Richard D. James Album

Aphex Twin

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 28, 1997)
• Original Release Date: January 28, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B000002HOF
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (133 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,800 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #2 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Techno > Hardcore Techno
  #3 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Drum & Bass
  #85 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Ambient

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just a note:, May 30, 2004

By	Maxx (NY, NY) - See all my reviews

Richard D. James Album is the first ten tracks of this album:

1. 4
2. Cornish Acid
3. Peek 824545301
4. Fingerbib
5. Corn Mouth
6. To Cure a Weakling Child
7. Goon Gumpas
8. Yellow Calx
9. Girl/Boy Song
10. Logon Rock Witch

When bringing the album to America, the record companies decided that 32 minutes was too short for an album and added on the (entertaining, but IMO inferior) 5 tracks from the Girl/Boy EP.

11. Milkman
12. Inkeys
13. Girl/Boy Song [£18 Snare Rush Mix]
14. Beetles
15. Girl/Boy Song [Redruth Mix]

Those five tracks are BONUS TRACKS - they are NOT part of Richard D. James Album. Please consider this when reviewing the album.

As for my opinion, RDJ Album is a masterpiece of Drill n Bass, which is the term for the lightning quick, spastic drumming that is so prominent in this work. Note that this rather up-tempo drumming isn't always intense...it can actually be quite soothing (For the best example of this, see Flim from the Come to Daddy EP). For this, I couldn't do anything but give it 5 Stars. Once again, Aphex Twin has released something completely alien to my ears and I love it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weird, wacky, crazy stuff to help make you go insane, July 23, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Boulder, Colorado) - See all my reviews

Have you ever wondered what it was like to be spinning inside the head of an insane genius at the peak of his insanity and creativity? Well, probably not, but if you find yourself wondering what the soundtrack to such an event would sound like, then you should check this album out. The tracks move along at such dizzying paces that you don't have time to catch your breath throughout the 45 minutes that he has a hold of your throat. Each song has its own, unique cheesy melody to accompany often non-rhythmic beats that would be utterly impossible to dance to. That's why this album is the anthem of the sanity-free: the music grabs ahold of you, and you want to do something like dance to it, but you can't. You have to sit there while he's rummaging through your brain breaking everything he can find, rendering you helpless to breathe, think or move for 3/4 of an hour. The only downfall of this album is that it's not longer.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps one of the best dance albums of all time, July 21, 2002

By	JLS "amotion" (USA) - See all my reviews

Richard D. James has progressed far since his early days of distorted drums and catchy melodies. It seems as if technology has finally allowed him to create complex and intricate drum patterns to compliment his complex and intricate melodies. Now, I will be completely honest, I am one of those people that do prefer his albums I Care Because... and his Selected Ambient Works Volume 2. Even after that, this album is so original, so melodic, so intricate, and so catchy, that it truly deserves 5 stars.

This album almost pushes Richard D. James into the field of being an actual composer. Many of the melodies and structures truly resemble those of Mozart. Although many people might say that it doesn't sound anything like Mozart, they are half right. This is something in the same style as Mozart performed on modern technology. Richard D. James in this album did something that Mozart did quite a bit, made simplified main melodies with repetitive back, rythmic melodies to compliment them.

The main problem that I can see most people having with this album is that it doesn't really have the sound of a normal electronic/dance album. Even though it doesn't sound like a typical electronic/dance album, it still is. You can dance to it. You can hum along to it. And on top of it all, it is written in a style that is a few hundred years old. Of course, that still might not be enough for many people to appreciate it. If you like repitive dance music, radio pop music, country, and have a a huge dislike of classical, then chances are, you will not like this album.