. However, I do not want one and would never wear one.
Richard and James Aphex; the Aphex twins. :P
> leaves a doubt if some of the praise being heaped on it is 'perfomative'.
This sounds rather like someone that doesn't like art in general complaining about those that do. I've heard many people complain about "modern art" in the same way.
I think it's a valid enough opinion but I still like Aphex Twin's music for the same reasons I like Eno's.
I remember buying some of his tapes and cd's from Amoeba music in 1999 and the feeling they gave me. I often wonder what its like to been born in 2010 and never experiencing this.
It’s always amusing to see these cycles continue. If his music is indeed as good as you claim it will still be listened to - just as so much of the best music of the last 75 years is. People have been lamenting the loss of the thing they felt was their transformative experince, and each generation keeps finding a new generation defining experience
And my other point was how lots of electronic musicians seemed so distant and mysterious because they weren't livestreaming and and social media that made them/their personality/tweets etc available.
as for AFX, I think like one in 15 of his songs are amazing, the rest is just noise/filler
i installed a pirated copy of Windows XP through floppy disks and i had a CD walkman. i was still a teen when i got a ipod touch 2gen. the latter was much more magical to me. sometimes i stare at my android phone with the screen locked thinking how impressive the tech is. termux x11 can go a long way. i don't wear rose tinted glasses even though my childhood was a freaking blast
It doesn't bother me too much. Many indie scenes have this sort of self-consciously avant garde sub-movement - theater, dance, fashion, games...
While I find 99% of braindance to be aggressively unlistenable and/or thoroughly tedious, the 1% that isn't tends to be truly great. Imo the best thing that ever happened to this genre was digital record stores, because casual fans can skip over all the limited edition vinyls and albums full of abstract noodling and just pick up the bangers.