The Richard D James album is that rarest of albums.
An album you can appreciate at any time of day in any setting or mood.

For instance,it opens with “4”.
4 is a beautiful piece of near dance. It’s not quite dance. You listen to it, it’s heart breaking keyboards stretching out towards you, and various different computer melodies playing out.
Then from nowhere an explosion of beats whacks you straight between the eyes and rises up again.

The tide of music ebbs and flows then it’s disrupted by a voice calling “Richard”. The track grinds to a stop and then begins again.

This music is unbelievable. It is almost ambient, but the opposite of Professor Eno’s becalmed flotation scapes. It’s almost dance, but you can’t dance to it. Well, it’s possible, but then, so’s murder. Murder, like dancing to an Aphex Twin song that’s not one of his straightforward techno attempts is as pointless to do in civilised society as murder.

The same goes for “Fingerbibs” a bass line pulsates and lapping slightly eery keyboards sound like an early 70’s kids TV show on ketamine, chased backwards around the universe and then chopped up. Or something equally complicated.

“Goongumpas” is like Christmas cut into around 3 minutes. There’s swelling keyboards, chiming bells and it’s like the theme to some nature show, but not as pointless. It’s fragile.

“To Cure A Weakling Child” is quite pretty and eery. There’s a voice intoning “My feet my arms and my ears.…and your feet” over and over. Very childlike and quite unnerving. It’s gradfually backed by the type of jackhammer to the skull beats 4 uses in beautiful ambient settings.
THen it freezes and breaks down with a voice saying “I say you’re mad” in a garbled way.

“4” I have already mentioned but play it at almost deafening blowtorch to the skull volume passing through the country on a train. It’s like an exorcism.

“Beetles” is a pretty little piece of song, and sounds like what it is, a very intelligent Cornish man mubling over a mellotron.

“Girl/Boy Song” is strings and beats, just strings and beats. Well, beats beat guitars in my opinion. You can keep your guitar virtuosity, what I want is the virtuosity of putting together flawless clinking beats into an almost melodic structure.

That way,when some poor get’s trying to master Smoke On The Water you can put on this sound and an almost explosive sonic KREEEEEEESSHHH! blows up his amp.

The band Black Dice operate on a way similar to the Aphex Twin, but ona more extreme level. I am a fan of them too. Dance music is not dead. YOu just don’t need to dance to it.

“Milkman” is a song by a pervert, and features over barely there keyboards a parade of distorted voices saying “I would like some milk from the milkman’s wife’s tits”. it’s almost Chris Morris ( a hug Aphex fan) but is a sour note, as it’s almost a parody of the Aphex capacity for outrage and fear from Windowlicker, Come To Daddy and Drukqs.

He does as much witht he creepy cover picture of his distorted face,and the inlay picture of the grave of his twin. This twin possibly doesn’t exist.

The Girl/Boy remixes are perverse pieces of weirdness. Neither of them are anything to do with the song. IT’s as if h had some substandard tracks and stuc the name on which he did.

This album more than anything recalls the Micheal Alexander St John dance chart from Blue Jam.

This album is excellent. If you do not won a copy, recitfy this. If you do not own Drukqs, it’s usually veer cheap, and it’s a 2 CD set containing some of the harshest, most beautiful, strangestand scariest music ever put onto disc.

You owe yourself the Richard D James album. And it will grow on you, like mould on the corpse of his non existent twin.