This is an appreciation post for Luke Vibert, Aphex Twin's best friend, classmate, and roommate, aka Wagon Christ, Amen Andrews, Kerrier District... etc.

To put it simply, I'd account a good little chunk of Aphex Twin's style to Luke. I had a chat with Luke at one of his shows, and he claimed that Aphex Twin would have never released his stuff at all if he weren't strongly encouraged. Thanks Luke!

This track is the best evidence I have for my claim. It's from 1990, and is an amalgamation of Breakbeat, Dub, Acid, and Ambient.. kind of unheard of for the time, and the quintessential Aphex sound. Those ambient pads sound familiar? The bells? The breaks? I found it on Luke's discogs page. This was definitely shown to Aphex Twin. I've got a prize for whoever can find an earlier and similarly styled track.

This alone is fairly significant I'd say.. I don't mean to discredit Aphex Twin. Even giants are on the shoulders' of giants.

Luke's individual accomplishments are insane though. It's a shame he doesn't get much credit.

Reading this dude's comments referencing break samples that have rarely been sampled, and detailing old underground raves when people used to trade physical records of independent Jungle tracks.. He lives and bleeds electronic music. He's 50, and grew up through the Electro/Hip Hop late 80s scene, and rode through the Jungle, Hardcore, House scenes and more. I really don't think there's anyone else who was so centered to what electronic music became.

His pseudonyms are all case studies on electronic music..

This is a phenomenal case study on UK Garage, titled UK Garave. A liiittle dry for me, but his code switching is nuts. He gets it lol.

This is a study in Jungle, under the pseudonym Amen Andrews. Time warping, snare rolls.. the hallmarks, and spot on.

This is Disco House... Listen to the versatility in sampling, production techniques, and drum patterns--very distinct.

This is Acid Electro.. a blend that's not easy to pull off. Futuristic and clean.

I could go on--his breadth is ridiculous.

Would love to chat about icons. Someone else do a little write-up on electronic music history and @ me!

Falling Down

Runtime: 1h 53m

Budget: $25m

Tomatometer: 75% 6.8/10 (Audience 88% 4/5)

IMDB Rating: 7.6 / 10 - 188k ratings (Top 1000 7.5/10)

Language: English

Streaming: Vudu , Amazon

Michael Douglas plays Foster, a man with 1950's era mentality who is having a really bad day. He just wants to make it across LA in time for his daughters birthday. The increasing setbacks he faces from modern 1990's society see him increasingly break down into a string of violence episodes. But his violence is guided by his 1950's era set of morals. And in spite of Fosters nerdy 50's appearance, he is surprisingly good at the modern violence thing. Does the movie glorify the violent anti-hero? Not so fast.

Robert Duvell plays Prendergast. A retiring cop on desk duty who is the only who connects the violent dots together. But because he is a retiring desk jockey who is clearly too afraid to take on a real cops job, almost no one listens to him. Almost no one. There is one person on the force who knows Prendergast has a lot more going on than people realize.

This story is an interesting analysis of the male psyche under pressure. Foster reacts with anger and aggression. Predergast bends to the point of being a doormat, and he just lies there and takes it.

What the movie uncovers at the end, is there is a middle ground, that handling life's setbacks sometimes requires patience and grace, and sometimes requires assertiveness and boldness, and that wisdom is knowing what you can and should try to change and what you can and should try to accept.

This movie has always been a favorite of mine, because I love a little bit of the old ultra violence, and I love an unusual ending that makes you rethink about the entire movie with a new perspective.

But what is really interesting, is this movie touches on the 1950's era males ideals and expectations men are still raised with today, and the outrage that arises when that sense of entitlement goes unfulfilled.