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Mr. el stupid reviewo on 2001-10-20 17:17 [#00043950] | |||||||||
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5 years past... the cumulation of Aphex... by brianmayo | Oct 18 '01 Pros: Different. Strange sounds, melodies and piano. Cons: Some tracks like Gwely Mermans and Gwarek2 are just... filler. The Bottom Line If you want to liven up your stereo and mess with your mind in a pleasureable way, then buy this album. Recommended: Yes OK, maybe you were expecting "Selected Ambient Works Volume 3". Or maybe "...i still care because you do." But your wrong. Well, this album doesn't follow the past of Aphex Twin and Richard James' ability to make every new album sound different. It's strangely... following the rules. But isn't the rule of IDM to not follow the rules? Autechre has expressed itself as something different - not quite music, but not quite noise. This borderline psychotic quality has also been used to describe Aphex Twin - not quite mainstream techno, but not quite... junk. Or so many think. James' latest effort as the Twin - Drukqs - is more a of a career summary than another step in his career. This is well, a crowd-pleaser - a reason to get Aphex fans going, instead of submerging his fans into another landscape (which he did with Selected Ambient Works Volume 2) he's put them in a familiar spot - his sounds on Drukqs sort of echo his drill n' bass of the Richard D. James album. Cock/Ver10 is a harsh yet equal track that would sound great played live. It's a get-up-a-go kind of track. The speech bit at 2:50 into the song is a good reason to get up and start dancing. Tracks like Avril 14th and Nanou2 are more of the subtle parts of Drukqs. Although they aren't really needed, they do add a touch to the album. Some would call them annoying. Some would call them beautiful. However, the most boring tracks are filler at the most - Gwely Mermans is a prime example. After nearly 15 years of creating (and recreating) a genre, Aphex Twin is back-to-basics, which is really odd for Richard James. If you're an Aphex fan like me, it'll seem different from his usual pattern to screw things up. For everyone else, this is a perfect album to start with. Great Music to Play While: Exercising |
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DblHeLX from moon on 2001-10-20 17:27 [#00043953] | |||||||||
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right -friggin- on my man. everyone seems to expect a repeat of earlier stuff. all his albums are different. |
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1010-1111-10 from St.JOhn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Nf, Canada on 2001-10-20 20:02 [#00043971] | |||||||||
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This is a decent review. Personally Drukqs hits me like a brick in the face. At work i'll just start playing a tune in my head to pass the time. The piano pieces are , well i dont know really, i cant describe them. BY the way i'm not some joe that would like anything RDJ releases, its just that i personally like this album. I dont consider the reasons for its release, its just sounds all put together, who cares about their intentions.... |
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PostModernVancouver from Urban PostModernVancouver< Canadaaaa on 2001-10-20 21:41 [#00044006] | |||||||||
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Gwely Mermans a filler?? It's one of the most amazingly haunting tunes on the album a la SAW 2 with some beautiful fading in and out bass and drones coming through. It's haunting , mysterious and vague and deadly played loud. Anyone whose come into my appartment and hears Gwely played loud are all mesmerized, its a bloody stunner. Whoever wrote that review on top is one serious shrooms. GwelY Mermans is music for the wrong kind of haunted house.... and a defining explanation in musical form of these post-WTC attacks-times we're living in. Unsettling, dark and a wordly global fear. The message is in that piece of music fer sure..... |
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balthus from europe on 2001-10-20 22:15 [#00044013] | |||||||||
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it's interesting that avril 14th and nanou2 are often mentioned as the best pieces etc. the are the easiest accessible of what i heard until now from drukqs. i like avril 14th a lot (i have the nme sampler), but the excerpts from drukqs surprised me... the prepared piano pieces and mernan (gwarek sounds fantastic, too) and other piano pieces are sounding more subtle, deeper. after all this anti-hype of thought, 'well, maybe the album is in the end really not that good', but after listening to the excerpts, i was sure about that this is not the 'filler-album/contract-clearing' a lot of people talked of about. there are now a lot of albums which are hyped as 'masterpieces' and 'original', but in comparing them to drukqs they are just boring products and designed to please a wide range of consumers and critics, who need some fashionable background music. it's strange that critics are now praising empty and crappy albums and films, but original new works of art are dismissed, wether it's music or even french film (for me music is an art form, and aphex twin's drukqs is a piece of art, not a product). |
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Jeremy kwhy on 2001-10-20 22:15 [#00044014] | |||||||||
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yeah but who would go into your appartment? There isn't any humour on Drukqs, no revoloution...I don't need time to brainwash myself into liking the tracks. For each of the three genres he's covered on this album, he's done better and so have other people. GOODNIGHT |
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PostModernVancouver from Urban PostModernVancouver< Canadaaaa on 2001-10-20 22:20 [#00044016] | |||||||||
