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Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin has blinded me – with science! I wish that I could have read my own review for this record before buying it, since most reviews I’ve read on Aphex Twin have been very misleading, almost to the point of providing misinformation. I expected this CD to be full of musically dense and emotionally intriguing collages, but that is nowhere near my own impression. First of all, it should be said that there is a segment of the population that would be hard-pressed to even qualify this CD as music, at least in the narrow sense of the term. Aphex Twin, who for all intents and purposes is Richard James, constructs bits of sound using electronic widgets and extraneous paraphernalia, such as warp-speed drum machines and penny whistles. The end result sounds more like a science experiment gone array than a collection of songs, but then again, maybe that’s only my impression.
The best word to describe much of the content found here is manic, and possibly depraved. The majority of ‘songs’ here are full of near-spastic syncopation, created with a drum machine whose tempo button must have gotten stuck on 800 BPM. For a while, it’s pretty cool to hear these incredible beats rush by, but the effect gets predictably tiresome by track three. On top of these synthetically created, adrenaline-fueled beats are keyboard effects that are intended to either mock, annoy or lull the listener into a false sense of complacency, at which point things only get weirder. When James finally adds his own voice to the mix, he comes off sounding like Nigel Tufnel, creating a B-side for the latest Spinal Tap opus. This is especially true when he sings lines like, "I wish the milkman would deliver my milk in the morning…" ad nauseum. And, you don’t want to know how he wants his milk delivered, believe me.
Throughout the CD, melodies are superfluous, or nonexistent. More than anything, The Richard D. James Album suggests what it feels like to be caught inside the microchip of a high-tech pinball machine. All the while, this insane bleeping goes on all over the place. It’s enough to drive a sane person crazy, really. Listening to this CD repeatedly started to push me over the edge, until I really felt as though I needed to escape it and relax. For fun, I think I’ll go play with my microwave oven for awhile.
Grade: 
 
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