Mike Greenfield (Lotus)

Aphex Twin is my…welllll…..yes, he’s my favorite musician ever. I remember listening as a teenager to Aphex’s weird, unpredictable yet enthralling drum patterns topped with lush analog synths and being changed forever. I spent many an hour trying to sound like Aphex Twin (before I realized that it’s probably better to spend time trying to sound like yourself).

So when I stumbled across Mike Greenfield playing live drums covering Aphex’s “Film” (one of my personal favorites) I had to do a discount double check. Like, woah!

His attention to detail is undeniable and it’s simply awesome to watch someone reverse engineer something of such complexity as “Film.”

Check it out:

I had to write Mike and find out his methods for pulling off the recording. Here is his response:

“Hey Max- First I notated the song on Finale (it took a LONG time!) Then I looped 4 bar phrases of it on Ableton (at a slower tempo) while playing along until I memorized each section. Afterwards I gradually combined the
phrases until I had the whole song.”

Just in case you don’t get it, check out the original: