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PATRICK SIMPSON MELOMANIA #2: MUSIC GROWING OUT OF OTHER MUSIC (PART 1 OF 3: APHEX TWIN AND RADIOHEAD’S KID A) SO LET’S SAY YOU WANT TO WRITE A SONG. BUT NOT JUST ANY SONG; A SONG THAT IS COMPLETELY ORIGINAL. COMPLETELY ORIGINAL. YOU’VE HEARD TOO MANY HORROR STORIES OF MUSICIANS GETTING CAUGHT STEALING RIFFS OR MELODIES AND GETTING SUED FOR IT, SO YOU’RE JUST GOING TO BYPASS ALL OF THAT NONSENSE IN ORDER TO CREATE A PURE PIECE OF CAPITAL A ART. [RACHMANINOFF SYMPHONY IN E MINOR] YES, THIS SONG WILL SIMPLY SPRING FROM YOUR HEAD AND LAND ON THE PAGE, AN ENTIRELY NEW PIECE, ONE THAT IS UNLIKE ANYTHING ANYONE HAS EVER HEARD BEFORE. EVERYONE WILL HEAR IT AND ERUPT INTO WILD APPLAUSE FOR YOUR PHENOMENAL ACHIEVEMENT. [APPLAUSE] [RECORD SCRATCH] EXCEPT, AS YOU MAY HAVE GUESSED, THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE. LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE. NOT EVEN APPROACHABLE. TO DEMONSTRATE JUST HOW INSANE THIS IDEA IS, LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT AN ACTUAL MUSICIAN, ONE THAT KNOWS WHAT THEY’RE DOING. [ANTHONY PROSTYAKOV IMPROVISING] SO YOU’RE IN A RESTAURANT, AND YOU HEAR THIS GUY PLAYING THE PIANO IN THE BACKGROUND. HE’S NOT PLAYING ANY PARTICULAR SONGS; HE’S JUST IMPROVISING, MAKING IT UP AS HE GOES ALONG. BUT EVEN THOUGH HE’S TECHNICALLY CREATING A NEW PIECE OF MUSIC, IT ISN’T REALLY NEW. I MEAN, JUST LISTEN TO IT. [ANTHONY IMPROV] YOU’VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE. THE KIND OF MELODY AND CHORD PROGRESSION HE’S USING IS SO COMMONPLACE THAT IT ALMOST BECOMES MEANINGLESS. EVEN THOUGH HE DIDN’T EXPLICITLY STEAL ANYTHING FROM A SPECIFIC ARTIST, HE’S BORROWING HEAVILY FROM A RICH HISTORY OF MUSIC IN WESTERN CULTURE. EVERY PIECE HE’S EVER HEARD IN HIS LIFE FEEDS INTO WHAT HE’S CREATING HERE; HE’S STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS, BUT EVEN MORE THAN THAT, HE’S BUILDING UPON ALL OF HUMANITY’S EXPERIENCE WITH SOUND AND PITCH AND RHYTHM. TAKE ALL OF THAT AWAY, AND WHAT DO YOU HAVE? [ANTHONY IMPROV] [OLD TV TURNING OFF] SILENCE. OH ACTUALLY, JOHN CAGE ALREADY DID A PIECE BACK IN THE FIFTIES CALLED FOUR THIRTY-THREE, AND IT WAS LITERALLY JUST FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY-THREE SECONDS OF SILENCE; SO NOT EVEN SILENCE. VOID, PERHAPS? [WE ARE THE MUSIC MAKERS] THIS IS THE FIRST PART OF A THREE PART SERIES ABOUT HOW MUSIC GROWS OUT OF OTHER MUSIC, AND WE’RE GOING TO LOOK AT THIS IDEA FROM A LOT OF DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES, BUT FOR NOW, LET’S JUST LOOK AT THE STORY OF HOW THE GREATEST ALBUM OF THE 2000S CAME TO SOUND THE WAY IT SOUNDS. I’M PATRICK SIMPSON, AND THIS IS MELOMANIA. [WE ARE THE MUSIC MAKERS] LET’S START WITH SOMETHING SIMPLE: HOW DOES ONE ARTIST INFLUENCE ANOTHER? OF COURSE, IT’S NEVER JUST ONE ARTIST, IT’S A WHOLE WEB OF ALL THE MUSIC THAT THAT ARTIST HAS LISTENED TO, AND EVERYTHING THAT THOSE ARTISTS HAVE LISTENED TO, GOING ALL THE WAY BACK TO WHEN CAVEMEN WERE BANGING ROCKS TOGETHER, AND PROBABLY EVEN BEFORE