Aphex Twin is known for his quick, breakbeat filled songs. It hasn't always been this way, though. After stinting as a DJ and producing acid techno, his first album was a landmark album in "intelligent dance music," and his second full-length was a venture into the minimalist world of ambient. For his next release, the
Come to Daddy EP, he returned to his speedy techno and strange effects with songs that were just as creepy as they were dance-able. This is a follow up of sorts to that. It continues the general sound of the previous EP and expands upon it a little.
The songs here are very busy and, I can imagine, painstakingly programmed. There's several instances of voice samples being used, often times distorted or under the influence of some other type of effect. The title track,
Windowlicker opens with a slow pulsing type of voice, and leads into a drum beat that Richard is so good at. In the following few seconds, there's a lot going on. Things jut about, and enter and leave just as fast. There's also lots more voices to come in, mainly himself repeating the syllable "dun" and some lady vocals (both naughty noises, and just background singing). For the remainder he just sort of diddles around with various electronic sounds and other some such doo-hickies. The song changes several times throughout, and close to the end, switches to a grating industrial sound, reminiscent of the first track on
Come to Daddy. The second track's title is a giant mathmatical equation. Since it's not really pronouncable, this is known as
Equation. It, too, is rather frantic and meticulously programmed. Imagine giving a monkey some crack, and putting him in a room full of buttons where every button makes a different sound. That's sort of what this sounds like, except with a beat behind it. I'm not saying it's bad by any means, but that's about the only way I can describe it. It changes more times to count, and has that sort of "Aphex" sound to it.
Windowlicker ends with
Nannou, a throwback to his
Selected Ambient Works. This song mostly consists of samples of wind-up music boxes, and a clicking type beat. It's very well constructed, and unlike most of his later ambient works, it's actually fairly upbeat and happy.
Fans of Aphex Twin would find it of their interest to pick this up. It is an EP, after all, and it should be cheap. The material within isn't really over the top, as far as quality goes. But it does sound like Mr. James, and I suppose, if you wanted to, you could play it loud and dance about like a maniac to it. The last track is a nice touch, and helps to give it a more diverse sound, rather than sticking that that acid-techno sound throughout. This is far from his best work, but still, isn't bad. So go ahead and check this out, but just make sure you don't expect something mind-blowing.
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