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Album Review
by SashaS
19-10-2001
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| Relishing sonics |
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Aphex Twin: 'Druqks'
(Warp)
Aphex Twin does an innovative and beautiful thing called making brilliant records… More!
First, the video killed the radio star, then DJs-as-star took over daytime radio, now Paul Oak-in-field has signed to Madonna’s Maverick… Dance-music, in its infinite varieties, has been the new pop, life-style and method of weekending for a decade or more. There are plenty of lightweight chart contenders, there is plenty on the outer edge and there are even more wagon-jumpers… And then, there is Aphex Twin, a.k.a. Richard D. James.
‘Drukqs’ is a mighty soundtrack to growing army of Aphex-anites and it is so just, so deserved. The Twin is making music that teleports you through the cracks in the shrinking sphere of living; this is a hike on Mars (as depicted in ‘Total Recall’) before terraforming – there is no oxygen but you can have fun. A fantasy of psi-fi proportions, the first one in five years for our Rich. Beauty takes time as any woman approaching 40 knows only too well.
But, there is quality and quantity, 30 tracks and 100 minutes with a scope of… well, cultural review. There is contemporary minimalism and avant-garde din, drum’n’bass and speedo-tunes, pop-snatches and classical batches. Richard D James uses everything, from a bicycle chain to a computer, from a kart to a dart.
Some of the titles are not of the kind you’ll be attempting to pronounce after few blunts, such as ‘Kladfvigbund Micshk’, ‘Btoum-roumada’ or ‘afx237v.7’; ‘Track 7’ will have to do instead and it’ll be enough to designate music that is celestial by letting you go places others dare not visit. There are frequent interludes that are pure sonic-impressionism of the Erik Satie-ilk, there is an order here, a pattern to delight to the end of… whatever (is terminating in your life right now).
Backward sounding pieces, Japanese-flavoured tones, rave-ranked tunes… These songs are opposition to the digest-music (as decreed by Kozmo Tyrrell) although, sadly, not everything is of the lofty-standard. Minor irritations occur during ‘Gwarek 2’ (pointless noise), ‘Bbydhyonchord’ (too electro-‘80s) or when Aphex’s parents sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to their 28-year-old boy.
Otherwise it is marvellously paced music for travelling to wherever your imagination extends to. Probably a Top 3, all-genres, album of the year. Give us some more of this kinda drukqs!
9/10
SashaS
21-2-2002
Aphex Twin’s album ‘Drukqs’ is released 22 October 2001 on Warp
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