[rayword45]

Day 56: Drukqs by Aphex Twin

Well, I have homework to burn, and I said before that I had never listened to this album so let's do this. As usual, this will probably be way too concise for such a massive album but whatever. My expectations for this are high because this is supposed to be relatively close to Richard D James Album. The only song I've heard from this album ISN'T Avril 14th but rather afx237 v7 because I watched Rubber Johnny. That would've been a much more convincing film if Johnny, who was supposed to be a locked up disabled child, DIDN'T HAVE A CLEAN SHAVEN BEARD. As for the song, it was okay. Didn't blow my mind like Girl/Boy Song though. In fact, unlike any of the songs on that album, it felt VERY SLIGHTLY dated since I've heard a fair amount of IDM in that style and since it didn't strike out as beautiful, it struck out as somewhat generic. Whatever, time to listen.

4 songs in, my god this is an ugly album. I don't mean that in a fully pejorative sense, mind you, but compared to the gorgeous electronic tones and spastic beats of Richard D James Album (Man I feel stupid repeating titles so much) or perhaps the dance-y feel and slightly less spastic beats of Windowlicker or ...I Care Because You Do, this album is mostly ugly, dark "melodies" and VERY spastic beats. Omgyjya-Switch7, as one example, sounds almost like a precursor to Boards Of Canada's Gyroscope with some old sounding synths and demented sounding vocal samples, except there's no sense of nostalgic terror-beauty here, just crackaddled drum machines. I'd go so far as to say this reminds me more of Venetian Snares far more than other works of Aphex Twin due mostly to the dark, apocalyptic feel.

The piano pieces, on the other hand, are okay. Nothing special really. Okay time to go back to math homework.

Bbydhyonchord is gorgeous. As is Btoum-Roumada. I'm pretty sure I could write loads about this album, but I mean I have homework to do and plenty has been written on it already so whatever. I'll say this. The second half of the album is a lot more fragmented than the first half, with more short snippet songs and more long songs. That definitely works to the benefit of an album this long, because longer songs like Meltphace 6 andZiggomatic 17, regardless of how good they actually are, at least get to explore their sound and flesh themselves out while the micro tracks often give great experimental concepts a shot, and if they don't work, oh well it was only a minute anyways. Also worth noting, Nanou2 has nothing on B-Side Nannou.

To summarize real quick, that was not very good at all. There were some great tracks here and there, but 100 minutes was WAY too long and everything felt drawn out here. I have little complaints about the piano pieces or the ambient techno tracks (which were usually amongst my favorites) but it seems within a short amount of time Richard D James forgot what made Richard D James Album so good. Behind all the crazy drum programming there, songs like 4, Milkman and most of all Girl/Boy Song had AMAZING melodies behind them. Here, melody is eschewed for atmospheric darkness, which really just leaves things feeling insipid and uninspired. Things somewhat picked up in the second half with the more freeform song lengths and track ordering, but it never reached greatness and still dragged on more than desirable. Disappointing, though I still prefer it to Selected Ambient Works 85-92.

Best Track: Bbydhyonchord
Rating: 5.5/10