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Music CD - AFX: Hangable Auto Bulb
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Music CD: Hangable Auto Bulb
Artist: AFX
List Price: $11.99
Our Price: $7.98
Your Save: $ 4.01 ( 33% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Warp Records
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Children Talking
2. Hangable Auto Bulb
3. Laughable Butane Bob
4. Bit
5. Custodian Discount
6. Wabby Legs
7. Every Day
8. Arched Maid
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0801061013820
Label: Warp Records
Manufacturer: Warp Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Warp Records
Release Date: 2005-11-01
Studio: Warp Records
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: ...
Comment: anyone who knows aphex twin knows that he is weird, but hangable auto bulb... is so weird.
Customer Rating:
Summary: the rare stuff
Comment: This was one of the early Aphex Twin records from ten years ago. It was released as two rare EPs. The second one is hard to find. I know this sort of stuff because I spent a lot of the 1990s listening to techno. Luckily for those who own these records, this is a CD only release. Aphex Twin released many records as Richard D. James, but as AFX, it was reserved for often more experimental works, and more obscure. This record documents the early AFX. It often mixes odd drum breaks with the sound of children talking. It's not too different from the recent "Rubber Johnny" record. This is worthwhile.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An acceptable EP that brings RDJ's music to a different level
Comment: Hangable Auto Bulb was an interesting new EP that combined some different combinations of RDJ's usual warp music. It starts off with "Children Talking" which has a child saying 'mashed potatoes' and a guy afterwards saying 'why do you hate mashed potatoes?' and it goes on from there. Throughout the CD, AFX works in some different kind of sounds and beats through every song (Laughable Butane Bob, Hangable Auto Bulb, Custodian Discount). A lot of the songs seem to be a little redundant in my own opinion though...After "Custodian Discount" a lot of the background beats AFX uses in his songs seem to render towards sounding the same...I'd still prefer to hear AFX returning some of his older styles (Drukqs, Selected Ambient Works, Classics). I thought the EP had a great ending to it. "Every Day" and "Arched Maid Via RDJ" were very nice and easy to listen to and can be enjoyable even to some of the beginner RDJ listeners. Overall I give Hangable Auto Bulb a 3 - 3.5
Customer Rating:
Summary: A fine EP, reissued at long last.
Comment: It's a little hard to believe that Aphex Twin's Hangable Auto Bulb EPs are now ten years old. These two twelve-inch vinyl singles were very obscure when they first came out; only three hundred copies were pressed, and few people got a chance to hear the music. But now, in retrospect it's clear that they were undoubtedly a turning point in AFX's career, for better or for worse. Almost everything he recorded after this, all the way through 2001, is a variation on the style of Hangable Auto Bulb. Now Warp has reissued both EPs on one disc, and it's time to give them another look, ten years since.
For all its obscurity, though, Hangable Auto Bulb started one big trend. This is a jungle album. It might not be the first record to ever use that style, but that doesn't matter, because Richard D. James second-guessed all the hype that would build up around jungle, put his own face on it, and thus placed himself right at the front of all the changing fashions of electronica just as they were about to start moving even more frenetically. With his high profile and critical reputation, AFX legitimized the style and gave it a voice, and thus opened the way for any number of lesser musicians to find success in that brief period of time.
I describe this somewhat grudgingly, because jungle does not appeal to me personally so much, and because the advent of jungle quashed a number of other developments in electronic music that I liked more, like the danceable, melodic style of Aphex Twin's own first album, Selected Ambient Works 85-92. After Hangable Auto Bulb, Aphex Twin's music changed for good. He became so enamoured of the spastic, sped-up, seemingly arrhythmic percussion style of jungle that he recorded almost nothing different in the next six years. Inevitably, he worked this idea into a dead end, and pretended to retire in 2001.
So, for me, the biggest surprise when I listened to this reissue was how good the music was. I didn't really like it when I had first heard it, a long time ago. Now, I see that it's aged very well, and the sound seems much cleaner and less abrasive than the way I remember it. Maybe the passage of time favours Aphex Twin; once the trends have passed and the imitators have disappeared, his originality shines all the brighter.
Or maybe it's just because he knew when to stop, at thirty-three minutes. A longer album in this style would have been difficult to sit through; the style would have become repetitive and grating. This EP, on the other hand, is both concise and focused.
Then there's the matter of those sped-up percussion tracks. Their speed varies wildly; they seem more or less steady one moment, only to break out in violent bursts the next; they crash chaotically during breaks in the music. But they're not arrhythmic. For instance, there's a part on "Wabby Legs" when, even as the drums appear to flail around in a random fashion, another drum track is actually keeping time. It's like a performance by a really proficient drummer, who can add all kinds of impressive fills without breaking the rhythm.
Better yet, AFX didn't forget the melodies, either. In this regard, Hangable Auto Bulb is the best jungle album ever made. The lead in "Laughable Butane Bob" is just beautiful, all nervous and excited, and taking on a dreamier tone in the break. If Aphex Twin were to release a collection of non-album tracks, as I wish he would, this track would be a sure thing to include on it. "Wabby Legs" isn't bad either, and a couple of other tracks from the first single don't have pronounced melodies, but do use some calm bass and keyboards to punctuate the silence during breaks and provide contrast to the drums. And hey, although "Children Talking" is probably the weakest track on the CD, it does provide a bit of that good old Aphex Twin humour by means of a sample of a voice repeatedly intoning, "Mashed potatoes! Why do you hate mashed potatoes?"
The second single is much better than the first, though it contains only two songs. (Unfortunately, the tracklisting on the CD confuses them; "Every Day" is actually last, and "Arched Maid" just before it.) In "Every Day," a very pretty keyboard line provides the background for a story, of sorts: a woman's voice tells of how her husband constantly hectors her and demands that she fetch him things. The voice is obviously distorted, but there's something so disarming about its tone. When, the woman says, "Every day, things keep piling up over me," it doesn't sound like she's complaining, it sounds like she's basically a good-natured person who's doing her best to put up with this self-absorbed husband, but unable to deal with the strain. It's a surprisingly affectionate depiction, coming as it does from a man who isn't known for his compassion.
And "Arched Maid Via RDJ" easily equals any of Aphex Twin's best tracks. He breaks out the electric guitar, for the first and last time ever, and it is awesome. While the drums bang and clatter, he plays a long solo with a faraway, detached sound, like the kind of feeling one gets during solitary daydreams. I always liked this song, but it's even better than how I'd remembered it.
What else is there to say? If you're not familiar with Aphex Twin, his best album is still his first one. This CD, however, is a definitive portrayal of the second half of his career, and the three best tracks are as good as anything he's ever done. Devoted fans won't need my invocation to buy this album, but hopefully it will find a wider audience and inspire a new interest in AFX's accomplishments. But man, ten years...mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
Customer Rating:
Summary: AFX: Hangable Auto Bulb (Warp)
Comment: It's always the "most accessible" ones rather than the most popular ones that get the resurrections. I never like to review reissues unless there is a reason. My thing is if the music was done before, so be it. It is in the past, but I will buy it no less. It is mighty smart of them to say that the reissue is by none other than AFX (Otherwise known as Aphex Twin, Caustic Window, Polygon Window, Diceman, and better pronounced as you pronounce what it may sound like to say the letters as a word). I wanted to buy this album because it was one of the albums made in the past that everyone was raving about. And I love Aphex Twin. And plus, reissues are supposed to be rediscovery of how the sounds you love got started. So why not get a start on wondering how the music of Richard D. James came up. Shouldn't we?
AFX's Hangable Auto Bulb (Analogue Bubblebath anagram and kickoff on the series) is an album that like the rest has no actual concept to it. It was just made to activate your mind a bit more. And like IDM, the album has a more electronically complex feel on the album that it sounds like a modern take on Classical music most of us wouldn't buy, despite the belief that both make you practice better at homework.
It turns out his stuff is no different. It is just as enjoyable. With "Children Talking", it has a child saying "Mashed Potatoes" and a man saying "Mashed Potatoes? Why do you hate mashed potatoes", over a very accessible though likely to be empty beat. To tell you the truth, the album gets off to a wonderful start for AFX, but the album feels a bit half-full in terms of RDJ's goo. But as long as you work around it the music is an experience you can't refuse. To hear a half conversation being showed off then sliced and diced is the most weird choose for a lead-off than "I want your soul/I will eat your soul". Though, the ride all gets better with Aphex Twin's "Hangable Auto Bulb" where the songs have a rather bit of impact, as synthesizers coat the music leading you to imagination as 6:30 leads by. With "Laughable Butane Bob", you are pretty much welcome to call it Aphex Twin's "Full Rinse" to the last song's "Come On My Selector" (see "Come On My Selector" and "Full Rinse" on Squarepusher's Big Loada). "Laughable Butane Bob" is an album that further adds a melody and a structure those who aren't enjoying may want to hear: dancing to a melody that will draw you into the music rather than expect your mind to bounce out of whim. Now for those who know Aphex Twin's work may know he uses a mini-piece called "Bit" where the music is under 12 seconds long but a good intermission to any other work.
Now it is time to stop lollygagging and get back to make your mind dance with "Custodian Discount" and "Wabby Legs", which both are mind dancing classics for the time you get to challenge yourself during work. "Every Day", unlike the rest, is a little more melody oriented, therefore filling up the cup and adding a grain of salt, at first reminds you of old use in electric piano before returning back to moving everyone in the Mental Discotheque. Most of the people who listen may be able to call "Everyday" and "Laughable Butane Bob" the most accessible, because they have a beat and a melody to follow, but the truth is as an album together, and an MVP of past Analogue Bubblebath series, Hangable Auto Bulb is a piece of work that you have to strive to try not to dismiss for the little flaws, but to just think of it as a sped-up equivalent to any other Dance/Electronica album you have bought in your life.
Rating: 8/10
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Editorial Reviews:
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Originally released as 2 separate EPs, these sought after tracks are now compiled on one low-priced reissue. All previously issued only on wax, this is the sound of APHEX TWINS's most famous alter-ego, delivering classic rave, schizo jungle and experimentronica galore.
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