Drukqs

Drukqs

Track Listings
Disc: 1

1. Jynweythek Ylow

2. Vordhosbn

3. Kladfvgbung Micshk

4. Omgyjya Switch 7

5. Strotha Tynhe

6. Gwely Mernans

7. Bbydhyonchord

8. Cock/Ver 10

9. Avril 14th

10. Mt. Saint Michel Mix+St. Michaels Mount

See all 15 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. 54 Cymru Beats

2. Btoum-Roumada

3. Lornaderek

4. Penty Harmonium

5. Meltphace 6

6. Bit 4

7. Prep Gwarlek 3B

8. Father

9. Taking Control

10. Petiatil Cx Htdui

See all 15 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Often proclaimed as electronica's one true genius, Richard James, a.k.a. Aphex Twin, returns with a double CD that showcases his cleverness as well as his inevitable inscrutability. Still, amid macabre birthday songs, unsettling screams, and other bizarre touches, Drukqs offers the most technically accomplished and beautiful tracks of Aphex Twin's career. Every aspect of the Aphex brain is on display here, from stark pieces performed on sampled piano and zither to Squarepusher-styled drum & bass implosions, all informed by that peculiar Aphex treatment of bittersweet melody and unparalleled programming. For an artist once engrossed in homages to his dead twin brother and grotesque videos, Drukqs shows James getting by purely on music alone.

"Mt. Saint Michel Mix" starts as maddening drum & bass, but is soon transfixed by glowing tones, hand drums, and police sirens. "Vordhosbn" is all acid beats and mad synths matched with fart-bombs and haunted cries. "54 Cymru Beats" sounds more like the tweaked-out, goofball techno of Wagon Christ than Aphex, while "Taking Control" goes metaphysical with cerebral synth-drums and muddled vocals. If Drukqs is the result of medication James has been imbibing during his three-year hiatus, then this is indeed better living through chemistry. Regardless, his music is still as beautiful and frothy as ever. --Ken Micallef

From URB Magazine
It would seem that Richard D. James has undergone a radical cystectomy. For those of you not in first-year med school, that means his bladder has been removed. While URB staffers are hardly qualified to make such diagnoses, there's no other way for us to explain why James' latest Aphex Twin release, Drukqs, sounds the way it does: He's not taking the piss!

All recent Q&As aside - absurd non sequiturs about 70-percent royalties from Radiohead, inventing Napster and mixing records by "smelling the grooves" - Drukqs is the most sincere album the thirtysomething godfather of IDM has released since 1995's I Care Because You Do. In many ways, these old-school electro melodies and rakishly basic 303/606/909 drum machine-constructed rhythms eclipse his last two singles (the horror-extraordinaire drum & bass "Come to Daddy" and its sparkling glitch-hop doppelganger "Windowlicker"), for on Drukqs' 30 tracks, there's barely a hint of James' self-reflexive idolatry. Where much of his recent material has been all pretense and character, gross creative liberties built around his own captivating Chestershire grin, Drukqs is, once again, Aphex Twin as musical substance.

Explanations for such a change seem fairly consistent: This is old music. James has long claimed to record in bulk and release the bare minimum of material to meet contractual obligations, and pre-release Internet newsgroup bitching was very much (and continues to be) about how dated the album sounds.

URB suggests this has not one thing to do with the price of tea in China, for regardless of when these gobbledygook-titled tracks were made, Drukqs is right-fine material.

First, that James would make good on the Erik Satie suggestions of his earlier work by including mellow, contemplative piano-, harpsichord- and glockenspiel-toned tracks is novel and alone worthy of further investigation. No, they are not mind-altering concertos, but then who in their right mind would expect James - who reportedly possesses only nominal education in electronics - to be Rachmaninoff? Instead, the soothing lullaby of the opening "Jynweythek Ylow" lures you into the complex fabric of Drukqs like the introductory paragraph of a Hemingway story, where characters soon to blossom with rich psychological depth appear simple, like pure resonant tones of despair, solitude and resignation. James uses these earthy keyboard pieces to punctuate the ferocity of Drukqs, situating them approximately every five tracks and closing out both discs with their quiet notes.

