Gucci - Flora

mouth-to-mouth:

melankolic:

jubilantjosefine:

This photo has everything a great photo should: B&W, trees, and silhouettes!

Aphex Twin - Vordhosbn

Album: drukQs (2001)

Director: Panacik (Tomáš Moravanský) & Juko (Juraj Ondráš)

Aphex Twin - Vordhosbn

Album: drukQs (2001)

Director: Vincent Bitaud

Aphex Twin - Vordhosbn

Album: drukQs (2001)

Director: unknown

drukqs (stylised as drukQs) is a 2001 double album by electronic musician Richard D. James, released under his most frequently used pseudonym, Aphex Twin. It is his fifth studio album under this alias.

The title’s pronunciation is debatable, due to the cover art capitalizing the Q, leading to some fans to pronounce it as druck-use (a possible pun on “drug use”). However, Drukqs is spelled in lower case everywhere else on the packaging, so most fans simply pronounce it drucks. James has stated that the title is not related to drugs, and is “just a word [he] made up”.The 5-track promotional CD of the album is spelled Drukqs.

After releasing the “Windowlicker” single in 1999, James took a long break from releasing music. During this time, he played DJ sets in his home county of Cornwall, re-released his first album on the Warp label, Surfing on Sine Waves, and spread disinformation that he was retiring from releasing music.

Drukqs is available in three formats for purchase. The first and most common is the CD release. The second is the regular 180-gram vinyl release. The third is a 250-gram limited edition audiophile version, pressed on heavy virgin (unrecycled) vinyl by Record Technology Incorporated and presented in a 12-inch × 17-inch box limited to 1,000 hand-numbered copies.

The CD itself features Aphex Twin spelled out with Sinclair ZX81 keys.

Initial critical response to drukqs ranged from average to positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 66, based on 21 reviews.

Various titles are in Cornish, a Celtic language related to Welsh and Breton spoken in Cornwall, James’s home. James said he “went back to his roots” in Cornwall, or Kernow as it is known in Cornish. Translations include Jynweythek [Ylow] for “Electronic Machine [Music]”, Vordhosbn for “Sailboat”, and Cymru for “Wales”. Comically, hy a Scullyas lyf a dhagrow would roughly translate as “She wasted my pint” (colloquially, “She spilled my pint”) or “She shed a flood of tears”) Various numbers found in words may actually represent archaic letters.

Several tracks do not relate to Cornish but have their own individual meanings: Lornaderek combines the names of James’s mother and father, respectively, whereas “Father” is named so because his father enjoyed the piece. “Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michael’s mount” is named after two actual places, Mont Saint-Michel and St Michael’s Mount, which are related to each other; the latter is a notable tourist attraction in Cornwall. “Nanou 2” appears to have been named after “Nannou,” on Windowlicker.

James took full advantage of the advances in computing between 1996 and 2001, which allowed greater detail and frenetic complexity in his music. New equipment that developed his sound included the Concussor analogue drum modules from British-based company Analogue Solutions—for instance, the track “Taking Control” appears to feature this heavily.

At least 13 of the 30 tracks are piano compositions, both prepared piano (a style made notable by John Cage) and normal piano. The instrument used was a MIDI-controlled Yamaha Disklavier that James programmed to play by sequencers rather than from the piano’s keyboard. The Disklavier is a modern descendant of the player pianos of the late 19th and early 20th century, which were controlled by rolls of punched paper tape. For some pieces, James placed microphones inside the piano body, so that the workings of the Disklavier’s mechanisms are heard in conjunction with the sounding of the notes, as a rhythmic counterpoint.

A few tracks feature short samples (synthesizer experiments, voices, etc.) under 20 seconds in length. “54 Cymru Beats” features sounds sampled from the Windowlicker single, a computer speaking in Welsh, and a short version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. “Lornaderek” is a telephone message of James’s parents Lorna and Derek singing “Happy Birthday” to their “little 28-year-old son”; it’s likely that this message have been recorded on James’s 28th birthday, which was 18 August 1999.

Kid606 - Mr. Wobble’s Nightmare

Album: Mr. Wobble’s Nightmare EP

Director: Joel Trussell

Ryoji Ikeda - Data.Microhelix

Album: Dataplex (2005)

(unofficial video made by earational)

Tim Hecker - Arctic’s Lovers Rock

Album: Haunt Me Haunt Me Do It Again (2001)

Ceephax Acid Crew - Culteddy

Aphex Twin & Hecker (Part 2)

Live @ Cité de la Musique, Paris, France.

Warp 20 years birthday party, May 9th 2009.