THAT. BUT FOR THE SAKE OF BREVITY, WE’RE JUST GOING TO LOOK AT ONE DISCRETE EXAMPLE. SO LET’S SAY IT’S 1992. IT’S A PRETTY SLOW YEAR FOR MUSIC; THERE WERE ONLY TWELVE NUMBER ONE SINGLES, THE TOP ONE BEING BOYZ II MEN’S END OF THE ROAD. [END OF THE ROAD] BUT WHILE POP MUSIC WAS IN A LULL, ANOTHER GENRE WAS ABOUT TO UNDERGO A REVOLUTION. ON WHAT WAS PROBABLY A MISERABLY COLD WINTER DAY IN BRITAIN, A RELATIVELY UNKNOWN DJ NAMED RICHARD D. JAMES RELEASED HIS DEBUT ALBUM SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS 85-92 UNDER THE MONIKER APHEX TWIN. [XTAL] DESPITE HAVING POOR AUDIO QUALITY, SINCE IT WAS RECORDED ON A CASSETTE THAT WAS ALLEGEDLY ALMOST DESTROYED BY RICHARD’S CAT, CRITICS PRAISED ITS SPARSE, BEAT-DRIVE STYLE AND ELEGANT COMPOSITION. IT GAINED A CULT FOLLOWING, AND RICHARD WOULD GO ON TO RELEASE SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS VOLUME TWO AND SEVERAL OTHER ALBUMS THROUGHOUT THE 90S. BY THE END OF THE DECADE, HE WAS REGARDED AS THE FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT PRACTITIONER OF CONTEMPORARY ELECTRONIC MUSIC, AND ONE OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE MUSICIANS EVER. OKAY, SO LET’S BACKTRACK A LITTLE TO 1997. THE BAND RADIOHEAD HAVE JUST RELEASED THEIR THIRD STUDIO ALBUM, OK COMPUTER. [PARANOID ANDROID] THE ALBUM WAS HAILED AS A MASTERPIECE, AND CRITICS IMMEDIATELY CALLED IT ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT RELEASES IN MUSIC HISTORY, SOME EVEN COMPARING IT TO SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND. RADIOHEAD TOURED ACROSS THE WORLD FOR MORE THAN A YEAR, AND BY THE TIME THE TOUR ENDED, THE ENTIRE BAND WAS EXHAUSTED. THOM YORKE, THE LEAD SINGER AND SONGWRITER FOR THE BAND, WAS ESPECIALLY AFFECTED; HE HAD A MENTAL BREAKDOWN AND COULDN’T WRITE A SONG FOR MONTHS. AT THIS POINT, HE HAD COMPLETELY ABANDONED GUITAR MUSIC AND WAS LISTENING EXCLUSIVELY TO ELECTRONIC ARTISTS, INCLUDING, YOU GUESSED IT, APHEX TWIN. [DOMINO] SO, FAST-FORWARD A YEAR, AND RADIOHEAD IS WORKING ON THEIR NEXT ALBUM. EVERYONE HAS DIFFERENT IDEAS ABOUT WHAT DIRECTION THE BAND SHOULD TAKE. FOLLOWING UP WHAT’S CALLED ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME IS NO EASY TASK. [DOMINO] THOM STOPPED WRITING SONGS WITH CLEAR VERSES AND CHORUSES, INSTEAD TURNING TO RICH SOUNDSCAPES AND TEXTURES. THE REST OF THE BAND LEFT BEHIND THEIR OLD INSTRUMENTS IN FAVOR OF EXPERIMENTING WITH SYNTHESIZERS AND DRUM MACHINES. THEY STRUGGLED WITH THIS SHIFT; EVERYONE HAD TO FIND NEW ROLES IN THE BAND, BECAUSE SONGS OFTEN WOULDN’T HAVE ANY GUITARS OR DRUMS. THEY AGREED TO DISBAND IF THEY COULDN’T COME UP WITH ANYTHING WORTH RELEASING. [DOMINO] BY APRIL 2000, THEY HAD 20 COMPLETED TRACKS. THEY EVENTUALLY DECIDED TO RELEASE HALF OF THEM ON THEIR FOURTH LP, KID A, RELEASED OCTOBER THAT YEAR. IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASES OF THE PAST 20 YEARS: EVERYONE WAS WONDERING WHERE THE NEXT OK COMPUTER WAS. BUT RATHER THAN FINDING THE POLITICALLY CHARGED ALTERNATIVE ROCK FEATURED ON THE LAST ALBUM, THEY FOUND THIS: [KID A] THOUGH IT DIVIDED