Richard D. James Album / Girl/Boy EP

[Guest Rabid]

Fingerbib - Definitely one of the most overrated aphex tracks, next to Alberto Balsam. Still a great one though - good driving song.

I really liked you until you said this!

 

[Friendly Foil]

How can you not like Yellow Calx? One of the most beautiful melodies he's ever made. dammit wattm.

 

This is a perfect album. Not too long, and every track is a winner. Makes me nostalgic for the days when I discovered AFX.

[joshuatxuk]

4 - i remember the first time i heard that spewing freakout moment toward the end (before it goes back to the tranquility again), it scared the shit out of me. once again it's a genious way of mixing beauty with abrasiveness, like Rich has done many times before.

 

 

This is the first Aphex Twin track, or hell any RDJ track, I ever listened to. It was probably the most overwhelming experience I've had listening to anything. Even after listening to everything else in his discography, this is still my favorite album. Someone mentioned it's well paced and I agree.

 

I don't have much to add, though I have to say To Cure a Weakling Child is one of the most brilliant recordings he's ever made. The breakdown in the middle is mind-blowing, where the percussion imitates the melody.

 

Logan Rock Witch is an odd closer, but I've always had the version with the Girl/Boy EP tracks, so it never bothered me. I remember a thread once were someone was asking what "genre" had tracks that sounded like LRW, and I thought it sounded like freak folk...maybe...

 

Girl/Boy EP

 

Girl/Boy (NLS Mix) - Just flat-out epic, the strings and beats are each great in their own right, and the composition itself is more sincere than any other song I've heard of the breakbeat + orchestral melody formula in breakcore and IDM.

 

Milkman - gimmicky, but really pleasant track to listen to, a lot more restrained than the other "drill n' bass" tracks.

 

INKEY$ - way too short!

 

Girl/Boy (£18 Snare Rush Mix) - percussion is kind of Luke Vibert-y or like that remix of Die Fantastischen Vier off 26 remixes for cash. Really dig changes in tempo during this track.

 

Beetles - easily the most "childlike" track off either release. Dey come out and dey eat...in da 'heat.

 

Girl/Boy (Redruth Mix) - nothing too special, love the vocals after the music.

[Guest Rabid]

How can you not like Yellow Calx? One of the most beautiful melodies he's ever made. dammit wattm.

we are the the music

[Guest Calx Sherbet]

INKEY$ and Milkman are awesome!!

[Friendly Foil]

How can you not like Yellow Calx? One of the most beautiful melodies he's ever made. dammit wattm.

we are the the music

[perunamuusi]

listening for the first time now.....

 

4 - stupid. boring repetetive beats. sounds like it was programme don a QY 10. gay vocal sample

 

cornish acid - wtf is this rubbish? i cant dance to this.

 

PEEK 498738693678476593 or whatever - this is a joke right?

 

fingerbib - pretty cool i guess if your a stupid baby

 

corn mouth - more pointless filler

 

to cure a weakling child - more stupid music for babies. this is the gayest one yet

 

goon gumpas - sounds like some channel 4 documentary music. very gay

 

yellow calx - had to turn this one off after a few seconds

 

girlboy song - sounds like something an old lady would listen to except with some rubbish vebnetian snares rip off drums tacked on to it

 

logOn rock witch - wtf? morris dancing music hahahahahha this guy is a wasteman

[bubbhasdance]

I agree with LUDD

[bubbhasdance]

4 - Abrasive yet heavenly at the same time. For some reason, when I first heard this I had feelings of East Asian/Indonesian-type sounds, not sure why...ah well. "Richard? Yeah" haha. It's really amazing how he managed to put so many styles into one song; we've got strings, breaks, vocalizations, just a huge assortment of sounds that sound great together. Not sure what else to say here, just a lovely song

 

Cornish Acid - I didn't like this one at first too much, seemed too repetitive for me. I've grown to enjoy it quite a bit, but probably my least favorite track on here. Very groovy track, loving the little squelches and reverses @ 1:12. The ending reminds me of Ventolin.

 

Peek [lol numbers] - And here we are with one of the best tracks on the album. The beginning sounds like absolute madness if you're not listening intently, and then it just delves into pure funky computer goodness. I've read posts that say the beginning reminds them of a computer trying to fight with a modem, and it sounds exactly like that. The ending is just perfect, the segmented beat slows down to near drone-bpm and I love love love it.

