Richard D. James Album 25th Anniversary

Initially my least favorite AFX album, but now I consider it (along with SAW2) his best work. Dense, concentrated tracks that say everything there is to say within a couple of minutes.

My favs:

So yeah, HBD.

25 years. Fuck. I remember it bringing this home from the shop and sticking it on the decks the day it came out. In many ways I think it's his strangest record.
 

first vinyl I ever bought and listened to it so many times, one of the best albums of all time and arguably his best. Carn Marth under rated

Gonna hit this up today on vinyl now that ive a loaner amp aftee the shop finally agreed to replace my amp

Pure magic all the way through. Picked it up on CD on release, never got tired of it.

I member first afx I heard was this video

member being so blown away

This was the first RDJ release I was majorly hyped up for, prior to the drop. Before it, it was like everything I had by him had just drifted into my life somehow. I remember I had been an RDJ fan for about a year or two and already had On, Ventolin, Artificial Intelligence 1, SAW2, ICBYD, Analogue Bubblebath, Donkey Rhubarb and had just gotten Girl/Boy, which completely blew my damn mind. I had a stack of about 10 or 12 promo RDJ masks that I got at a Tower Records in-store signing with Bjork in Chicago (now I think I only have one or two) and I was seriously itching for it. That was the summer of my first rave. Then I saw my first Aphex show in Chicago that fall and met him by his tour bus while his buddies were stuffing their dancing bear costumes in the lower compartment. I didn’t know what to say so I gave him a little plastic alien I got from a gumball machine. By the time the album came out I was a full blown, fat-pantsed raver. Lots of feels. 

  On 11/4/2021 at 1:49 PM, phudoshin said:

Gonna hit this up today on vinyl now that ive a loaner amp aftee the shop finally agreed to replace my amp

Spin it on 33rpm

First Aphex Twin album I ever listened to. (Not including seeing "On" music video as a kid on Nickelodeon as a bump but that's a fuzzy memory I have in hindsight) My friend at the time mentioned him and how nutty his music was but I hadn't checked it out. At that point I was mostly listening to Chemical Brothers and some other more mainstream electronica.

The moment I heard the opening of "4" is seared in my memory, I remember it being physically jarring to listen to and overwhelming. This is still one of my favorite albums even with the nostalgia aside and the scope and means of him making this music mostly demystified. I like how succinct it is and it's balance between pretty moments and playful but chaotic breakbeat "drill n' bass." Still sounds alien but warm and engaging. I don't think it's my favorite of his outright anymore but it's always been up there.

Just going down a memory lane Google search and discovered this…

How am I just learning about this??

RDJ album and Girl/Boy EP (Hangable Auto Bulbs a bit, too) were the ones responsible for my flagging interest in RDJ's work, although I habitually bought everything up to (and including) Analord I haven't since felt the urgency and intense interest in all things RDJ I felt in the early 90s; this is why I missed The Tuss releases completely when they came out. Cheetah and Collapse revived my interest somewhat, but I bought Syro around the time Collapse came out. I don't think I've even listened to much RDJ during the past few years. RDJ's beginning to be like the Beatles for me, historically, musically, and culturally extremely relevant but I'd rather listen to something else.

Giving this album a spin now. Not sure when I last played it, it's certainly etched in my mind. This was the first Aphex release I was anticipating, after a friend introduced me to I Care... the year before.

Great album.  

  On 11/4/2021 at 3:49 PM, dcom said:

RDJ album and Girl/Boy EP (Hangable Auto Bulbs a bit, too) were the ones responsible for my flagging interest in RDJ's work, although I habitually bought everything up to Analord I've never felt the urgency and intense interest in all things RDJ I felt in the early 90s; this is why I missed The Tuss releases completely when they came out. Cheetah and Collapse revived my interest somewhat, but I bought Syro around the time Collapse came out. I don't think I've even listened to much RDJ during the past few years. RDJ's beginning to be like the Beatles for me, historically, musically, and culturally extremely relevant but I'd rather listen to something else.

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HERETIC! APOSTATE! INFIDEL! OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

 

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I can empathise. SAW II and I care... are important albums for me, and contain some special tracks. Both albums also take me back to a one summer of intense music discovery, and getting stoned and skating every night. I started to flag with Drukqs, though I've picked up most things since then, besides the recent releases. 