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This is just a matter of choice thats all, I'm just stating my opinion. Heres more reviews from AMG and Barnes And Noble, including one describing Gwely Mermans: Drukqs Aphex Twin Retail Price: $19.98 Our Price: $16.99 You Save: $2.99(15%) Readers' Advantage Price: $16.14 Join Now Not Yet Released: Preorder Now This item will be available on October 23, place your advance order now and we will ship it when it arrives! Catalog Number: 31174 UPC: 643443117425 Format: CD Release Date: Oct 23 2001 Label: SIRE / WEA Buy it Now! As you order, each item will be listed in Your Shopping Cart in the upper left corner. You may make changes at Checkout. Safe Shopping Guarantee! Write your own Online Review! Let others hear what you have to say. Track List 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 11. Gwarek 2 12. Orban Eq Trx 4 13. Aussois 14. Hy a Scullyas Lyf a Dhagrow 15. Kesson Daslef 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 11. Ruglen Holon 12. Afx237 V7 13. Ziggomatic V17 14. Beskhu3epnm 15. Nanou 2 Reviews Barnes & Noble After disappearing into the British countryside for a few years, the eclectic electronica producer known as Aphex Twin (born Richard D. James) has returned. And boy, is he back -- Drukqs (pronounced "drugs"), Aphex's first full-length album since 1996, is a doozy. Clocking in at more than 110 minutes, the double-disc set is stuffed with 30 cuts of hyperkinetic beat-trickery, glowing ambient numbers, and plaintive piano instrumentals that recall the work of minimalist classical composer Erik Satie. Despite Aphex's long absence, Drukqs proves that the reclusive producer hasn't fallen behind contemporary trends. The aggressive drum-'n'-bass beats and noisy synth effects on tracks like "Avril 14th" reinforce James's title as a forefather to the current crop of "intelligent dance music" producers like Mouse on Mars. On "54 Cymru Beats," James fractures and splinters crystalline drum shards into a jagged slab of sonic sculpture that threatens to leap out of the speakers. But the quiet moments here are just as engaging. The ethereal "Gwely Mermans" is a wondrous piece of ambient music -- the misty four-four thump sounds like techno filtered through a dense London fog. Though it frequently flip-flops between calm and near-chaos, Drukqs is infused with wistful, childlike melodies and melancholy keyboard tickles that could make R2D2 weep. Aphex's binary creations are definitely driven by a human heart. Michael Endelman All Music Guide Despite threatening retirement several times, in 2001 Richard D. James finally released another Aphex Twin record. But for all this record tells us, he may still be in retirement. Spreading 30 tracks (most with unpronounceable titles) across two discs, Drukqs sounds less like a major new statement from electronica's best producer than the results of a Sunday afternoon's trawl through his hard drive for files he hasn't released before. Many songs here evoke the feel of recordings long since past, from the quiet ambient-techno of his breakthrough Selected Ambient Works 85-92 to the demonically extroverted programming of Richard D. James Album and the Come to Daddy EP. Stylistically, the record leans toward the later recordings, with many tracks here reprising the off-key melodies and overloaded drum programming of "Come to Daddy" or "Windowlicker." There's also little rhyme or reason to the program; James veers directly from a drill'n'bass firestorm ("Cock/Ver 10") to a delicate piano piece á la Erik Satie ("Avril 14th") to an acid-techno burner ("Mt. Saint Michel Mix") with barely a glance backward for transition. Of course, aside from all the criticism, the previously unreleased musings of Aphex Twin are still far more intriguing and solid than most producers' best releases. The opener "Jynweythek Ylow" and "Ruglen Holon" are brilliant, inscrutable pieces reminiscent of a rusty, bygone music box or the gamelan music of Indonesia. And a few of the second-disc highlights, "Meltphace 6" and "Taking Control," chart a middle-ground between the emotional ambience of early Aphex Twin and the wracked hysteria of his later work. Drukqs is a sprawling album that defies listeners to understand or enjoy it as a whole -- it would've made a much better fan-only release than the long-awaited return of the techno vanguard's favorite producer. John Bush Album Credits Aphex Twin Primary Artist |
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balthus from europe on 2001-10-20 22:22 [#00044017] | |||||||||
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uh, he did something before in the genre of prepared piano pieces and piano pieces? and preparing pianos and playing on an old harmonium is not funny for a type who is known for electronic music? umm... well, maybe. |
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balthus from europe on 2001-10-20 22:31 [#00044019] | |||||||||
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nice reviews, postmodern vancouver. the only thing about i always wonder is that they are always mentioning erik satie as an influence (maybe only because aphex himself said that he is a great fan of him), but there's a lot more to the piano pieces and drukqs in general (of what i can tell after listening to some tracks and excerpts). satie never prepared pianos (and there are a bunch of prepared piano pieces). comparing the piano pieces by aphex to satie's pieces is like comparing satie's pieces to stravinsky's , cage's, reich's and glass' pieces (three composers who said - as aphex did - that they admire satie's music). aphex' pieces are just as original as theirs and as personal. |
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PostModernVancouver from Urban PostModernVancouver< Canadaaaa on 2001-10-20 22:41 [#00044020] | |||||||||
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agreed Balthus, his piano pieces are totally upto par with the past greats. I think the reason why they keep mentioning Satie is because (I think ) that his DrukQs pieces just sound a lot like Satie's work I guess. Aphex has the greatest ear for melancholy and sadness in music today which I think is wonderful. Drukqs is absolutely brilliant, and even thought its not that revolutionary it still is better then anything else released these past 2 years by eons. Drukqs will go down as one of the classics also as the years go by. RDj is faster then most of his fans and critics and reads these times far better then most, people seem to underestimate that RDj is a major trickster and is always going to come up with whatever might be unexpected. Trust me, naysayers about DrukQs or not, this is still the work of the only musical genius left in music today.... No one compares.... |
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