Review Summary: If only buying music was as much fun now as it was back then...
If only I had been there to see some of the things Richard David James had done to toy with his fans’ emotions back in the day. Richard had been always been well known to release many of his albums in a rather unusual fashion, such as distributing the first CD pressings of
Analogue Bubblebath vol. 3 sealed in nothing but bubble wrap. This EP was no exception.
There was no cover art; but what it lacked in packaging, it made up for with fancy gifts and prizes for the first 1000 buyers, from little candy packets to exclusive Rephlex t-shirts. Nowadays, you’re lucky if you can come across the regular copies that were printed afterward, which had the basic appearance of a blank vinyl disc, besides the small label information printed on the disc itself. This has been an ongoing trend for Rich and his colleagues, and is perhaps a statement in favour of proper music as opposed to fancy, deceptive packaging. In light of that, let’s get to the actual music.
This set contains some powerful tracks, the most popular being Track A1, a.k.a. “Fantasia,” the sex-riddled mess of madness previously released on Joyrex J9i; and Track B1, which has been known by many names and featured on various compilations and European TV ads, including one for a certain brand of tires. The general environment here is one of passionate noise and violent energy, which mainstream dance artists would tend to avoid, but was not uncommon in underground raves. All 4 tracks were released without official titles until the 1998 Joyrex Compilation.
Tracks:
FANTASIA
This track is a re-release, and is most noted for its heavy acid loops, unusual beat patterns and most of all, its explicit use of samples from pornographic movies. Other than that, it's not really something that can be described with with words.
CLAYHILL DUB
This could be considered the “soft” track on the set, being that it consists solely of scattered reggae percussion samples and a pulsating bass loop that carries on for about 3 minutes. Unfortunately, there is not much else to this one.
THE GARDEN OF LINMIRI
Before its was released on the 1998 Joyrex Compilation with the above title, this track had been released on other compilations by names like “cat 009 iii” and Industro Garbage Beats.” A super fast beat layered by distorted, industrial noise, this track remains one of the heaviest tracks Rich has ever done. What’s even more interesting is that technically, this track is 2-in-1, as the eerie ambience that can be heard beneath the chaos is in fact a separate track taken from the
Analogue Bubblebath 3 CD.
WE ARE THE MUSIC MAKERS (HARDCORE MIX)
This is allegedly a remix of an Aphex Twin piece from the ever-famous
Selected Ambient Works 85-92. However, instead of creating an actual remix of the original version, Richard decided to trash everything but the Willy Wonka sample (“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams”) and threw in another batch of mental distortion, so as to follow suit with the rest of the collection, and set it to loop for 4 minutes. This did not really compliment the original at all, but perhaps that wasn’t his goal in making this mix either.
Conclusion:
Few albums show the true nature of the wild experimentalist that is Richard D. James quite the way this album does. That goes for everything from the wacky packaging methods, to the ridiculous way the tracks are composed (I mean that in the best of ways), and even the warning on the label (which was only half in jest). Albums like this one were what made buying physical copies of music from Richard and his associates worth the money and the experience.
Favorite track: Fantasia
