'Richard D. James Album' by Brian J. Dillard from Armchair
Let's cut through the omniscient-music-critic facade: I am not a big Aphex Twin expert. Yet. I'm not sure exactly why I never sought out any Aphex stuff. I think I was just bitter cuz back in 1993 I was too mired in my trashy house phase to appreciate his bizarre reworking of Saint Etienne's "Who Do You Think You Are?"
But now that I'm down with the techno program, I can appreciate this brilliant album of skewed electronica and all it encompasses: scrambled breakbeats, huge stabs of orchestral grandeur and the coolest ode to lactation I've ever heard ("Milkman"). This is a guy who's not content to be constrained by the limits of genre or good taste.
According to the press release, the album was named in honor of the Aphex Twin's stillborn twin brother (pictured below), who shared the same name. That makes sense, given the evocative, childlike (which is not to say childish) melancholy of vocal tracks like "Beetles" and "Goongumpas."
The album works best as a whole, but standout tracks include the Underworld-y "Yellow Calx," the hectic, soothing "Girl/Boy Song" and the breakbeat workout "4," which takes as its starting point the string intro to the 12-inch of Kate Bush's 1986 single "Experiment IV."
Somehow, it's fitting that this techno auteur - who uses homemade equipment to make music that is as densely intelligent as it is accessible - should sample an obscure pop song about government scientists working in a secret lab to create "a sound that could kill someone." There's nothing on this album that's quite that deadly, but several tracks come close.
Review written by: Brian J. Dillard from Armchair DJ
