The many lives (and sounds) of Cex: knob-twiddler, rapper, experimenter

September 14, 2017 7:06 PM

Rjyan Kidwell (not a typo) has most commonly gone by the stage name Cex, but his sound has changed in the 20+ years he's made music, from pastoral to glitchy IDM to spoken word-ish rap (?), the dark, messy side of Cex, and even experimental/tribal looping sounds. The death of Cex was speculated and denied in 2006. Six years and ten albums later, he was again presumed dead, this time a self-imposed label. This summer, he released an album of "original stage adaptations of science fiction novels." Cex is clearly not yet dead.

Rjyan Kidwell apparently added the silent "j" was chosen to differentiate himself from other Ryans in high school, a time when he was also making acid tracks. He teamed up with Miguel Depedro, aka Kid 606, and they formed the Tigerbeat6 label, declared "one of bedroom electronic music's most prominent independent labels" by Sound on Sound in their profile on the two artists (and their gear) in 2004. The year prior, Cex toured with the Postal Service, and Rjyan wrote a tour diary for Dusted Magazine.

A couple years later, he got married to Roby Newton (formerly in the post hardcore band Milemarker), who appeared on the "messy, unpredictable, and rewarding record," Actual Fucking. He then put Cex on hold and the couple made even noisier music as Sandcats (possible sample tracks on MySpace; archived web presence).

The band didn't last, and Rjyan was back to making music as Cex, but he also branched out --

co-hosting the Zodiac Karaoke Party is "what he does when he isn’t recording electronic music as Cex, DJing, writing for Arthur or other publications, (doing sound design and) acting in plays such “The Golden Spike” or “Two Suns Over Thebes” at the Annex Theater, or appearing in a conceptual art porno video segment of The Acme Corporation’s take on “Kaspar.” " (SFW, review)

But if you're looking for more of his music, he's put a bunch of random tracks on Soundcloud (plus samples of songs available through Soundcloud Go), plus 20 albums (and an instrumental version) on Bandcamp in his Must Finish label. He also has two EPs and an album as Rjyan, and a couple more albums of his are up on the Automation Records Bandcamp account.

posted by filthy light thief (12 comments total)

Oh my gosh he has SO MUCH MUSIC! I was thinking "hey, let's see what that guy is up to, it's been a minute since I looked into Cex. Did he retire or something."

No, no he did not, and he's even more diverse than before. Where the hell did Irreducible Sensations come from, and what is he talking about in the album description?

We have now reached an action of mind, a faculty, whose existence is strenuously denied. Most able and thorough thinkers, patient inquirers within the field of philosophy itself, with a host of scientific investigators, who bring with them predilections and reasonings suited to other departments, regard this furniture of intuitive ideas as wholly fabulous, as an unnecessary assumption in the explanation of phenomena entirely intelligible without it....

And it keeps going on! But the music, oh the music ... it's magical, magical stuff. Heady, happy explorations of loops and patterns, but warm and analog, no glitchy IDM. Samples of I don't even know what, and I'm only six minutes into the first 19 minute track!
posted by filthy light thief at 7:10 PM on September 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

And then there's his album of chopped and screwed doomwave grungegaze ... so weird.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:21 PM on September 14, 2017

Knob-twiddler?

Help the olds out here. I'm assuming thats an intentionally masturbatory term for DJ?

Oh god, I'm old and I still do drugs.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:53 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ah, nope. That's a term for (live) electronic music making, usually more bleepy-bloopy IDM stuff. See: Expert Knob Twiddlers.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:25 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thank you!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:41 PM on September 14, 2017

Bonus link: Roy Christopher interviews Cex from 2002, in which Rjyan shares his top 5 books (Dubliners by James Joyce, The Tunnel by Russell Edson, The Fixer by Bernard Malamud, The Age of Wire and String by Ben Marcus, The Wall by Jean-Paul Sartre) and top 5 records ("right now, I’d say Versus by Pearl Jam, Illmatic by Nas, Fiestas + Fiascos by Lifter Puller, a CD-R with all my favorite Microphones tracks on it, and a CD-R with all my favorite doseone tracks on it").

This is interesting because I've been obsessed with a rough recording of a cover of Microphones' I Want To Be Cold, which he posted as an MP3 on his old collection of free outtakes, live tracks and demos (saved by Archive.org, which didn't catch any of the MP3s, or the version of that page with his Microphones cover).
posted by filthy light thief at 10:29 PM on September 14, 2017

I've been using Cex's description of Florida for many years now.

Thank you for the mjusic, Rjyan.
posted by stannate at 6:27 AM on September 15, 2017

I played the shit out of both Cex's early glitch stuff and Maryland Mansions so I'm excited to find out what he's up to. Thanks for the post!
posted by en forme de poire at 7:50 AM on September 15, 2017

Glad he's back at it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GApTdfNQBwc&t=19s
posted by zippercollider at 11:32 AM on September 15, 2017

One of the reasons I don't like Rephlex records is how they inspired a kind of prankery that gets in the way of the music (for me), but damned if this guy hasn't got legs. Good for him, Kid606 seems to only be putting out compilations of "old stuff" in recent years.
posted by rhizome at 11:42 AM on September 15, 2017

Yup, Kid606 is also on Bandcamp, posting old and new material. He has diversified, but not as much as Cex. I think Miguel's ambient stuff is beautiful, FWIW.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:09 PM on September 15, 2017

good lord, i haven't thought of cex in yearrrrs. he was a delightfully unhinged opener at several shows during my misspent youth. his shtick back then was audience-solicited freestyle improv, just him and a laptop and a whiteboard; i recall one particular stand-out effort involving Left-Eye Lopes, armed pandas, and 'ass sharks -- sharks bitin' people's asses.' thank you for encouraging me to look him up again!
posted by halation at 6:27 AM on September 17, 2017 [1 favorite]