Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 22:20:06 -0600
From: James McCartney <---@---.--->
Subject: Re: [ OT ]very low signal to noise ratio .
on 1/17/01 9:18 PM, eric_hard_jams at eric_hard_jams@btinternet.com wrote:
>
>> ok boss. i'm really sorry. back to normal now. much better.
>> my apologies.
>>
> ass licker.
>
shut the F up already, richard.
JMC and RDJ know each personally and hung out together. Here's a picture of the two together: https://www.reddit.com/r/aphextwin/comments/6oheli/screen_ra...
Richard was sort of annoying at times, in the way someone on the spectrum can be. A bit of a troll with poor timing, and poor social skills, but a good, kind lad who spent his time doing things completely orthogonal to anyone else and that made him quite interesting.
I lost touch with him in around 2000-2001. He kinda went dark in those circles. I don't know what he's up to these days, probably raising a family like me.
That he did, according to a surprisingly extensive 2014 interview: https://www.pitchfork.com/features/cover-story/reader/aphex-...
There is also this email from Tue, 16 Jan 2001 19:02:12 +0000 in https://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n225 where he is clearly talking as Aphex Twin. He might be just an impersonator, but given that he speaks directly to James and James calls him Richard has me pretty convinced that it's actually him.
How strange it is that we so easily forgive bad behavior from people we love.
That's part of what loving someone means. It's easy to love someone convenient who never does anything to bother or hurt you.
Besides, he was trolling. It's not like it's a big deal. If you were on a mailing list or usenet group or forum in the 80s and 90s everybody did that, and few if any had an issue with it, we could take it!
We not only forgive but tolerate 100000x worse stuff everyday that directly fucks our lives that we could prioritize not tolerating.
Being a bad person in one domain doesn't mean that someone can't generate value in another.
There are plenty people just the same, with the same capabilities without the quality of being a tarpit of suck.
Because human decency is often overrated and hard usable value is often underrated.
If we removed the value (changes, inventions, artworks, products, etc) made by people which were lacking in "human decency" in this or that aspect, billions would be poorer, sicker, die sooner, and have much worse cultures.
>There are plenty people just the same, with the same capabilities without the quality of being a tarpit of suck.
Understanding is a great component of human decency too, as is not being a sanctimonious hollier-than-thou type. For example, not labelling someone who "wrote something mean in a forum" as "a tarpit of suck", as if that defines them totally, or as if the persons making such statements shit doesn't smell.
Plus "plenty people just the same, with the same capabilities", really? As if the output of an artist is interchangeable with that of another, so that we can just discard those that have done such grave offenses as "being rude on a forum" and just listen to another?
I find it so odd that people overlook severe faults in those whose other qualities they rather love and greatly appreciate. It seems so unjust, yet it's universal.
We can't all be on your level of moral perfection.
If you're not familiar with Aphex Twin, it's hard to understand that this hatred does nothing to inhibit his success.
Also, what you personally find offputting, other people may enjoy. For example, I don't find 'Ventolin' particularly challenging to listen to.
Andy Kaufman was challenging, disturbing, and irritating in equal measure and he did hate his audience.
Is Giger’s art created to cause suffering? How about Beksiński’s paintings? The emotions they invoke are not happiness or joy, but neither are they purely dread or loathing.
Aesthetic pursuit isn’t solely (or even primarily) about the emotions it conjures in the consumer.
Remember: the customer is always right in matters of taste.
People are complex.
Even if it was true, who cares? I like the guy's music, it's had a strong influence on me at various times in my life. But I have never had a strong opinion of whether I like him, and I still don't. Why would I?
Nope. By then RDJ (the actual person) was of course known for using anagrams so it would be an obvious thing to do for any troll.
I mean, wtf, the mailing lists are astonishing if you think about them .. like, how UUCP and mailman and qmail/sendmail used to be all you need to get access to the archives …
Look at how easily a producer can make a pop song in Ableton https://youtube.com/watch?v=F5CPQ8LU36w
SuperCollider and music programming languages are like the modern day bass clarinet.
There isn't much bass clarinet in modern pop music either. Part of what defines pop music is the familiarity of the sound and popular expectation of what music is supposed to be.
Pure algomusic/tracker setups are usually a poor fit for pop music, though. DAWs have indispensable tools for vocal processing that you cannot forego most of the time.
http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n224
http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n225
http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n226
http://www.audiosynth.com/files/sc-users-archive/v01.n227
(note I am not personally claiming this is RDJ)
Fun trivia: he was trolling the SuperCollider mailing list under the alias "eric hard jams" which is an anagram of Richard [D.] James. Some of his messages were truely horrendous and he got kicked out eventually. He is quite a character...