Heard Mentality

« Stars of the Lid, Christopher Willits at Echoplex, April 14, 2008 | Main | Café Tacvba's New Video »

Video Savant: Aphex Twin's “Equation”

Posted by Dave Segal in Video Savant

April 15, 2008 3:34 PM

Permalink | Comments (3)

Ah, they don't make 'em like this anymore.

This 1999 cut (on the B-side to the world-beating Windowlicker 12,” whose title track was hailed by this writer as one hell of a sex aid) is one of Aphex Twin's weirder creations (which is really saying something).

The title is a long-ass mathematical equation, which you can view here. The music itself is as hard to figure out as said equation is for numerophobes to solve. This is Richard D. James at his most madly scientific, hermetically experimental and brilliantly inscrutable. “Equation” is the score to a modern dance... for alien insects. It is also, by the way, the sound caroming inside OC Weekly's music editor's head while dealing with particularly stressful deadlines.

If Aphex drops this piece during his DJ set at Coachella (he performs there April 25), expect spontaneous copulating to break out—among the calculus geeks in the crowd. Everybody else will likely be searching the skies for UFOs.


 

Comments (3)

  1. Tom says:
    April 16, 2008 16:09

    Well, here's something a little more high tech than playing a record backwards and searching for satanic messages:

    Prepare to FREAK OUT!

  2. Dave Segal says:
    April 16, 2008 16:26

    So the music--at least a portion of it--is an aural reproduction of Aphex's visage? Now it makes even more sense.

  3. Cursed Chimera says:
    April 17, 2008 08:55

    I've done similar work use meta synth and it is fun making strange little tunes with images. I remember hearing about this about 6 years ago, when I first started playing around with meta synth. Wish I still had that program....

Post a comment

 

OC Weekly • 1666 N Main St • Ste 500 • Santa Ana CA 92701