4 out of 5

Label: Rephlex

Produced by: Richard D. James

In the great Aphex dearth between Drukqs and his Syro resurgence, the last rattles of Rephlex happened via The Tuss, and an accompanying story about its creators, which most of us – upon hearing its compositional hallmarks – dismissed as witty tripe disguising an RDJ venture.

And while the two Tuss releases essentially amounted to a stopgap (totaling about 45 minutes together), woof, it was a sweet, appreciated, er, rush, a fully confident and playful drop of IDM that set aside the scattered Drukqs approach and the abrasive cut-up nature of some preceding AFX singles for a bouncy style that was somewhat of a preview of what would later be heard on Syro.

Rushup Edge’s six tracks appreciably have a built-in variance, from the more old school house style of Last Rushup 10 to Come to Daddy clatter of Rushup I Bank 12, and some nice downtempo darkness on the appreciably titled Death Fuck.  As befitting the somewhat facelessness of the release, however – the barebones packaging, the faked backstory – there’s a lack of identity here; this is certainly more of a packaged deal than Drukqs, and the tracks are undeniably complete (and nuanced as hell), but nothing really strikes the gut like some classic RDJ stuff.  Keeping the Syro comparison, that’s a sensation that would follow; James, being so accomplished, can focus, perhaps, on craft more than anything else, and can thus cough out the precision, jittery fun of a disc like this without necessarily thematically tying it to anything.

Pssht, heck ya, RDJ can do that.