Music / drukQs

"COME ON, YOU CUNT,
LET'S HAVE SOME APHEX ACID!"

Drukqs (stylized as drukQs) is the fifth studio album by musician Richard D. James under the alias Aphex Twin, released on October 22, 2001. Despite its resemblance, James has affirmed that the name of the album is not related to drugs and is "just a word [he] made up."

It is a double album, largely alternating between tightly programmed Drum and Bass songs and classical piano compositions made using computer-controlled instruments such as a modified Yamaha Disklavier (the inside of which provides the album cover) and custom-made MIDI-controlled drum mechanisms. The titles of many tracks are also either written in Cornish or coded.

The primary reason for the album's release was James accidentally leaving an MP3 player with over 180 unreleased tracks on a plane while traveling to Scotland. Believing that the music would eventually be leaked, he figured he might as well release some of it as part of his final contractual obligation to Warp Records. He also cited his personal music-listening preferences at the time as inspiration for it being a double album, stating that upon buying a CD, he would put it on his computer and just save the tracks he liked, which he encouraged people to do with this album.

Following the release of drukQs, while James continued issuing music under several of his aliases, he would not put out another album under the Aphex Twin name for 13 years, after which he released Syro in 2014. Shortly afterwards in 2015, he would also release the EP Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2, a companion piece to drukQs consisting of further computer-controlled instrumental tracks.

Warning: Due to some song titles changing depending on the version, both titles will be written where applicable. Track lengths will be taken from the CD runtimes.

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Tracklist:

Disc One:

1. "Jynweythek" / "Jynweythek Ylow" (2:23)
2. "Vordhosbn" (4:51)
3. "Kladfvgbung Micshk" (2:06)
4. "Omgyjya-Switch7" (4:52)
5. "Strotha Tynhe" (2:12)
6. "Gwely Mernans" (5:08)
7. "Bbydhyonchord" (2:33)
8. "Cock/Ver10" (5:18)
9. "Avril 14th" (2:05)
10. "Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount" (8:10)
11. "Gwarek2" (6:46)
12. "Orban Eq Trx 4" (1:35)
13. "Aussois" (0:13)
14. "Hy a Scullyas Lyf Adhagrow" (2:14)
15. "Kesson Daslef" / "Kesson Dalef" (1:21)

Disc Two:

1. "54 Cymru Beats" (6:06)
2. "Btoum-Roumada" (1:58)
3. "Lornaderek" (0:31)
4. "QKThr" / "Penty Harmonium" (1:27)
5. "Meltphace 6" (6:24)
6. "Bit 4" (0:25)
7. "Prep Gwarlek 3b" (1:19)
8. "Father" (0:57)
9. "Taking Control" (7:14)
10. "Petiatil Cx Htdui" (2:11)
11. "Ruglen Holon" (1:49)
12. "Afx237 v.7" (4:23)
13. "Ziggomatic 17" (8:35)
14. "Beskhu3epnm" (2:10)
15. "Nanou2" (3:25)

Personnel

• Richard D. James

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Rol-Trope7

• Bilingual Bonus: Most of the track titles are written in Cornish, an archaic language spoken by approximately 550 people in the Cornwall area. The list of translated titles is as follows:
  • "Jynweythek Ylow" roughly translates to "Mechanical Music".
  • "Vordhosbn" means "Noisy Boat".
  • "Strotha Tynhe" is "Squeezed Tightly".
  • Rather ominously, "Gwely Mernans" translates to "Death Bed".
  • The 'Gwarek' in "Gwarek2" means "Arch".
  • "Hy a Scullyas Lyf Adhagrow" is "She Shed a Flood of Tears".
  • "Kesson Daslef" means "Consistent Echo".
  • "Ruglen Holon" means either "Heart Rattle" or "Salt Rattle".^note As "kolon" translates to heart but "holan" translates to salt.
  • For a non-Cornish example, "Cymru" is Welsh for Wales. See Spoken Word in Music for more details.
• Epic Rocking: "Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount", "Gwarek2", "54 Cymru Beats", "Meltphace 6", "Taking Control" and "Ziggomatic 17" all exceed the 6-minute mark.
• Gratuitous Panning: The sounds in "Gwarek2" bounce between both channels, with occasional moments of one sound playing in one channel while a different one plays in the opposite channel.
• Hell Is That Noise: "Gwarek2" is composed of distorted, echoed recordings of shoes squeaking, children playing and various clicking noises/amplified electronic chirps.
• Meaningful Name: The "prep" in "Prep Gwarlek 3b" refers to prepared piano.
• Miniscule Rocking: "Aussois", "Bit 4", "Kesson Daslef", "Btoum-Roumada", "Lornaderek", "QKThr" / "Penty Harmonium", "Prep Gwarlek 3b", "Father" and "Ruglen Holon" each qualify as this.
• Mood Whiplash: The musical equivalent of it, anyway. One song will be a fast-paced rave song, followed immediately by a more somber, quiet Lonely Piano Piece.
• Portmantitle: "Lornaderek" is a combination of the names of Richard's parents, Lorna and Derek, who are both heard on this track singing "Happy Birthday" to Richard.
• Sampling:
  • "Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount" samples the sounds from Space Invaders.
  • "54 Cymru Beats" samples the line, "Humanoid! Stop the intruder!" from the game Berzerk.
• Shout-Out: "Mt St Michel + Saint Michaels Mount" are the (surprisingly similar) names of two tidal islands, and both are mentioned on the Sand Bridge at Low Tide page.
• Spoken Word in Music: There are many examples of this throughout the album.
  • Quite an aggressive example. "Cock/Ver10" contains two samples of Squarepusher, one of him saying "Tricks!" (or "Switch!") and the other of him shouting one of Aphex Twin's most famous quotes:
    COME ON YOU CUNT LET'S HAVE SOME APHEX ACID!
  • "Ziggomatic 17" has a much more polite example, with a computerized voice in the middle saying "MIDI received", and the song ends with it saying:
    Thank you for your attention
    Bye
  • "54 Cymru Beats" has several, including a sample of a text-to-speech reading of Goldilocks, several repeated samples of someone (likely Richard) saying "Woo!" and "Fuck", and yet another text-to-speech voice saying "Welsh is the original language of Wales" and "Welsh is very interesting and the computer has spoken naturally", both in Welsh.
  • "Lornaderek" could be considered this as well, due to it being an answering machine recording from Richard's parents, Lorna and Derek, wishing him a happy birthday.
  • "Taking Control" has a repeated sample of someone (likely Richard) saying "I'm taking control of the drum machine".
• Tuckerization: According to this interview, "Nannou" was the name of his (at-the-time) girlfriend, whose voice features on "Windowlicker" (she also lends her name to one of the tracks on that single). "Nanou2" is a slight misspelling of that name.
• Word Purée Title: A side-effect of most of the song titles being Cornish. See Bilingual Bonus.

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