CRITICS AT ITS RELEASE, KID A IS NOW WIDELY REGARDED AS THE BEST ALBUM OF THE 2000S, AND MANY FANS, INCLUDING MYSELF, CONSIDER IT TO BE RADIOHEAD’S BEST WORK, EVEN BETTER THAN OK COMPUTER. BUT YOU CAN’T HELP BUT NOTICE HOW SIMILAR IT SOUNDS TO APHEX TWIN. JUST LISTEN; THIS IS MORNING BELL, BY RADIOHEAD. [MORNING BELL] AND THIS IS FREEMAN HARDY AND WILLIS ACID, A COLLABORATION BETWEEN APHEX TWIN AND SQUAREPUSHER, ANOTHER ELECTRONIC ARTIST. THOM YORKE HAS SAID THAT THIS SONG IN PARTICULAR WAS WHAT INSPIRED KID A. [FREEMAN HARDY AND WILLIS ACID] YES, THEY OBVIOUSLY HAVE MAJOR DIFFERENCES, BUT YOU CAN DEFINITELY HEAR HOW APHEX TWIN INFLUENCED THE WAY RADIOHEAD PUTS A TRACK TOGETHER. SO YOU MIGHT SAY THAT RADIOHEAD RIPPED HIM OFF, BUT I’D ARGUE THAT WHAT RADIOHEAD DID IS TOTALLY LEGITIMATE, AND EVEN ADMIRABLE. HERE’S WHAT THEY DID RIGHT: THOM YORKE HAS BEEN VERY OPEN ABOUT HOW MUCH APHEX TWIN HAS AFFECTED HIS MUSIC STYLE, OFTEN CITING HIM AS HIS FAVORITE PRODUCER OF ALL TIME. IT’S NOT LIKE THEY’RE TRYING TO HIDE IT. SECOND OF ALL, RADIOHEAD NEVER STOLE ANY SPECIFIC MELODY OR RHYTHM FROM AN APHEX TWIN SONG, THEY JUST EMULATED HIS STYLE WITH THEIR OWN COMPOSITIONS. AND LASTLY, IT WASN’T JUST APHEX TWIN THEY WERE EMULATING, BUT A NUMBER OF DIVERSE ARTISTS, FROM OLIVIER MESSIAEN TO CHARLES MINGUS. I FOCUSED ON APHEX TWIN BECAUSE HIS IMPACT IS SO READILY APPARENT, BUT REALLY HE WAS JUST ONE OF DOZENS OF MUSICIANS THAT RADIOHEAD DREW INSPIRATION FROM DURING THE PRODUCTION OF KID A. AND ON A MORE PERSONAL NOTE, KID A IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF ALL TIME, AND I CAN’T IMAGINE IT EVER HAPPENING WITHOUT APHEX TWIN. PLUS, WITHOUT IT I WOULD HAVE NEVER EVEN HEARD OF APHEX TWIN, AND THE SAME PROBABLY GOES FOR A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE. RADIOHEAD BROUGHT THIS UNDERAPPRECIATED GENRE TO THE MAINSTREAM, AND INTRODUCED MANY PEOPLE TO SOME OF THEIR FAVORITE ARTISTS OF ALL TIME. HAD RADIOHEAD STUCK WITH THE ANGSTY ALTERNATIVE ROCK THEY HAD PERFECTED IN OK COMPUTER, THE ALBUM WOULD HAVE BEEN A DISAPPOINTMENT, BECAUSE THE SUCCESS THEY’D HAD WITH THAT IN THE PAST COULD NEVER BE REPEATED. SO HERE’S TO ARTISTS THAT ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR INFLUENCES, AND EVEN EMBRACE THEM, BECAUSE WITHOUT THEM, WE’D PROBABLY STILL BE BANGING ROCKS TOGETHER. [4] MELOMANIA IS WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY ME, PATRICK SIMPSON. THE TRACKS THAT I USED THAT I HAVEN’T ALREADY SAID BY NAME ARE, IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE, RACHMANINOFF’S SYMPHONY IN E MINOR, APHEX TWIN’S WE ARE THE MUSIC MAKERS AND XTAL, RADIOHEAD’S PARANOID ANDROID, APHEX TWIN’S DOMINO, RADIOHEAD’S KID A, AND WHAT’S PLAYING RIGHT NOW IS APHEX TWIN’S 4. THIS IS THE FIRST PART OF A THREE PART SERIES ABOUT HOW MUSIC GROWS FROM OTHER MUSIC, AND THE NEXT TWO EPISODES WILL BE COMING OUT SOMETIME OVER THE NEXT MONTH. MELOMANIA IS A PRODUCTION OF 91.3 WHJE, BROADCASTING FROM BEAUTIFUL, DOWNTOWN, CARMEL INDIANA. THANKS FOR LISTENING. .

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