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 (131 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #53,497 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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

  #12 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Techno > Hardcore Techno
  #61 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Drum & Bass

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

20 of 20 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.

9 of 9 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 Staggering, January 11, 2004

By	Andrew (Waterloo, Ontario) - See all my reviews

Richard D. James can be officially hailed as electronica's true genius.
Underneath the acid washed drum synths, the broken melodies, the dadaist rhymes, 'Richard D. James Album' shows just how powerful and moving electronica can be. The music sounds harsh, even violent, at first listen, but repeat listens give light to complex patterns within the music, and a (shall i say it?) 'charming' sense of melody. 'Goon Gumpas' sounds like the soundtrack to a child's dream; innocent, beautiful, and comforting. 'Beetles' is genius in it's sheer simplicity and it's heart breaking tones, all with macabre lyrics sung over. The highlight is 'Girl/Boy Song' with it's compelling start-stop drum rhythms and simply gorgeous string arrangement. The entire album as a whole is technically perfect.
So rush out and purcase this release- if you are willing to abandon your pointless melodies, hedonistic commercialism and rubbish lyrics for a work of true artistic genius.