4 out of 5

Label: Rephlex

Producer: Richard D. James

There was some hate splashed around on ‘Drukqs’ for it not being the followup Aphex fans had been awaiting.  In part I feel this was just snark – the ‘album’ perhaps seeming like a dump of material as the story went it was released in haste post the tracks being stolen – so blah it’s not an ‘official’ release.  In part it seemed to be dissatisfaction with the discs’ sprawling nature, as it was neither all frantic Windowlicker IDM nor completely the smoother Richard D. James-era stuff, nor were the (frequently compared to Erik Satie) piano pieces ambient enough.  And I guess I get that.  But I was just happy for more material.  I jumped on board the Aphex train with ‘Come to Daddy,’ as did many, but my collection expanded in both directions to encompass the earlier garage-ier stuff and the latter wacked-out experimentations, through all those lovely pseudonyms – Caustic Window, Bradley Striker… AFX.

Under the AFX monkier, RDJ favored harsher beats, dropping the classic Analogue Bubblebath experiments and then some longtime vinyl-only releases like Hangable Auto Bulb.  The fans love these discs.  And again, I feel that it’s an ‘in part’ list of reasons – partially that this feels more like the ‘original’ Aphex, holding on to the gritty 80s roots, and partially that its just cooler to like the stuff the Dillinger Escape Plan ‘Come to Daddy’ lovers don’t listen to.  Plus a million other reasons, I’m sure.

And then, under cover of night, 10 vinyl-only releases (under a mix of Aphex / AFX) tippled out, and the fans cried with joy and they were lauded as returns to form and yadda, and yadda.  ‘Chosen Lords’ is a selection of 10 tracks from this ‘Analord’ series.

Now, as mentioned, I liked ‘Drukqs.’  And I like ‘Chosen Lords’.  Now I accept I’m fairly easy to please once you’ve earned my ear, but I believe that with any prolific artist who’s proven him- or herself capable of consistently imaginative and challenging output, the appreciation of any one piece of that output can only be enhanced by looking at the Whole, and coming to an understanding of where it came from and what roles it played in the artist’s development.  There are always going to be favorites and some things you’re apt to skip over, but it all has its place.  ‘Lords’, being a compilation, is lacking the organic flow and awareness of RDJ’s full releases, but accepting that, its still imperfect.  The ‘return to form’, to me, manifests in tracks that are actually lacking a bit, not pushed to their limits.  Tracks that would work as thematical links or buffers on a full album (or properly sequenced on the individual Analord releases, perhaps), but on this compilation end up sounding like a lot of the normal mid-2000s Rephlex output: slick and pleasant IDM.  This is most evident on ‘Batine Acid,’ which sticks to a poppy beat and then steadfastly refuses to vary, whereas most of the mid-album examples (‘Crying in Your Face,’ ‘Klopjob’) have some lovely, naturalistic flourishes that keep you enveloped.  So they’re good tracks – and identifiable as RDJ with some of their characteristic effects and breaks (like the stop/starts of ‘Pitcard’) – but smushed altogether from track 3-8 out of 10 songs lets your attentions wander.

And then something amazing will happen.  Right when the mid-album ‘Boxing Day’ seems like its going to settle for tedium, some live feedback drops in (feedback in electro… I love it) and then James drops in the harsher and harsher layers and the song builds to a frenetic climax.  It’s a great reminder of the structural smarts that brought Aphex to the Top of the Pops back in the day.  The Aphex Twin songs the cap the mix are awesome, definitely in the vibe of the herky jerk of his more recent work, and the AFX tracks they buffer are some of the most interestingly balanced and nuanced stuff RDJ’s worked on – the penultimate ‘PWSteal.Ldpinch.D’ brings its beat in from nineteen different angles and acts like a typical fucking club track except that its genius (…which club tracks aren’t).  It’s a gem of composition.

So I don’t think AFX went anywhere.  The skills are there when he needs them, and when he wants to, he drops some tracks.  We’ve been blessed with years of recordings, and we digital fans were blessed with a CD version of some hard to find singles.  I don’t think latter-era Aphex fans will latch onto this, but by the same token, there’s something here for everyone, and obviously the ‘classic’ fans were happy.