I love going into bowling alleys full of people that have this track in their internet connected Jukeboxes. I usually select the song, and sit somewhere and wait. Sure enough after the last song ends, this song comes on and the reaction is priceless. Everyone starts plugging their ears, and start complaining about the track, or wonder if the jukebox is broken. A few times the bowling alley staff would come over and unplug the jukebox, or turn off the speakers.
i got my roommate once by placing a small speaker under his bed and playing the “spookier” cuts from saw vol ii barely above the threshold of hearing. he’d come into the room stoned and we’d chat. whenever the conversation reached a lull, he’d ask with increasing urgency if i heard “it” too. i eventually had to reveal the speaker to convince him of his sanity. i never got him again, but the one time was priceless.
The most amazing musical experience I've ever encountered in my life was listening to this track whilst driving in a snow storm at 2am, on un-trekked snow, not another sign of life in sight, and my family peacefully sleeping in the car with me.
OMG my cat just reacted to this song, too! She get interested and started rubbing up against the speakers, seemed to enjoy it so I turned it up, she loved it!
I think Richard said himself that he used to take Ventolin and one of the side effects were tinnitus. And with Richard being himself, it inspired him to make a song out of it
I'm 33 and used to be on ventolin, it's not bullshit, it's not that you hear this when taking ventolin it's that ventolin after long use retunes your hearing to hear higher frequencies, it's a bit like being able to hear a dog whistle, it's just a frequency
My intro to aphex was when i walked into a chain music store in vancouver in 95. This track was blaring on the speakers, the guy at the desk had put it on. I watched as his manager came down and screamed at him to "turn that shit off right now". I walked up to them and said "I'll buy whatever that was right now please". The employee had a shiteater on as he handed me the disc.
@Void Fame tinnitus is a condition that causes a constant ringing sound in your ear(s), it’s usually caused by being exposed to loud noises too frequently (playing live music, shooting guns, etc. etc.). If I remember correctly, this song was actually supposed to express the agony of severe tinnitus.
Druqks is more difficult than this. This was the first Aphex track I ever heard, and despite the noise it's quite melodic. I am big fan of noise like this and the Psychocandy distortion. It's like you have to suffer the ringing to get to the melody and rhythm. It surprised me when I listened to more Aphex how sweet and lovely some of it is.
There's also Aphex Airlines, which is a more obscure noise track that was supposed to be a soundtrack for some French airline. Supposedly they rejected it and said "would be better suited for documentary about air crashes"
I remember some old interview with Richard where he talks about his music becoming brighter over the years as he loses his hearing a bit, usually what happens to most artists. He made some joke about how far that would get, like as an oldie will I be making music that's just all treble.. and here we are
During college my friends and I used to rent out venues where we'd each do sets of our own. It was mainly DnB, dubstep, that kind of stuff, but for one of them I decided to do an hour long Aphex-only set - a homage as it were. When I was constructing the set, I knew I had to cram Ventolin in there somewhere, so around half-way through I transitioned in the opening tone looped over and over as I faded out the other track. I had the biggest grin on my face as I looked at everyone all fucked out of their skulls and baffled at what the fuck was going on - bear in mind this was playing on a pretty decent sound system. I remember looking over at my best friend at the time and smiling, and him just shaking his head with this look on his face as if to say 'What the fuck are you doing man?' Then a girl came up to the booth and said something along the lines of, 'Something's broken', but I just continued smiling, shook my head, then released the loop and let the track effectively 'drop'. The girl just kind of walked away and I continued my set. A few tracks later (I remember I was mixing in 'Cock ver 10'), one of the owners, barmen, or bouncers came up to the booth and told me to close my set ASAP, and that we all had to leave because people were vomiting and acting like nobs in the hallway. I like to think that Ventolin helped make that happen - some just can't hack Mr. Strider. I know I had fun... 7\
Turn it down then. It stops being painful at lower volumes (I'm thinking "it's 1am and you don't want to wake your neighbors" volume). Not sure if this works if you're using headphones.
It is psychoacoustics. After some time your brain will start filtering out frequencies and this will greatly change how you hear the next track on the album. Pan American did this too on their Quiet City album. Once you realize this it is s real eye opener.
This song perfect exemplifies what I love so much about Aphex Twin. Sometimes he chooses to make the most gorgeous song ever crafted by anyone ever and other times he chooses to make a banger with the most abrasive noises ever concocted. This is definitely one of my favorites
безусловно на дорогой аудиосистеме при прослушивании этот звук не так сильно режет слух как в наушниках, но то что начинается с 3:30 это просто шедеврально с точки зрения звука. это пищание начинает колебаться в пространстве и прыгает из уха в уха, и при.этом он настолько близок к тебе, что создаётся ощущение что этот писк у тебя уже в голове. учитывая контекст сего трека это действительно вызывает натуральное восхищение... Наверное один из лучших если не лучший трек в альбоме
Первый раз вижу этот клип, первое впечатление- экологическая катастрофа... Еще очень напоминает наш русский фильм Через Тернии К Звездам. Хорошая очень фантастика, рекомендую! Попробуйте посмотреть!
it's been far too long since I had the pleasure of your music caressing my ear holes. with this song in particular you've taken my tinnitus for quite the ride, it was beautiful having a song made from tunes that would mask my own constant note. thank you mr cunningham for this wondrous piece. you've literally fucked my noise receptors.
Having a sound that persists through the entire song making it unlistenable is an interesting artistic statement and actually fits this song pretty well
At my previous office job I used to listen to music on my earbuds. As an AT fan I played a lot of his tracks. On time I was playing this track and as the track progressed, a couple of colleagues started to wonder where the high pitched noise was coming from. Was it their computer? A cellphone maybe? I could see the confusion on their faces grow as I continued to enjoy the track with a big grin on my face. I never told them what caused it 😄
This is my favorite song by Aphex Twin. My partner hated it and said that it reminded him of going to the dentist 🤣🦷 Needless to say, I didn't really play it much when he was around.
This is one of a few songs that would get my old boss to come into the kitchen from his office and ask me to change it. There were literally a couple songs that utilized a few specific tones that were either extremely piercing in just the right way to reach the owners office, or the others that would do the trick had a very extreme and specific range of bass that would conduct perfectly down the wall and floor that connected the kitchen to his office. To worked every time I played those certain songs, like clockwork.
I always love playing this song whenever someone asks me what my favorite song is. Especially because this is actually one of my favorites of his discography.
Can’t believe I’m seeing him this Thursday night, here in NYC.... 21 years since he’s been here & this is the guy that got me into all things trippy back in 2014.... fuck .....
This track TURNED ME ON to Aphex Twin. 1996 at the Southern tip of Africa a no-nothing kid had his little young brain melted when he walked into someone's flat and this was playing.. Been melting my brain regularly ever since, Thank you Richard.
