5 out of 5

Label: Warp

Produced by: Aphex Twin

My first taste of Aphex Twin – like many, I’m supposing – was through a 120 minutes freaky-ass video which, yeah, was Come To Daddy.  After peeing my pants sufficiently and then a later recommendation from a friend (to both pee my pants again AND to listen to Aphex Twin) I bought the CD, which was my first electronic music album.  Probably, again, same for many.  (I’ve told this story before, haven’t I?  Maybe with less pants peeing, though, so I might as well go for broke on that.)

Over years and copious pants peed, my Aphex collection would grow and encourage first the exploration of Rephlex releases, then like-minded artists, then the music of those inspired by Richard D. James and so on… and there’s so much new material that it can be tough to make time to go back to the classics.  But you should, especially with Aphex, so you can be shocked all over again at how good RDJ has always been at this stuff.

On’s slick, bouncy, and yet delicate beat makes for a masterful single on its own, and encapsulates the intense amount of layering and subtlety that James would and could imbue any given track with; it’s a skill that impresses even today, surrounded by all my other fantastic and sometimes layered and subtle music, perhaps because of how natural and organic it always sounded when coming from RDJ.  CD1 of On (CD2 being remixes) is then a microcosm of the tonal shifts we would get from release to release, with 73-Yips a harsher-edged, Ventolin-like single, and D-Scape evoking the artist’s more mysterious side, with a slow, haunting beat and synths.  Closer Xepha jumps back into the Ventolin stuff, even colder and more minimal.  All three of these backing tracks offer the same depth as On, but with very different emotional experiences, some of which may or may not make you pee your pants.

And I shouldn’t be surprised at this point, but 25+ years past the point, I am: On is an amazing single, not just for the time, but for all time, and it leaves no doubt about what my little youthy brain latched on to that many days’ past, never realizing bleep bloop music could sound quite like this.