 

Fingerbib - Not overrated, one of RDJ's best songs of all time. Another great use of strings, which you see throughout this entire album. Makes me feel like I'm in some underwater world with jellyfish and little fishies swimming along, then the sun starts shining through @ 1:20....lol, I don't really know what to say on this one, just beautiful. Not my favorite, though, but very high up there.

 

Carn Marth - Used to not like this one, too. Now I like it very much. Very frantic song, it probably should have been right before Yellow Calx because of this, but ah well. The lead melody on here is gorgeous and very childlike, which is why a lot of people call this RDJ's pop album. The little 'waaaaa whhooooaaw' noises are hilarious, and they make this song. 1:15 is probably my favorite part.

 

To Cure A Weakling Child - I'm not sure if I like the Contour Regard version or this one more, but it's safe to say that they are both monster tracks. This is probably the peak of happiness on this album, it's just brimming with carelessness and freedom. Apparently this was RDJ talking here, which makes it even more personal for me. Great, great track. This is the first song my roommates heard from RDJ (besides Ventolin lol), and they still hum and make fun of me for it, nearly 2 years after I first played it for them. lol. From 2:00 on, it just becomes nuts with ideas. You can tell Richard was just full of ideas during this time, way too creative. Calx was on point with his "assortment of toys coming to life" statement, that's exactly what it feels like to me.

 

Goon Gumpas - Very heartfelt and lightsounding song. I really do enjoy it, this is probably the most childlike song he has come up with. Makes me feel like a 6-yr-old kid running through sprinklers or something, haha. Feels like an interlude of sorts to me, BEFORE THE MONSTER THAT IS.........

 

Yellow Calx - The best song on this LP, hands DOWN. What a dark track, the sound that the synth is producing is probably one of my favorite RDJ moments. The beginning is just 1000000% perfect, this whole song is perfect. God, what a song. It feels industrial at some points, with the clinks and clanks falling apart all over each other. It feels dark, but it feels light at the same time, if that makes any sense. I feel that it was a great addition to the album, just in the wrong place. Should have been after Carn Marth, in my opinion. Why? I don't know. From 1:45-on, the song goes from super to absolutely legendary. And it wouldn't have been perfect without the outro, just that perfect sound droning on until it's end. 1000/10, would listen again

 

Girl/Boy Song - Another awesome use of strings here, RDJ was really fond of that type of music I guess, what with ICBYD being string-heavy as well. This is the song a lot of people say is what brought them to the Aphex side of music, and it deserves it. Very frantic, but beautiful as well. Soo much energy is bubbling out of this track, and the beats are just so creative, no one was doing stuff like this back in '95-'96. RDJ's fanbase was probably at an all-time high with this album.

 

Logan Rock Witch - Just a mindblowing outro to an amazing album. It really is one of those "listen realllllly hard to get it" kind of tracks, because you'll miss the beauty in it if you don't listen closely enough. It's really a culmination of all of the sounds from this album: slide whistles, organs, a jaw harp (?), etc...displaying, full-on, how good RDJ is at creating that childlike mood in you. Top 5 Aphex outros, easy.

 

Overall: amazing album, 9/10, would listen again and again

[doorjamb]

confession time:

I hate girl/boy song; it ruins the whole album for me

[Guest dese manz hatin]

confession time:

I hate logonrock witch; it nearly ruins the whole album for me

 

[Suffocate Peon]

4 and Logon Rock Witch are the best opening and closing tracks of any RDJ release imo.

 

Initially found this hard to get into. Hangable Auto Bulb from the ep is given room to breathe and move around which I prefer as you can really get into it, whereas a lot of these tracks are in a hurry to not get bogged down. I like that the photo on the album cover is so sharp and modern compared to ICBYD's rough painted portrait.

 

I love how lacking in pretense it is, the way 4 just begins suddenly yet the honest beauty of it is incredible. It's so direct and undiluted, and free of any baggage that listening to it is like being purified. Even now, I'm listening to some other music, and I like it, but the 'drill n bass' sound and some electronic music just cuts through all the shite like a knife, cuts to the bone, gets to the point, doesn't meander around until it annoys you, and it's why nothing can close to it for me. Just me? I came obsessed with this track for a bit.

 

Fingerbib seduces you. I think if i was to show aphex twin to anyone new to him, I'd play them that.

 

I find To Cure a Weakling Child to be the weakest track on there.

 

Goon Goombas sounds like a videogame tune.

 

I love Yellow Calx. 0:04 and 0:45 - 1:00 is incredible I think. Again it's just the razor sharp quality of the drill sound with the ambience underneath which I find so orgasmic. I see every track on this album as yellow. It's very yellow..

 

Logon Rock Witch is one of my favourite Aphex Twin tracks. Again I can't think of any other way to describe it other than so pure and melancholic (if Fingerbib epitomizes music that can be seductive, then this epitomizes melancholy), and unmatched and abstract and timeless.

 

I wish it was longer, I wish there were more tracks in this style from him, excluding the extended edition. It's not my favourite Aphex Twin album, I don't have one, just favourite tracks (most of them on drukqs so that's my fave by default). This seems to be the album non Aphex Twin fans cite as their favourite, I see it cropping up in rock/indie music lists. RDJ's pop album.

[baph]

I like that the photo on the album cover is so sharp and modern compared to ICBYD's rough painted portrait.

 

Is it a photo, though? I always thought it was a bit of a hybrid, with Rich's smile painted in -- if you look at the lower half, it looks a bit more photorealistic than the ICBYD cover, but not as photorealistic as the nose-up portion of the RDJA face.

 

 

Edit: I mean, obviously the image has been manipulated, but the more painterly smile area seems kind of deliberately reflective of the ICBYD painting.

Edited May 20, 2010 by baph

[Cryptowen]

This seems to be the album non Aphex Twin fans cite as their favourite, I see it cropping up in rock/indie music lists. RDJ's pop album.

 

Makes sense to me. The first three albums have that repetitiveness that scares away non-electronic music fans, & Drukqs has a whole bunch of weird going on. RDJA/Come to Daddy/Windowlicker manage to balance out the two opposing forces.

[Guest Calx Sherbet]

i feel weird knowing that i actually have the numbers after PEEK memorised

[Guest Rabid]

i feel weird knowing that i actually have the numbers after PEEK memorised

As far as uselessness goes, it's hard to top that.

[psn]

i feel weird knowing that i actually have the numbers after PEEK memorised

As far as uselessness goes, it's hard to top that.

 

I'll top it, at what point does a subsequence of Pi equal those numbers for the first time?

Edited May 20, 2010 by psn

[bubbhasdance]

[Guest Masonic Boom]

Was this the week before? Or did I miss a week? Ah well.

 

It's been interesting reading this thread. RDJA = This is probably the most "accessible" album which is always going to be problematic for some people as much as it's a plus for others. It's probably my second fave. (Nothing will ever surpass SAW85-92 which is both at once a perfect album, and an emotional time and place in mine own life.)

 

The Girl/Boy EP is just stone cold adorable. Richard's singing voice was such a revelation. Made me want to pet him like a cat. There's just something so cute and contented about this era of RDJ's work, I'd say it really was something of a creative peak. (What did he say in interview about an artist's best work always coming just before or just at the time of their commercial acceptance?)

 

Just listened to the album this morning on the bus but I'm gonna listen again having read this and see if it makes me see anything new.

[Guest Masonic Boom]

Why?

 

Anyway, I did a quick track by track while listening to the album. Ignore if you don't like these kinds of things, or else it may amuse you if you are easily amused...

 

4 - A statement of intent, and an ambitious one. The marriage of his fancy new grown-up Orkester-esque soundbank with the ability to digitally manipulate every microsecond of sound into those terrifying snare rushes that sound like living, fire-breathing monsters of fire and brimstone that rise up from under the haunting melodies and snap at you like crocodiles in the moat of his pretty fairytale castle. And it is just adorable, his inability to resist just tagging the song like a graffiti artist - "Richard? Yup!" - I mean, who else *could* it be making this kind of thing, really?

 

Cornish Acid - This song never seemed to fit. Not Acid, not particularly Cornish either. With a name like that, it should have been great. I mean, mental images of Mr. Twin strapping on his helmet and his belt and going down the Twin Mine and coming up with great bucketloads of Cornish Acid bubbling and spilling all over the dancefloor, that is such a compelling construction. And the song sounds nothing like. A blemish on an otherwise perfect album and the thing that makes it 9/10 not 10/10.

 

Peek8675309 - aaah, that opening modem makes me laugh so much. There's nothing that dates a song from that era quite so much as everyone in the world who thought that sampling their modem and sticking it on their track was a great idea because it's such a neat sound (and kind of an in-joke during an era when only nerds were really online.) The burbling of the bassline is just such a wonderful sound, like a happily bubbling pot or maybe a witches cauldron.

