Aphex Twin - Peel Session, London, England (1992)

[@Harris-u6m]

Richard’s a genius. To be putting shit like this together in the early 90’s is insane.

[@RyanReenBattikh]

Think how young he was too- his mind is a window to the the caustic, calxy, acid oceans- and when you listen you get to surf the sine waves

[@spyrock247]

Can’t believe I was busy listening to grunge then

[@okcomputer6033]

This is what grunge wish it was

[@alphalax7747]

Grunge is cool too tho

[@hihello-sx1sx]

The cool thing about music is you don’t have to throw out what you used to like just because you discovered something different. You can actually accumulate a varied music taste. Maybe you genuinely dislike grunge now tho, I shouldn’t assume.

[@c1h9o8b0i]

4:14 When Italic Eyeball kicked in, I got goosebumps. Hadn't heard that track in ages. It is timeless.

[@MYNAMACHEF]

The bassline is so cerebral Whereas the flute melody (for lack of a better term) gives it a very mysterious sound that is distinctively 90s

[@pauljohnpinkybennett3557]

I remember listening to this session, whilst in HMP Liverpool. Soon as I got out, Dec 92', I promptly made my way to backstreet records, in town, and bought it on double gatefold. Now I have about 20 + and there's no one like him. The god of I. D. M

[@daviddeltoro1808]

This was pressed to vinyl? Was it a bootleg? You should post pictures of the OG record and case if u still got it

[@WildBluntHickok]

@@daviddeltoro1808 He might be referring to the Polygon Window track. The vinyl of Surfing On Sine Waves was 2xLP.

[@z88pky]

Hail to that bro

[@RyanReenBattikh]

I was born in 99' so a good deal of his discography was in existence before I was, but funny enough when I was 6 ish and You Tube was the new big thing, the algorithm inexplicably lead me to the Chris Cunningham short film Rubber Johnny, released in 2005. I was like captivated, half semi humorously amused by the strangeness, and half horrified by the absolute alien sounds and visuals of that short film. The idiosyncratic and spastic music really jarred me and was like nothing I'd previously ever heard. But eventually it would fade back into my adolescent subconscious and I wouldn't know the name of that song till this year when I'm 23 (Afx237 v.7 off of Drukqs). The experience was so surreal, that for a while I thought it may have been a vivid dream, that's how distant the memory was for quite a bit. But then when I was 13 one of the biggest video games came out, GTA V- which had its own radio stations. One of which, FLYLO FM, was hosted by current day Warp Records labelmate of Aphex, Flying Lotus. And the last song on FLYLO FM (The 2013 version, re releases have longer radio playlists) is Windowlicker (I'm sure you know came out the year of my birth, 99'), and upon hearing it half a dozen years later, the drums and odd wailing melody of the beat seemed instantly familiar, but I had no point of reference because at this point Rubber Johnny was practically in my subconscious. I'd for the rest of my teens be into a lot of contemporary listening electronic music, Flying Lotus primarily- I got into record collecting in 2019 when he did a new alt cover reissue of Cosmogramma- 2022 I'm just casually shopping at the record store when I happen upon the Windowlicker cover and I recognize it as the GTA V song, and take it as a sign to start digging into this Aphex guy's discography. Then from there I fell into the IDM-sphere, eventually ordered SAW 85'-92' off Bleep, and ever so recently, in anticipation Blackbox Life Recorder, get into his most polarizing and stylistically versatile album Drukqs. Drukqs had always intimidated me with its length, bizarre song titles, and manic energy and intentional tonal whiplash. But I'd gotten deep enough into his stuff to where that aspect of his music was more appealing than it was threatening. By that point I'd seen a good deal of Cunningham/Aphex visuals, and they all had a sort of specific look and feel- and it occurred to me that Rubber Johnny wasn't some weird fever dream, it almost was like some audiovisual sleeper cell encryption to be steadily activated through my teens and early 20's. Something that only RDJ and Cunningham could pull off, and has made me feel like I was sort of primed to love this music from the start. Also shows his music kind of exists outside of time- in 2023 I'm geeking out over an album that came out when I was 2 lol.

