Wednesday 11 February 2015

AFX Appreciation Station

Never thought AFX would scoop himself a Grammy (especially over Röyksopp). Who'da thought a lad from Cornwall twiddling knobs and making acid would go on to such great things? Now as you all saw in the Warped history posts, me and AFX are longtime listening bros, but I'd like to take this post to reflect on and be thankful for Richard D. James. Here would be a good place to start if you are new!


Never one to discount his origins, I honestly love Digeridoo in all it's rough sounding glory. A far cry from his later productions, and certainly nothing like the 'IDM' tag thrown around him and other Warp artists. Bump this one loud and simulate your own warehouse rave circa 1992.



If you're jut looking for a crash course in AFX, the Richard D. James Album is a good place to start. Case in point is track 1, I've had this one in my library close to a decade at this point, and it never stops sounding fresh every time. As soon as I hear that opening beats 'n strings combo I can't help but smile.



Mandatory mention of Selected Ambient Works Vol. II now. There's not much I can say that hasn't been said either by me or elsewhere about this album, it's reputation is well deserved and it's been long enough now that I think it has earned it's place among the all time classics of the genre. Absolutely essential ownership for anyone with an interest in ambient, get it!



It would be a long time before Rich returned to his acid stylings, but when he did in 2005 with the Analord series it was pretty special. Here's one of my favourites from it, demonstrating Rich's mean synthesizer skills, as well as his specialist brand of taking the piss as shown here in the track's title.



So ends our brief tour of AFX, if you like what you've heard go digging on here for more, I've covered more than my fair share of it over the years!

-Claude Van Foxbat

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