Aphex Twin

[Boourns]

Yeah, the first 20 minutes or so were meh, but after that it was face-meltingly awesome.

[dorkfish]

it was what I wanted it to be. I saw him be a dick. and I saw him be aphex. I really liked it a lot.

[empires]

seriously? the major grievance you guys have is that he wasn't feeling the crowd? how about the fact that he didn't play any of his shit? the tunes were rudimentary mockeries of his usual programming.

[captain1]

in the sahara tent, i thought freelander was the sweetest set, it wouldve been dope if he wouldnt got an early evening spot. Mind you aphex, fbs and diplo were all great.

[betao]

for anyone who missed it, here is a brief rundown of aphex's set

opened with Public Enemy's "Welcome to the Terror Dome"

first 25 minutes was actually a danceable blend of house/techno, the 2nd half of his set was more IDM/Drill n Bass/techno, with a few surprises of drum N bass here and there. For the last 15 minutes, he bought out 4 dudes in animal costumes to dance onstage.

My favorite set of the weekend so far.

[pepelutivruski4]

i'm sure this has been said 60 times in 3 posts, but i fought my way to hug the stage for aphex twin, and his first 15-20 minutes were horrible...
i was making my way out and got to the sound board when he started the real shit. it sounded fucken killer right next to the sound board his 2nd half of the set still made my night....
i could only imagine if he stuck w/ the real stuff throughout the entire set.... wow.

[C DUB YA]

man those videos look liked he killed it. All you bashers must not like him in the first place

First off, I love Aphex, but I watched every second of those vids - and he did not kill it.

The crowd seemed very bored from the looks of thing, and I can kinda see why.

[1armfakeleg]

I am pretty sure that Rich has never started a set before 10 pm before this show. Also, must be a hard to cram in 3 or 4 hours of the flow of a normal set into 1 hour! I don't think it was Aphex that sucked. I think the pieces of the puzzle just didn't fit. Can you imagine if the last 20 mins. of his set lasted for 3 hours???

[Cheddar's Cousin]

I wandered into the Sahara accidentally at the end of his set. I was supposed to go to the Gobi, but the schedule that Coachella is handing out has the tents reversed. I wanted to see Datarock, and I figured he was about to finish. After standing around in there for a while, Pendulum came on. That was the most excrutiating 30 minutes of my life.

Dancing animals?

srsly?

[Ichi1]

I guess its official.

Dear Mr. Twin,

Next time you are in America, please only play your hits.

KTHNXBAI

[fober]

"Hits"?

Seriously, you folks are just ignorant to RDJ.

[Ichi1]

"Hits"?

Seriously, you folks are just ignorant to RDJ.

That's what I'm saying kid. I was poking fun at the people who are bitching because they didn't recognize anything.
Your posts are some of the few that aren't annoying the hell out of me.
What did people expect?

[gaypalmsprings]

I left early....did the other twin appear with the people in animal outfits? Was Ron the dancing dog? We miss you Ron! *****

[betao]

Richard was awesome.

Sorry if everyone was expecting another ed banger electro DJ that plays the same shit over and over again and who samples daft punk for nearly every song.

Aphex Twin, Pendulum, Freeland, and Zabiela have given the best sahara tent performances so far.

[alpharuin]

Sorry if everyone was expecting another ed banger electro DJ that plays the same shit over and over again and who samples daft punk for nearly every song.

Nailed it on the head right there.

[wolverine]

Too bad about the wannabe Flaming Lips animal dancers.

[davihan5]

Apparently none of you like or even know Aphex Twin's music. I agree with the guy that said, "at least we know he showed up". I've seen him before, in LA, and frankly he's awesome. Part of understanding his set is enjoying how great it is to just sit and watch him do nothing but mix.

[Jakewc151]

Richard was awesome.

Sorry if everyone was expecting another ed banger electro DJ that plays the same shit over and over again and who samples daft punk for nearly every song.

Aphex Twin, Pendulum, Freeland, and Zabiela have given the best sahara tent performances so far.

People weren't expecting another Ed Banger set.. People were expecting something 10x better (everyone knew who it was they were seeing) than that which would have blown the roof off the Sahara and it clearly didn't.

[chip_m555]

Aphex Twin was officially the shittiest show i have ever seen. That was not music and that was not a preformance, that was total crap. if i ever meet the guy im going to slap him in the face for ruining some valuable time.

[empires]

RDJ's music is electronic but, it's on such a level that I would expect him to be on Live PA. In fact, unless you're a turntablist, I have no interest in hearing a mix at all (but that's just me).

I just feel that if I wanted a mix, I could have gone to a club. Aphex would do well to look at Squarepusher's live show, that's what we deserve.

[gregsamsa]

uh animals copying flaming lips? he has had stuffed bears and things onstage for like almost 15 years now, some of these comments are just dumb. his set was like a 20 year history of dance music from hip-hop to hardcore. it is nice hearing soulful, emotional, interesting dance music instead of the same grindey blog techno you here everywhere with people playing the same mix of 20 tracks everyone else plays. sorry if he was not a cheap hype artist like diplo playing dumb remixes of daft punk and classic rocks jams while trying to pump up the crowd by yelling at them through a microphone. or like fatboy slim who opened his set with praise you his biggest hit. corny and cheap. the dudes you see standing around are the aphex nerds who don't dance it is probably the first time they have been out in years. thank you coachella for booking quality music. anyone who thinks he didnt kill it wasn't standing there at the end of his set when people were screaming so loud it hurt my ears. oh and if you are complaining about him mixing from his laptop instead of bringing around a book of cd's like almost everyone these days you really don't get it, this is why aphex has always been ahead.

