Thinking of getting some Aphex Twin

What's your favourite album of his, of any kind of music he does?

Richard D. James Album is my favorite. Fast and very melodic. Also very straight to the point (lasts hardly over thirty minutes).

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is music for ambient electronic noobs. That's not to say it's a bad album. It's actually my second favorite by him. Comes close to the above.

I suppose you mean getting as in going into a store and buying?

edited 4th Oct '10 8:33:40 AM by Litis

Buying, yes. But I'll be doing it online. Richard D. James Album isn't available in the Australian iTunes store for some reason, but getting a CD through the mail isn't out of the question. Is it worth the extra expense? Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is available through iTunes and I already have it on my wishlist.

Also, any thoughts on ...I Care Because You Do?

Aphex Twin is more overrated than any other IDM artist.

He has some decent stuff (Ambient Works, RDJ), even great songs here and there (Windowlicker), but otherwise he's quite average. Everything he does diverse though he may be, someone can do it better.

Oddly enough, my favorite by him is Drukqs. I seem to be the only person who thinks that way.

Dunno if this thread is dead or not, I'll post anyways because I like lists.

...I Care Because You Do is probably RDJ's most accessible album; there's a lot of melody and very simple percussive patterns (compared to his other work) that lends itself to relatively unchallenging but still interesting works.

Richard D. James Album contains the most breaks per capita than any other RDJ full-length. It mixes up acid techno, synthesized strings, and the aforementioned breaks to great effect, although it falls apart at points, such as the kitschy "Goon Gumpas" and "Logan Rock Witch." "4", however, the first track of the album, may be one of the most beautiful pieces of electronic music ever.

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is, as previously noted by a separate poster, the gateway to ambient and ambient electronic music for many. It is pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin, austere ambient electronica that somehow manages to be lush with emotion. YMMV.

Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, the follow-up to SAW 85-92, is essentially more of the same, with considerably less beats and considerably more tension. It earned comparisons, both favorable and unfavorable, to Brian Eno's more ethereal works.

Drukqs, RDJ's most recent release, is a bit of a mixed bag. It contains "Avril 14th", arguably the greatest melody he's ever written, but is also full of rather boring melodic instrumentals bereft of any sort of beat, and not really sticking out as interesting or pretty. Pitchfork Media did a rather apt review comparing those pieces to the "Windham Hill aesthetic". There are a few pretty fantastic drill n' bass bits on here, though, which may be enough to convince you to listen to the whole thing all the way through. YMMV. Rumor has it it was made as a contract breaker with Warp Records; nobody knows for sure.

Hangable Auto Bulb, released under the AFX moniker, is probably most similar to Richard D. James Album in terms of overall sound, though it focuses more on the beats than it does on the arrangement. There are some seriously gorgeous melodies here if you're willing to listen for them; "Laughable Butane Bob", "Every Day", and the title track all have some great songwriting behind them.

The Come to Daddy EP can't be described as having an overall sound; "Come to Daddy (Pappy Mix)" is a distorted techstep track made as a bit of a joke that actually got to be one of RDJ's biggest hits, while "Flim", "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball", and "IZ-US" all share the same sort of melody-&-breaks style that dominated Hangable Auto Bulb. The other few songs are highly experimental, mostly involving abstract sound manipulation and some creepy Plain Talk bits.

Finally, the Windowlicker EP. The title track is undoubtedly RDJ's most well-know tune, and for good reason; it fuses the warped bass of dubstep, the vocal glitches common in electro house and complextro, and the confused harmonics and complex songwriting of Fly Lo tunes, well before the rise in popularity of any of the aforementioned. It also includes some fairly intense breakdowns and a lovely little bit of frequency engineering at the end that reveals a cool spiral pattern when viewed through a spectrometer. "(equation)" is an experimental track that reveals an image of RDJ's face when put through a spectrometer set according to the specifications of the (not replicated here) title. "Nannou" is a clicking, chiming piece of work, beautifully melodic in the vein of "Flim" or the melody in the middle of "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball".

Richard D. James is, I would have to say, one of the most influential and talented electronic musicians to ever exist. Definitely worth exploring his back catalogue.

edited 21st Jan '12 10:45:50 AM by Meadowlark