Amazon.co.uk Review
Drukqs is the 2001 release from Cornish Techno wizard Richard D James aka the
Aphex Twin. Deified in the sphere of experimental dance--partly for his indisputable sporadic genius, but partly, it must be said, for his bullish refusal to play the whole "releasing records" game, and the subsequent mythology that such contrariness invariably prompts--every new release is greeted like it's the future of music on plastic.
Drukqs is not that album, at least not quite: a 30-track double CD set that runs to over 100 minutes in length, it reads like a hastily-compiled joy-ride through the old Aphex countryside, full-on acid junglist scorchers like "Vord Hosbn" barrelling madly past serene, oddly beautiful ambient piano curiosities like "Avril 14th" and sometimes the two disparate disciplines blending, as in the truly surreal wreckage of "Mt Saint Michel + St Michaels Mount". It's a minor disappointment when you realise there's nothing here as epochal as "Come To Daddy" or "Windowlicker", two late-period Aphex singles so startlingly revolutionary that, on their release, they sounded like nothing else on God's good earth. But once that's out the way, and you're free to immerse yourself in the tangled depths of
Drukqs, it's simply a relief to know that Aphex is still making music: fiendishly complex, lovably dumb, and still aeons ahead of the legion of imitators. --
Louis Pattison
CD Description
Fifth album from Cornish acid techno act Richard D. James, his first for five years. A staggering 30 tracks spread across two CDs feature his usual mishmash of styles. Gentle ambience sits next to manic drum 'n' bass, skittering glitches and swathes of grating avant-garde noise.