Richard D. James album

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard D. James album
Studio album by Aphex Twin

Publication
(s)

November 4, 1996

Label (s) Warp Records WARP43
Sire
Elektra Records

Format (s)

CD , LP

Genre (s)

Electronic music
IDM

Title (number)

10 (Europe)
15 (USA, Australia, Canada)

running time

32:03 (Europe)
41:49 (World)

production

Richard D. James ( Aphex Twin )

chronology
... I Care Because You Do
1995 		Richard D. James album Windowlicker
1999
Single release
August 19, 1996 Girl / boy song

The Richard D. James Album is an electronic music album by Richard D. James under his pseudonym Aphex Twin . It was released on Warp Records in 1996 .

Overview

This album contains at least two sounds from the Spectrum home computer: a program that is loaded from a cassette and sound effects from the computer game JetPac . The noise on the track "Carn Marth" comes from the game Saber Wulf and sounds from the track "Peek 82454201" come from the opening screen of Starstrike 3D . On "Logan Rock Witch" James sampled children's toys as percussion instruments. The track "Fingerbib" includes a violin played backwards . Some of the tracks, for example the single "Girl / Boy Song", sample children's songs. In addition, many songs were kept extra short. In interviews, James confirmed that his attention span was very short and that he could not concentrate on anything for more than 30 minutes.

“Fingerbib” and “Logan Rock Witch” were composed for the unreleased CD “ Melodies From Mars ”. The bonus tracks "Milkman" and "Beetles" contain a little vocals, and manipulated vocals can be heard on "Milkman" as well as on the two "Girl / Boy" remixes.

Style and reception

The album uses software synthesizers and unfamiliar beats . It is his fourth official studio album. The album received critical acclaim from professional music critics and was ranked 40 on Pitchfork's Top 100 Albums of the 1990's . The NME placed it at # 55 on the Top 100 Albums of All Time list, which was released in 2003. In 2009 Born Ruffians covered the tracks "Milkman" and "To Cure a Weakling Child" for the Warp20 (Recreated) compilation album.

Reviews

Pitchfork Media awarded 8.4 out of 10 points and recorded the album at number 40 of the 100 best albums of the 1990s. The website allmusic gave her 4.5 out of 5 points. Entertainment Weekly gave her an A- and the professional music critic Robert Christgau a B + . The RS Album Guide awarded 4 out of 5 points, the Rolling Stone 3.5 out of 5 points.

The time judged:

“The Richard D. James album begins abruptly and without an introduction, after a short thirty-two minutes the journey through the ten apparently randomly grouped pieces is just as suddenly over. Listeners expectations raised by the LP format are disappointed - no epic thread, no continuous tension build-up, no increase in sound development. And yet - exactly at the moment of the liberating laugh over a particularly insanely constructed break between a crackling thunderstorm of beats and a downward whizzing string orchestra - a pause: No, this is not a joke, but an exquisite listening pleasure, a masterpiece of dissolution at the right moment. "

- Pinky Rose : DIE ZEIT February 28, 1997, No. 10

In the media

Songs from the album have been used in several different television commercials . "To Cure a Weakling Child" was used in a British television commercial for the cell phone company Orange , track "4" was used in an anti-drug commercial for the US government and a US commercial for the Special Olympics . "Girl / Boy Song" was used in a Bank of America advertisement . In addition, “Logan Rock Witch” was remixed by the British noise artist V / Vm as part of his helpaphextwin series. The song "Beetles" was used in the film Shot List .

Track list

  1. 4 - 3.37
  2. Cornish Acid - 2.14
  3. Peek 824545201 - 3.05
  4. Fingerbib - 3.48
  5. Carn Marth - 2.33
  6. To Cure a Weakling Child - 4.33
  7. Goon Gumpas - 2.02
  8. Yellow Calx - 3.04
  9. Girl / Boy Song - 4.52
  10. Logan Rock Witch - 3.33
Bonus tracks on the album versions in the USA, Australia and Canada (in England these tracks are found as B-sides of the EP Girl / Boy (1996))
  1. Milkman - 4.09
  2. INKEY $ - 1.24
  3. Girl / Boy (£ 18 Snare Rush mix) - 1.57
  4. Beetles - 1.31
  5. Girl / Boy ( Redruth mix) - 1.37

Song title

"Carn Marth" is often wrongly titled with "Corn Mouth", probably because of James' poorly legible handwriting on the album cover. The track is named after a mountain in Cornwall , United Kingdom . Logan Rock is also a well-known rock in Cornwall - this track is also sometimes incorrectly titled “Logl / Rock Witch” or “Logon Rock Witch”. The track "Goon Gumpas" takes its name from a village near Redruth in Cornwall.

The songs "INKEY $" and "Peek 82454201" were named after programming commands of the programming language "Sinclair BASIC".

Chart positions

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Richard D James album
  UK 62 11/16/1996 (1 week)

In mid-November 1996 the album reached number 62 in the UK charts for a week. In 1997 it was ranked 20th in the US Heatseekers .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard D. James at Discogs . Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  2. ↑ Melodies From Mars in Discogs . Retrieved April 28, 2009.
  3. ↑ Top 100 Albums of the 1990's . Archived from the original on July 1, 2008. Retrieved January 16, 2009.
  4. ^ Pitchfork criticism ( Memento from October 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Top 100 Albums of the 1990s at pitchfork.com, accessed August 19, 2010
  6. ^ Allmusic review
  7. ↑ Entertainment Weekly Review
  8. ↑ andreas.de presents the aphex twin - CD review: Aphex Twin: Richard D. James Album
  9. ^ Space Age Bachelor article . Archived from the original on May 21, 2008. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  10. ↑ Soundtrack listing . Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  11. ↑ Charts UK