[@RyanReenBattikh]

@@WildBluntHickok Got into Surfing On Sine Waves just last year because of the 30th anniversary Artificial Intelligence repress. I thought it was cool that Autechre had a sort of Demo version of Eggshell on it- I had no idea AI was a series- how influential it was for Warp as a label and IDM as a genre- and I literally already had another Warp AI album, Incunabula by Autechre. I don't think there has been a sort of musical scene/subgenre that's been as rewarding as IDM/Electronic listening music to sort of piece together and try to understand better, at least for me.

[@tow_rent888]

damn... john peel's voice introducing blue calx..

[@aeiouxs]

Fantastic, thank you! I recorded this live from John Peel's radio show back in 1992, then edited Peels voice out, to keep just the music. Great to hear his introductions/segues thank you!

[@aeiouxs]

btw my records (I run RareAFX) say original session broadcast date was 09-09-1992, so this was likely a repeat of the session, as Peel occasionally did back then. Thank you again! (source = www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/sessions/1990s/1992/ )

[@skipper6528]

@@aeiouxs awesome I was just on peels & then yours rareafx wordpress ye? Gonna have a gander thru that when i get a few minutes. Cheers for the recording, it's beautiful

[@skipper6528]

@@aeiouxs do you make music?

[@skipper6528]

@@aeiouxs dude, this is some site you got going here, very impressive. Do you have anything on the equipment he uses? Something with audio would be unreal or on how he uses anything at all. Sorry for wrecking your head with all the messages but if you could get back to me on this one it would be sound. Cheers

[@aeiouxs]

@@skipper6528 ah man too many questions for sure! heaps of articles over the decades on his gear lists, thanks for compliment on the site - believe its well respected, although nothing is perfect. and yes i made music inspired by RDJ under the 3818919/w alias, long time ago now... take care man

[@flightyzeus2]

Just wonderful

[@marcosartori9552]

Aphex Twin..👽🙌🌏🔝💪 proiettato sempre verso il futuro...d'avanguardia già negli anni 90...Grande..🤙👍👊👾

[@waynedarronwalls6468]

I still have the c90 I recorded this session onto...

[@ewanroberts9338]

Same here.... Used to tape a lot of Peel at that time :)

[@leonidashendrickson1408]

HA Quixote is exactly what I expected it to be live. Glorious

[@jabbebe]

Cold af

[@danfield6030]

Yes Pleaae...

[@pauljohnpinkybennett3557]

I phoned B. T up the other day, over my equipment. Got asked a security question, soon as I mentioned Aphex twin the operator on the phone said she got goosebumps first seeing come to daddy, on video. Ha, he he. I hope she watched it on pitchfork.

[@MYNAMACHEF]

Acid this extreme should be illegal But im glad it isn't

[@unnamedindividual8835]

In the 1990’s there was actually a moment in the UK led by politicians to make acid rave music punishable by law however it ultimately was unsuccessful

[@christophersmith9613]

Superb.

[@Thebucy09]

I have a 48min version of this set.

[@skipper6528]

I really want to hear it. Would you send it to my email please?

[@tow_rent888]

upload it!

[@radiantzvir2567]

@@skipper6528 You can find it on Soundcloud

[@WildBluntHickok]

Are you sure it's not Peel Session 92 and Peel Session 95 bundled together?

[@danfield6030]

@@WildBluntHickok he doesn't know......he he he

[@gusa7460]

Increíble esto

[@ADecentMang]

blue calx sounds great all distorted :)

[@simon8413]

Fucking quality.

[@raccoondude6371]

20:18 what 😀

[@metalheadgamer80]

Blue Velvet lol

[@Vingul]

Yeah it's Frank (Dennis Hopper's character) in Blue Velvet.

[@Garethbevans]

listen w/ .75 speed

[@eininsloan3008]

What da fuks that first track

[@c1h9o8b0i]

It's chaotic brilliance. 🔥🔥🔥

[@modtrashfire5518]

Blue Calx had already been made by mid '92. I wonder if it was the first song done for the album.

[@dalek604]

It was on the Philosophy of Sound and Machine, a Rephlex and A.R.T. compilation in late 92, along with 2 other aliases of his.