Aphex Twin

Product Details

* Audio CD (January 28, 1997)
* Original Release Date: January 28, 1997
* Number of Discs: 1
* Label: Sire / London/Rhino
* Catalog Number: 62010
* ASIN: B000002HOF
* Other Editions: Audio Cassette
* Average Customer Review: based on 131 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,104 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #5,661 in Music

Listen to Samples
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1. 4 Listen Listen
2. Cornish Acid Listen Listen
3. Peek 824545201 Listen Listen
4. Fingerbib Listen Listen
5. Corn Mouth Listen Listen
6. To Cure A Weakling Child Listen
7. Goon Gumpos Listen
8. Yellow Cal X Listen
9. Girl/Boy Song Listen
10. Log N Rock Witch Listen
11. Milkman Listen
12. Inkey $ Listen
13. Girl/Boy (18 Pound Snore Rush Mix) Listen
14. Beetles Listen
15. Girl/Boy (Redruth Mix) Listen

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
If techno ever does become the sound of young America, don't expect Richard James to be its poster boy, deserving though he may be. A native of Cornwall, England, James is obsessed with the mechanics of music making: As a kid, he took apart and reassembled the living room piano. Under the names Aphex Twin, Polygon Window, AFX, and other aliases too numerous to mention, he showed that he could make entire tracks with the sounds produced by tapping on a Coke can. Like the indie rockers of yore, he revels in his marginality because of the creative freedom it gives him. His full-length U.S. debut, Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994), includes some of the most serene sounds this side of the Orb, but his favorite hobby is the not-at-all-blissful pastime of driving a Daimler Ferret Mark 3 tank through his parents' backyard.

None of his recordings have captured the competing impulses to lull you to sleep and blast out your eardrums as well as Richard D. James, his third and best album. As the title indicates, James has turned inward for inspiration, painting aural pictures of real and imagined scenes from his west country childhood. "Goongumpas" is a fanciful, playful tune that wouldn't sound out of place on the soundtrack to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. As his adventures with the family upright indicate, James was a bit of a devil even as a child. "Beetles" is the sound of a boy frying bugs on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass, and "To Cure a Weakling Child" shows flashes of the sort of sadism found only on preschool playgrounds. If you still doubt that young Richard developed early on, the romantic Nino Rota-style strings on "Girl/Boy Song" are just made for passionate seductions, and the tune appears in three mixes, each one hot and hornier than the one before.

The raucous undercurrents of even his calmest tunes and the sources of many of his most common sounds are what link James to the rock tradition. With Richard D. James, the artist solidifies his position as an electronic music mastermind who has earned a spot beside such well-respected innovators--whether or not he's destined for stardom. --Jim Derogatis… (more)

Product Details

* Audio CD (April 12, 1994)
* Original Release Date: April 12, 1994
* Number of Discs: 2
* Label: Sire / London/Rhino
* Catalog Number: 45482
* ASIN: B000002MNZ
* Average Customer Review: based on 189 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,564 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #11,884 in Music

Track Listings
Disc: 1
1. cliffs
2. radiator
3. rhubarb
4. grass
5. mold
6. ropes
7. circles
8. weathered stone
9. tree
10. domino
See all 11 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2
1. blue calx
2. parallel stripes
3. metal grating
4. windowsill
5. b+w stripes
6. siding nails
7. corrugated tubing
8. lichen
9. leaves
10. tassels
See all 12 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
British electronics wunderkind Richard James (alias Aphex Twin, AFX, Polygon Window, etc.) claims he heard the compositions on Selected Ambient Works, Volume II in lucid dreams. Like abstract paintings composed of shades of a single color, James's resonant explorations of specific timbres linger close to a central idea on each cut, incorporating just enough variation to remain disturbing. While its predecessor, Selected Ambient Works '85-'92 drew on seven years' worth of material, the uniform quality of these untitled tracks, plus their judicious sequencing, suggests they were assembled over a shorter period. Clocking in at over 150 minutes, the double-disc set (if this is "selected," how many hours of outtakes remain?) provides an exemplary introduction to the quieter facets of James's expansive, idiosyncratic aesthetic. --Kurt B. Reighley… (more)