Aphex Twin
The Richard D. James Album (1996)

review by: Matthew Scrivner
Date: 12/12/00

This album is guaranteed to remap your neural pathways. And I mean that.

Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin, goes above and beyond his previous work on this self-titled album with samples of violins and violas and stand-up basses and even that modem handshake sound we all know too well – and who even knows where he got the cartoon-like boings and ticks and crooked thumps and crackling snare drums – but it brews into something diabolical, experimental, and, well... downright hypnotizing.

Some of you people who remember the days when MTV still played music videos instead of trite corporate sponsored gen-x game shows and reality tv ad nauseum, may even recall seeing a track from this album on the late-night "Amp." I refer to the gem "Boy/Girl Song." Which amounts to violins counterposed by weird dissonant snare-drum loops.

To get an idea of James' idea of rhythm, imagine dropping a bag of marbles on a tin roof... In fact, the first time I heard Richard D. James I had to sit down and re-think techno, electronica, the whole digital music genre. Why? Because James refuses to be boxed in by something as petty as TIME SIGNATURE, something that seems to handcuff electronic artists like Moby and Fatboy Slim.

Make no mistake, this is NOT dance music. But it is music, and more importantly music generated by technological devices. And in an industry where such devices amount to incesant counting 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, James taps out secret messages to us in what can only be described and this incredible, ambient morse code.