This album is in a sweet spot, I don't listen very often, but really enjoying playing this today. Will rewind. 

dunno what else can be said about this album that hasn't already been said. a classic. I get the feeling this was a lot of people's entry point into the twin that may have not been big electronic music heads prior, as he was already an established name by late '90s when electronic music was exploding everywhere. most mainstreamers had probably at least heard of Aphex, as he was discussed in music mag articles, on MTV amp, referenced by non-electronic acts, etc. 

I wasn't into this scene quite yet in '96 when this came out. I remember discovering this back in the napster days, downloading random tracks in shitty quality. in hindsight, I wish I could've done it properly, as in buy the album and listen to it whole from the get go. but nonetheless, I got it on CD at some point back in the day, and was just as mind-melted as the rest of you. 

I know this won’t be a popular opinion here, but I don’t care much about this (and Girl/Boy EP, which for many of us was combined into the same release). Unlike the absolute excitement palpable in the inventions of Hangable Auto Bulb, or the tightness and punchyness of later tracker stuff, it sounds splattered and thin to me. Something doesn’t gel. It should be a sweet spot, but instead it just feels like a transitional phase — that happened to hit it big.

  On 11/4/2021 at 2:59 PM, DavieAddison said:

Spin it on 33rpm

 

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My record player don't to that but thanks for the link.. will play on my drive home

Was for many years my favourite Aphex album, though in recent years it’s probably been replaced by Drukqs. I love the playful, almost goofy childlike nature to the tracks. Plus the front cover is badass. Classic album.

Fav album by the man, super tight beats but still weird at the same time.

Happy birday to the album, and specifically song (4) that changed my life.

  On 11/4/2021 at 3:12 PM, J3FF3R00 said:

Just going down a memory lane Google search and discovered this…

How am I just learning about this??

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Ha, totally forgot about this!

There's a (vinyl) promo for sale on Discogs now, including the hair baggie - 921 of your earth pounds, top investment watta deal

  On 11/4/2021 at 4:32 PM, aencre said:

It should be a sweet spot, but instead it just feels like a transitional phase

I think it's titled perfectly because it kind of encapsulates a lot of his entire sound library and personality. It's like the precursor foundation forming for his most popular singles. And I'm guessing in 1996 there wasn't too much like it. What other albums would you buy at that time? I was 7 so I was still listening to Garth Brooks or something

I still remember hearing the opening of 4 for the first time in my bedroom, at my desk trying to do homework, the warm glow of the lamp, the quiet outside. Took me away instantly.

I've always felt like this is the music he really wanted to make. The pastoral tones mixed with tricky tracker work, before tracker-madness/competitiveness in the scene (pretty sure he said he and Tom were trying to out-do eachother toward the late 90s) led to Drukqs (which I have much love for). You see him taking a sharp turn away from tracker stuff with Analord, and then gradually working back to the tricky stuff with Tuss/Syro.

Syro felt like somewhat of a return to the balance he had originally struck with RDJ, ofc with years of experience/influence in between.

  On 11/4/2021 at 6:22 PM, xy_politics said:

Ha, totally forgot about this!

There's a (vinyl) promo for sale on Discogs now, including the hair baggie - 921 of your earth pounds, top investment watta deal

 

There's something especially creepy and gross about spending top dollar for a 25 year-old lock of hair.

  On 11/4/2021 at 6:56 PM, rstark said:

I think it's titled perfectly because it kind of encapsulates a lot of his entire sound library and personality. It's like the precursor foundation forming for his most popular singles. And I'm guessing in 1996 there wasn't too much like it. What other albums would you buy at that time? I was 7 so I was still listening to Garth Brooks or something

This was slightly debated in the best albums of 91 thread. About 95/96 a lot of us who were listening to metal/ alternative rock started to take notice of electronic music. It was in the mid 90’s when I was listening to John Peel on a weekly basis (because it was at that time I realised I was totally in tune with his eclectic taste) that he played Girl/Boy Song and it was one of those lightbulb moments. Luckily this wasn’t just a one off track and the Aphex back catalogue was literally brimming with gold, and his soon future releases were all total classics. It was like being at the perfect place at the perfect time. Surf was most definitely up  

Got into afx in 95, which makes this one one of the first 'new releases' I was able to pick up.  It sounded so completely different from ICBYD that at first I really didn't like it.  Now it's one of my absolute favorites, and is occasionally in the musical chair for all time favorite.