Second, if these are old tracks, they reflect the best of James' output during several creative periods. Those infatuated with the collision of melody and manic breaks found on I Care will relish "Vordhosbun" and "Omgyiya Switch 7"'s strong presence of image-driven leitmotifs. Those wishing for a return to Selected Ambient Works 85-92 and Polygon Window's Surfing on Sine Waves will enjoy the ethereal "Bbydhyonchord;" Selected Ambient Works II fans will dig "Gwely Mernans"'s experimentation with gut-busting bass and musique concrète atmospherics. Those infatuated with the Richard D. James Album and his recent remixes for the Men label will find solace in "54 Cymru Beats," "Meltphace" and "Afx237 c17," all of which reflect James' continuing creative friendship with madcap breakmaster Tom "Squarepusher" Jenkinson. In fact, most of the tracks reflect a contemporary feel in the percussion programming; if the concepts are old, they have been revised and edited for their 2001 appearance on Drukqs.Third (and last), James could very well be listening to his constituency for the first time in his life. On the remarkably dance floor-friendly "Cock/Ver 10," James inserts what was likely a regular remark made to him by his older fans: "Come on you cunt, let's 'ave some Aphex acid! " By and large, Drukqs mines James' hard drives for the man's past periodic variations on said acid, with little, if any, of the smiling man's urine on it.

Heath K. Hignight

Tracks:

Jynweythek
Vordhosbn
Kladfvgbung Micshk
Omgyjya-Switch 7
Strotha Tynhe
Gwely Mernans
Bbydhyonchord
Cock/Ver 10
Avril 14th
Mt. Saint Michel Mix/St. Michaels Mount
Gwarek 2
Orban Eq Trx 4
Aussois
Hy A Scullyas Lyf A Dhagrow
Kesson Daslef

Tracks:

54 Cymru Beats
Btoum-Roumada
Lornaderek
Penty Harmomium
Meltphace 6
Bit 4
Prep Gwarlek 3b
Father
Taking Control
Petiatil Cx Htdui
Ruglen Holon
Afx237 V7
Ziggomatic V17
Beskhu3epnm
Nanou 2

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Often proclaimed as electronica's one true genius, Richard James, a.k.a. Aphex Twin, returns with a double CD that showcases his cleverness as well as his inevitable inscrutability. Still, amid macabre birthday songs, unsettling screams, and other bizarre touches, Drukqs offers the most technically accomplished and beautiful tracks of Aphex Twin's career. Every aspect of the Aphex brain is on display here, from stark pieces performed on sampled piano and zither to Squarepusher-styled drum & bass implosions, all informed by that peculiar Aphex treatment of bittersweet melody and unparalleled programming. For an artist once engrossed in homages to his dead twin brother and grotesque videos, Drukqs shows James getting by purely on music alone.

Customer Reviews:

Sucked in........2007-04-23

Avril 14th was the first song I heard off of this album. That was the reason I bought it. I had owned other Aphex Twin albums such as "Richard D. James Album" and the "Come To Daddy EP." But neither of those are as mysterious and beautiful as "Drukqs."

This album flows together very nicely if played continuously through. There are about ten electronica tracks, 10 piano pieces and a few scattered ambient tracks. Some of the trip-hop tracks really slap you in the face with how involved they are... But the piano pieces are truly beautiful.

Definitely my favorite Aphex Twin album.

Gotta B on druqks to undestsnde unnerstudit unistoou ......? Never mind.......2006-10-31

This Richard James album is another example of why I struggle to understand his intentions. Sometimes, he plays soft pleasant pieces (that no IDM fanatic needs), and then he goes off into some spastic brain hemorrhaging instrumention (which I actually find comforting). But, I guess he has to do this so that the album, as a whole, doesn't just sound like a whole lotta insane noise. Many of his more spastic drum and bass implosions (as it's been refered to) is some of his best work on this album. Richard James has come along way since I first heard of him with his "Selected Ambient Works" album that I bought many years ago. I was slow to accept and understand this album because there was nothing else like it at the time. I played it alot, got bored with it, and then just gave it away to a friend. Little did I know, that Aphex Twin was going to re-introduce himself to me in the near future.