[betao]

uh animals copying flaming lips? he has had stuffed bears and things onstage for like almost 15 years now, some of these comments are just dumb. his set was like a 20 year history of dance music from hip-hop to hardcore. it is nice hearing soulful, emotional, interesting dance music instead of the same grindey blog techno you here everywhere with people playing the same mix of 20 tracks everyone else plays. sorry if he was not a cheap hype artist like diplo playing dumb remixes of daft punk and classic rocks jams while trying to pump up the crowd by yelling at them through a microphone. or like fatboy slim who opened his set with praise you his biggest hit. corny and cheap. the dudes you see standing around are the aphex nerds who don't dance it is probably the first time they have been out in years. thank you coachella for booking quality music. anyone who thinks he didnt kill it wasn't standing there at the end of his set when people were screaming so loud it hurt my ears. oh and if you are complaining about him mixing from his laptop instead of bringing around a book of cd's like almost everyone these days you really don't get it, this is why aphex has always been ahead.

I think you managed to convey my own opinion better than I ever could haha. Thanks for that. Especially the part about DJs nowadays just playing the same old shit with the same daft punk samples.

Aphex Twin is tied with Kraftwerk as my favorite set of the weekend. Simply amazing.

[Backwater]

Aphex Twin was officially the shittiest show i have ever seen. That was not music and that was not a preformance, that was total crap. if i ever meet the guy im going to slap him in the face for ruining some valuable time.

I completely agree and it was valuable time indeed as The Raconteurs were one of the best sets of the weekend. They should beat him up. However, since they are non-violent gentlemen Richard should just have to suck all of their dicks.

[sadsappysucker]

The only thing Diplo killed was the art of mixing (or lack thereof in his case).

I wasn't really expecting anything different from Richard.

Diplo was one of my top 5 sets of the weekend, easily. He's an amazing Dj.

[fake_plastic]

See, this is exactly why Aphex Twin hardly ever plays live here in the U.S. Because of s***heads who just want to hear album tracks. I mean, sure it's nice to hear album songs and stuff, but Aphex is a DJ who does live MIXES of whatever he feels like doing.
I really hope he doesn't play live here in America again because a lot of fans aren't deserving of seeing him live cuz here's most of your attitudes: OMGZ H3 DYDNT PLAI I WANT UR SOUL WUT A J3RK!!!!1111one. AMIRITE? I am dead right. Just watch the show and soak up the music, regardless of whether your "favorite" song is played.

[luckyface]

I don't care what anyone says, he fucking was great! Everyone in my area was super into it (even Passive, who was about 6 people in front of me).

[anadeji]

recurring theme with the sahara reviews this year: too many kids

aphex basically played a history set, which i thought was great. best part of the set for me was watching a bunch of kids talking about how he ruined their high and hearing things without the distorted mid frequency shit everyone does now.

some SAW bits thrown in too, in all, great shit.

[betao]

recurring theme with the sahara reviews this year: too many kids

I noticed that, this being my first coachella, the sahara tent was packed with kids. I really wasn't expecting that. My original assumption was that they're mostly Ed Banger hipsters, can anyone confirm it haha

and Aphex and Kraftwerk are tied at my 2 favorite sets of the weekend.

[fikus222]

Unfortunately I was unable to attend Coachell, so I cannot comment first hand, but after watching the you tube videos I can find nothing wrong with Richard D's set. I'd have been dancing my ass off during this show.

[Mugwog]

His set was awesome and the comments from this board remind me of comments I heard about Daft's Alive set. Complaints I heard about Daft Punk and (I heard also for Justice this year) was this: It doesn't sound like their album. Well yeah...they are "DJs" they make music you can dance to.

Now a lot of people aren't familiar with IDM, DnB, Jungle, House, Trance, Electronica - This is all classified to many as "Techno Music", and maybe you love Justice and Daft Punk, but you couldn't stand Aphex Twin's set?

Well what if your band to see was Death Cab for Cutie, you know what I hear, along with New Found Glory, The Shins, AFI, whatever your emo/indie band is this: Whiny guys singing falsetto about high school puppy love when these guys are 25-35 themselves. Or in the Indie sense - sound exactly like the Strokes.

Now you can dissect a song and explain to me why its more than highschool puppy love, but it will make as much sense to me as you hearing me tell you where some drum loops were (come to daddy drum loop used often) in his set, where the beat was in the current song, the lightshow/visual fx, his historical context in the world of music and what music he's influenced/expanded/who he's worked with.

This is a man who disappeared from RELEASING music for years, he makes music for himself and some of us think we were lucky enough to see him share some of his own "improv" set. He didn't just press play on winamp.

On another note:

There were just a SHI TTON of MINORS this year. Holy crap every girl I looked at I had to start checking for a beer garden wrist band to be sure they were of an approachable age.

I wonder how much sales would slope if Coachella was 21 or 18+ only.

It would make the people who fit those age ranges much happier either way, fuck the kids, let them wait till their 18 to experience something this grand.
AND DON'T HAVE YOUR MAMA BUY YOU YOUR TICKET UNLESS ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY.