Customer Reviews

Classics

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This compilation represents much of Aphex Twin's earliest work. All of these songs vividly illustrate the fact that sometimes less is indeed more. For the most part, the tracks on "Classics" were put together using little more than a synthesizer (Roland's TB-303), a drum machine, and effects. The result is some of the most compelling electronic music you'll ever hear. It's their stripped-down simplicity that gives these arrangements their tremendous energy. "Digeridoo" is a mesmerizing techno song that has no right to be as good as it is, considering that it is only a drum track with an endlessly repeated 303 synth line. The rest of the songs on this collection are of similar caliber.

Aphex Twin (Richard D.James) can claim to be one of dance music's greatest innovators and composers. Since the late 80's he has been recording his own home brewed techno which defied and rebelled against the dance music trends that were then currently dominating the clubs and charts. This album starts off with his breakthrough release - Digeridoo. It is a vicious attack on the eardrums with merely a pulsating digeridoo in the mix with punishing bass and drums dipping in and out. It is incredibly exciting to listen to and reminds you how pathetic some of the current dance music other europeans are producing, DJs such as Darude and all that Ibiza tripe that fills our radio waves and music charts.
The rest of the album is a mix of hard-hitting 'nosebleed' techno and gentler, ambientesque tunes. The best of the louder tracks on the album are 'Isopropanol' and 'Phlange Phace'. The former is an astonishing song with a punishing bass line that threatens to cause your speakers to implode. As the track progresses, demonic handclaps, acid bursts and a spooky keyboard line sneak into the mix. The overall track feels very claustrophobic and inescapable as it changes beats, meshes two different drum loops together and climaxes in a combustion of sound and energy and breaks down into a simple clapping drum loop and finishes. By the end of the song you feel exhausted and drawn out but then the album continues unmercifully and you simply surrender to it's wonders and hidden treasures.

The latter song I mentioned, 'Phlange Phace' is even more astonishing in the authors audacity and inventiveness with a drum machine and keyboard. It begins with ominous, striking keyboard stabs and a racing drum loop which just grabs your attention and holds you in its grasp for a further five minutes. The tempo just consistently changes with differnt effects and textures comandeering the mix and you just listen in awe.
There are indeed gentler moments. 'Polynomial-C' fades in with a rolling keyboard sample and cutting strings. It is a beautiful song which is eventually driven along by stuttering drums.
'Classics' is full of little moments of genius like little string samples jumping in and out of a song which is purely bass and drums. This structure, heavenly sample put over a mangling beat is used quite alot in the Aphex back catalogue, but it always seems well used and never familiar, always fresh and exciting. Aphex Twin is a true innovator and should always be remembered as one. A dance producer and composer always pushing the boundaries of music as we know it. This was the first Aphex Twin album I bought, if you are unfamiliar with the Twin, I suggest you also make this your first purchase by this most amazing artist.
Other recommended listens are his 'I Care Because You Do' album and his 'Windowlicker' single.

I think, of all the aphex twin I've heard, this is the most accessible collection of songs. The songs are enjoyable, and as another reviewer noted, their stripped down simplicity gives them a lot of energy. I was expecting a more eclectic, difficult album, but I enjoyed it regardless. It was actually kind of a treat to hear such straightforward music under the Aphex Twin moniker.

There are great songs on here... but because it's a compilation, I find the ordering of the tracks to be a bit capricious. This is definitely not a place to start if you are interested in RDJ. 'Didgeridoo' is a stunning gem though... and probably worth the price of the album.

Just great. I am a fan of his music for quite a while and all of his records are special in their own way. Tracks with a little twist only RDJ can add. Sometimes a bit sinister, but thats ok for me! Most of his tracks are sertainly refreshing and energy boosting. A philosopher teacher once said: "to enjoy and appreciate the quality of sertain aspects (of whatsoever) you have to have rotten spots besides it". In case of some of the tracks ("ventolin" (medicine for asthmatic patiens) for example in which you hear a sample of a person hyperventilating), annoying bleeps, cracks and sounds are added in such way that when they fade away in a track you almost feel a releef....a contrast between serenety and rotten (no offence)

a good collection of otherwise hard to find singles & rarities. much more engaging then other afx collections of this sort (i'm thinking particularly of the caustic window compilation, which is mostly unlistenable acid noise). these tracks have marvelous clanging rhythm... a nerdy thing i used to do when listening was to concentrate on each separate sound layer and try to simultaneously focus on each-- the hi hat, the bass, the countless miscellaneous noises. although the relentless industrial poundings of tracks like 'flaphead' may daunt, they're leavened by more delicate melodies such as analogue bubblebath I. not a big fan of the digeridoo but there are some funny samples to be found... "are you one of those girls for whom time stands still once a month?" and, one of my favorite afx moments, when the helicopter acid bubbling of phloam (or is it poly-c?) abruptly halts and a magical fairy-child's voice sings, "the flowerrrs that bloom / in the warmth of the sun / are there to be loved / by everyone..." and then *WOO* the acid bubbling kicks in again!!

good stuff. recommended for fans of earlier afx, especially 'quoth'

For a artist, that can move from the relatively hushed brilliance of his critically acclaimed "Ambient" albums, through to the Skittering & Fractured Breakbeats of his "Richard D.James" album. Aphex Twin has never been a person that's been afraid to play with peoples expectations of his music.

Collected here, is a series of pre-fame Aphex Twin tracks (collated from various EP's and Singles), that although conceived, to give an overall perspective of his music (even though it is sold as a 'Collection' of sorts), but, more to provide a musical snapshot of where he originally started, as opposed to where he's currently ended up today. And because the majority of tracks here are complied from various EP's & Singles, buyers should be warned that there is a decidedly 'Disjointed' feel to the tracklisting, with no continuity to the sequencing of the tracks. Moving from somber and atmospheric Experimental Electronica one minute (The sublime "Digeridoo" is a great example of how truly creative his work can be), through to something a little more brooding and anxious ("Isopropanol" veers more towards Ambient Techno). Moving into the more accessible side of his music is "Polynomial-C" that feels more in line with the progressive techno/Industrial cross-over that he would later go on to perfect under the alias "Polygon Window", that's crunching and slightly abrasive, yet somehow mantains a rhythmic element, under the most strenuous of conditions.

So the question is, are these collection of tracks truly deserving to be included on this album?? Yes!!, of that there is no doubt, but if taken as a whole album, its something of a mess (although a fantastically created one). As tracks lurch wildly from restrained Electronica one minute, to (relatively) fierce and uncompromising Techno the next, and it's such a stylistic change in tempo, that the listener can't help but sit up and notice the rapid fluctuation in tempos. So...right about now, your probably asking yourself, "If he's criticising the tracklisting so heavily, why is he giving it 5 Stars???.....Simple, because these tracks were never designed to be pieced together from various sources and compiled to sit next to each other. So this was always going to be a fragmented listen, plus this isn't the place to start if your a first time listener to Aphex Twin, this is almost certainly aimed at those that have cut their teeth on his work previously, and are already familiar with what to expect (I.e. Anything). Taken as a coherent album...this fails, but as a relatively random collection of some of his more exceptional work, this'll take some beating.

This album is somewhere between chill and electronic. The design is monotonic but still appealing to me.

His music has grown to a sophistication that has overshadowed early works like this, but this music provides a great sampling of the early career of the artist.

This is art music. It is created to provide the listener with a personal experience, and it does just that. You are not told what it is about, that is up to you. I love the longer tracks, since that allows the looping to come full circle and morph into a myriad of possibilities.

In all honesty, it's his more recent albums that are the true gems, but this is a great album.

i have recently gotten in to the aphex twin, & if your looking for some off the hook stuff to listen to,this would be the one to buy.
After awhile the album grows on you,but not in a bad way,its kinda like an album you buy & fall in love w\ every track.Polynomial-C is the only one that is kinda normal,but the whole album is really for the head strong.