 

Fingerbib - yay! I'm 6 again! So playful and childlike. Or maybe that odd sense you get when you've stayed up all night on mushrooms until the sun comes up and the telly starts showing kids television and you're entranced by the colours and the sounds and then suddenly you realise - your buzz is actually wearing off, and hang on, kids TV is actually totally *warped*.

 

Carn Marth - a lot like the actual hill, it doesn't look so massive from a distance, until you get about halfway up and you realise that it's a LOT steeper than it looks and you've tried to walk up it way too quickly and whoa, that's really kinda exhausting. The indignant trumpet noises that come in about 0:40 totally make this song. (Again with the modem samples, dude, we get it)

 

To Cure A Weakling Child - again, just perfection. The combination of this jaunty, childlike melody with the really stately, almost classical instrumentation is just devastating. And then that wild creature of a beat beneath it. It's a total inversion the whole idea of a dance track - that the propulsive driving rhythm is carried in the melodic instruments and the drums are there to provide texture and the *feel* of the piece.

 

Goon Gumpas - the theme to a nostalgic pastoral 1980s BBC comic-drama serial with lots of shots of vintage cars gadding about with pre-raphaelite hair flowing in the open air, set in the Edwardian age and probably starring Nigel Havers... and I mean that in the nicest possible way. This is like the Merchant-Ivory of Aphex. Just immaculate.

 

Yellow Calx - "Oops, sorry, did you forget that I could be creepy and odd and bring the intriguing experimental radiophonics in the midst of all this pastoral gorgeousity? Ooh, good. Well, here's a lovely little reminder for you." ::big aphex grin::

 

Girl/Boy Song - The exact moment that Richard enters his Imperial Phase. Never has such a statement of utter control and mastery of one's art and "look what I can do" resulted in such a deceptively simple and compelling piece of music. Who knew he could be so... unrelentingly *pretty*? This is a piece that's going to be taught in music composition classes in the 24th Century. Yeah, sure, it's overhyped and it's the second favourite song of "people who don't really like Aphex" (after Avril 14) but the thing is - I NEVER get bored of this song. It's a perfect orgasm every time, not a note out of place, not a beat out of alignment (even in the mad snare rush gone mental bits.) It *is* that good.

 

Logan Rock Witch - weirdest album closer ever, especially coming on the heels of GBS. It's like Richard lets all the toys out of the box and they run amok killing everything in sight. Don't ever let your guard down with this man, don't ever forget that under the stately melodies and the immaculate cello sequencing, he is a total fucking weirdo. And we love him for it.

[sneaksta303]

Cornish Acid - This song never seemed to fit. Not Acid, not particularly Cornish either. With a name like that, it should have been great. I mean, mental images of Mr. Twin strapping on his helmet and his belt and going down the Twin Mine and coming up with great bucketloads of Cornish Acid bubbling and spilling all over the dancefloor, that is such a compelling construction. And the song sounds nothing like. A blemish on an otherwise perfect album and the thing that makes it 9/10 not 10/10.

 

 

[Guest Masonic Boom]

Yeah, a friend of mine already took me to task for that bit on twitter. Actually what he said was hilarious, I'll just copy it...

 

"Hah, I get a mad subterranean vibe from Cornish Acid - it sounds like the music to an underground level from an old videogame"

"It actually does remind me of 1980s little underground monsters jumping up and down. Always has."

 

And I'm sorry, his singing voice is cuet. Especially the total disparity to his appearance - you know, this big, tough, snarling and sneering TEKNO-VIKING and then he has this adorable soft little-boy singing voice. You just want to pat him on the head and go "aaawwww". It's lovely.

[sneaksta303]

You're such an instigator.

 

 

At any rate, Cornish Acid is totally both Acid and Cornish as hell. You crazy, girl.

[Boxing Day]

Why?

 

 

 

Cornish Acid - This song never seemed to fit. Not Acid, not particularly Cornish either. .

 

WTF?? , what do you expect from Cornish track , a full Folk Orchestra playing a Miracle Mystery while Enya sings the St Day Carol.

[Guest Masonic Boom]

I totally nicked this from a bloke on another forum, but, it fits:

 

The acid genre has a certain bounce, or jackingnessosity, and sometimes doesn't even use any 303 whatsoever, as it kind of crosses over into the Chicago house stuff

 

::snip::

 

I suppose it depends on what the true definition of acid is. The reason I don't class it as "acid"?: it doesn't jack, innit....

 

And as to the "sounding Cornish" bit, I give you:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/video/2010/may/20/spring-helston-flora-dance

 

(I might willing to concede the Cornish issue, though, due to patchy mainly summer holiday gleaned memories.)