Aphex Twin - Blue Calx
Aphex Twin - Blue Calx from Heady on Vimeo.
The amount of beauty this simplistic ambient song possesses is catastrophic. A feeling of despair seeps through every single frequency, but underneath it all is a dull feeling of hope with a "light at the end of the tunnel" feel to it, as well as time bomb effect with the fast paced tick-tock that's layered and reverberated in the background. A lot of commentators on the song envision soldiers in their head when they listen to this song (more specifically WWII) and I can't say they're wrong. It feels like destruction, it feels like the bottom, it feels like a fight, and buried in it is a tiny spot of optimism.
Sonically, the song has so much space and room to breathe in it that it's almost completely atmospheric if the main synthesizer weren't as dominant as it is. It took me a few listens to hear the 808-esque Kick drop that is randomly placed throughout the song, but adds a nice, more deep and present sound that lacks in the rest of the instruments.
I'd kill to know how this was engineered and what equipment was used to make this track. For as simple as it is, the reverbs used and mixing on this track is flawless. I wonder if Aphex Twin took the sounds that were recorded and played them in a room fit with a nice reverberation sound and stuck it in the track instead of using outboard reverb or a plug-in. I'll never know and he'll sure as hell never tell..but I think I like it that way all the same.
Close calls for favorite songs:
Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight
Boards of Canada - Tears From the Compound Eye
Esthero - Breath From Another
Bjork - All is Full of Love
The Beatles - Revolution 9
Destroyer - Bay of Pigs
Transister - Stars Collide
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