A few years ago, I saw a movie called "Pi". It was a low budget black and white film based on the subject of intelligence and insanity, and the soundtrack that supported this film had a series of artists that I have never heard of before. Watching the film, I just loved all that strange electronic music playing in the background, so I knew I just had to find the CD soundtrack of the film "Pi".

On the soundtrack, I saw that Aphex Twin had a track on it. I don't remember this track in the film ("Bucephalus Bouncing Ball"), but I sure loved this bizarre electronic collage of dissonant noise. Plus, this CD soundtrack introduced me to alot of new artists, all making a new sound in electronic music that I have never heard before. This new music is called IDM, which means "intelligent dance music". But, I think it should be called ADM meaning "addictive music", because that's what this new music has become to me. I have a hard time listening to regular music anymore. This IDM is very motivational music to listen to. This music gives me all sorts of nervous energy which has turned me into a healthier, more physically toned, workaholic. When I'm in an IDM music euphoria, I can't sit still. After buying the soundtrack of "Pi", I ended up looking for more CD's with this new IDM sound.

This could easily be anyone's favorite CD from Aphex Twin. It doesn't really matter which Aphex Twin album you buy first (although, "Selected Ambient Works: Volume Two" would not be a good idea). But, you know, you can't just allow yourself to be satisfied with this one CD. However, if you don't have a lot of music like this, than it can seem to become too repetitious and become tiresome rather quickly if you just let yourself play this CD too much. Even I don't care to sit through the entire playback of just the one CD. But, I have determined that this music from Aphex Twin should be played within a mix of other Ambient Dub and other various glitch and IDM related electronica. To just play these 30 songs over and over, end to end, can get dull rather quickly. But if you listen to these songs mixed in and shuffling with about another hundred IDM instrumentals than you will truly appreciate Aphex Twin's participation in the overall bigger picture of today's electronic instrumentals.

I have these two Aphex Twin CD's shuffling amongst others in my 200 CD carrousel. These tracks by Aphex Twin are being mixed up with tracks by Autechre, Gescom, Phutureprimitive, Squarepusher, Pete Namlook, Biosphere, The Orb, The Higher Intelligence Agency, Sounds From the Ground, Electric Skychurch, Plaid, Boards of Canada, and various other similar artists of which Aphex Twin belongs with.

I also have these songs and other IDM and Ambient Dub tracks burned onto ATRAC CDR's that is made through the SonicStage program made available only by Sony. (Check out some of Sony's ATRAC CD players and find out why burning hours of your favorite tunes onto a single CDR is better than just loading an ipod with mp3s) Burning hard copies is definitely better than just floating your music in a temporary storage unit like an ipod. (You can make 32 hour CDR's, and as many as you want from all your CD's and mp3s. How many songs can your single ipod hold?)

Anyway, Kudos to you for discovering this Aphex Twin CD, but now, explore some of the other artists I've mentioned above. You will love this new world of sound that you've discovered. It is more vast than you could ever imagine.

Wacky........2006-09-04

If this is your first Aphex Twin/"IDM" purchase, this will be the weirdest thing you've ever heard in your whole life. It's probably not accessible to a lot of people. Actually, it's kind of annoying at first, but after a while it might grow on you.

try it, start to finish...........2006-07-21

i've read all the bashing reviews of this album, not up to par, a little shallow, etc... richard james has fooled the sheep. these disks have been designed to play together, try it, start to finish. i read this somewhere else online and was a little sceptical but a few minutes into the first track(s) was completly convinced. i ripped both disks onto the computer under two different formats and used two different media players timed to start at exactly the same time. a lot of work to enjoy an album but remember rdj is a computer geek and a jokester, probably gets off on the the bum reviews. enjoy!

It's Actually Pretty Good.......2006-06-06

but I think his older stuff was better and I think his Analord or Chosen Lords stuff is better than this. However, if you listen to a tune like Ghostman or Goneja from Skinny Puppy's latest CD, The Greater Wrong of the Right, you'll see how Aphex Twin has been left in their dust. Sorry, but you've been outdone by the best as far as the last two Aphex Twin CDs are concerned.