review #1: drukQs by aphex twin

(this review covers the vinyl tracklisting of drukQs.)

open, vast, and never-ending countryside; conglomerate stores larger than life; sprawling highways, burning concrete, hours spent in a hot and humid car traversing the texan landscape in a world which is now more man-made than natural. for two weeks straight on a trip to visit some family in texas, this album replayed over and over on my mediocre over-ear headphones. one of the most divisive electronic/idm albums released, drukQs paints an aural landscape akin to the barren lands (and various parking lots… there are so many parking lots in texas) which i traveled across over the winter, a sprawling combination of dense, mechanical and inhuman beats interwoven with prepared-piano interludes ever-relenting, always making its presence known. this isn’t an album you forget so easily; take vordhosbn, the first idm track of the record with its haunting icy, sawtooth melodies and manic breakbeats (how the FUCK were these beats made in 2001?) or mt saint michel + saint michaels mount where squelchy, acid-techno lines meet similarly frenzied drum breaks, where the sounds of what seems like metal clanging against metal reverberates underneath layered, lo-bit hi-hats and various tuned snare hits. it’s music taken to its natural conclusion, fucked and chopped and screwed by the hands of machines until rhythm and sonority are indistinguishable from melody. in stark contrast are the prepared piano pieces which often precede these harsher tracks, allowing the listener to rest and regain their composure before richard d. james and his array of analog machinery comes to disturb the short-lasting peace. perhaps the most popular of these interludes, and one of his most popular songs (due to controversies with sampling.. read about kanye west’s blame game) is avril 14th, a beautiful and deceivingly calming track clocking in at only two minutes and some change, consisting of nothing but a lonesome piano and the ambient clicks and bangs of its keys. the track serves as a prime example of the versatility that both drukQs and richard himself have—the ability to induce such a wide spectrum of emotions through such a varied mix of textures and sounds and yet still manage to make this daunting 100-minute long album pass by so quick is perhaps why i decided to loop it for so long during my texan vacation. it’s the perfect mix of man and nature, of depressive lows and manic highs, of sprawling never-ending beats and soothing yet simultaneously eerie melodies, a perfect representation of post-capitalist american society and of us, as a whole, as fluid and feeling beings. perhaps no other piece of music describes the world today than this album.

10/10