ORGANISED CHAOS

Throughout a relatively long and illustrious career, Aphex Twin’s style of production has varied considerably, from pseudo electroacoustic instrumentals (on Drukqs), to the seemingly frenzied examples heard elsewhere. While at first sight some of his music may seem entirely chaotic, nothing is further from the truth. It’s one of life’s mysteries that in order to make something sound chaotic, you often have to go to extreme lengths to organise it. This is firmly the case with Aphex Twin, where the padlike sound we have created here might float above a highly programmed rhythmic construct. Moreover, the harmonic and melodic content may also appear haphazard; again, this is not necessarily the case, but what is the case is that much of his music employs relatively sophisticated harmonic chord progressions, where our pad sound may float across the top playing melodies, as well as interjecting the odd harmony. If you hope to construct a track with a similar sonic construct, a good starting point will be to work on a significant chord sequence, before you become embroiled in grooves. Once you know where your chords are going, you will be able to punctuate any rhythmic elements accordingly, which will make for a far more coherent track, and hopefully inspire you not so much to copy, as to move in a different direction, in order to create your own sound.