Ranking every Aphex Twin album from worst to best
Aphex Twin, the most successful and well-known alias of Richard D. James, is the undisputed Beethoven of electronic music. The Cornish dynamo appeared to pick up the threads of Brian Eno’s pioneering work in ambient music in the mid-1980s and moulded it into a beast of his own.
His 1992 debut album, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, garnered his first swathe of critical and public acclaim and posed as the building block for a wave of avant-garde electronic music that gained momentum throughout the 1990s. The broad title given to such music – to distinguish it from the electronic dance music (EDM) of the burgeoning rave scene – is IDM (intelligent dance music). This seemingly pompous title intends to signify that the music is better suited for home listening and due more thought and attention. It’s thought that the term was inspired by the 1992 Warp Records compilation album, Artificial Intelligence, which featured James’ ‘Polygon Window’, released under his alias The Dice Man.
After taking serious strides into the world of ambient music, James began to develop his sound by incorporating experimental recording and sound production techniques. Always putting his artistic integrity before financial gain, James has been awarded high acclaim for an unrelenting thirst for sonic exploration over six studio albums and a scattering of EPs as Aphex Twin.
James dances to no tune but his own, and it’s immediately apparent in his volatile output. Whenever the urge came to experiment with the screeching sounds only welcome in a mechanic’s workshop, James had the gall to cut it into vinyl (yes, I’m talking about ‘Ventolin’) and add creepy smiling faces to the front covers for good measure. It seems that every step of the way, James has taken a left turn into the abyss to try something outlandish, and whether anyone followed him was very much a secondary concern. This is why James is the epitome of true creative freedom.
Fortunately, James has been recognised for his broad, progressive and highly influential back-catalogue, which has had an incalculably vast impact on contemporary electronic music. Join me below as I revisit James’ six studio albums under the Aphex Twin alias and somehow manage to rank them in order of greatness.
Ranking every Aphex Twin album from worst to best:
6. Syro – 2014
Finding itself at the bottom of the pile is the latest Aphex Twin studio album, Syro. It’s important to note that, while Syro finds itself here, it is by no means a poor album. I would squeeze all six of Aphex Twin’s studio LPs into the top millimetre of the meter stick of electronic music. The album is highly accessible and was described by James as “my pop album, or as poppy as it’s going to get”.
Released in 2014, the music within would find it difficult to live up to the seminal status of some of the prior releases. Syro is a seamless blend of techno, synth-funk, breakbeat, acid house and a few original vocal samples thrown in from James and his family. It’s a production masterclass and a real treat for the ears.
5. drukQs – 2001
Of all of Aphex Twin’s albums, 2001’s beef wellington, drukQs, is the most difficult to digest. The music doesn’t take any huge strides forwards in terms of originality compared to its predecessors. Tapping out at just over 100 minutes, the album brings a strange and eclectic mixture of music that doesn’t exactly tesselate.
The album’s most memorable moment is, of course, the elegant classical piano composition ‘Avril 14th’. This gentle passage is flanked by a smorgasbord of interesting yet incohesive ideas, such as the industrial rattlings of ‘Prep Gwarek 36’ or the high-tempo drum ‘n’ bass in ‘Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount’. The mercurial album slots in at fifth by a hairline and is by no means a poor studio effort.
4. Selected Ambient Works Volume II – 1994
Aphex Twin took another bite of the ambient cherry in 1994, releasing his follow-up to Selected Ambient Works 85-92. The album continues the ambient exploration seen in the debut LP with over an hour and a half of avant-techno meandering.
The 24 tracks take another step forward in James’ electro-production odyssey, but compared with its predecessor, it pushed fewer boundaries half as far. The music in this second volume differs from the first in that it consists mostly of beatless ambient compositions. James once described the music in Vol. 2 as “standing in a power station on acid”.
3. Richard D. James Album – 1996
Aphex Twin’s eponymous fourth studio album followed a year after …I Care Because You Do and saw James begin to toy with faster breakbeats and intricate drum track programming. Richard D. James Album shows the inspiration he took from his friends in the business, most notably Squarepusher and Plug.
The album marked the start of a long-lived infatuation with drum and bass for James as he became a dab hand at weaving uptempo drum tracks with his earlier ambient ideas. This high-energy experimental drum and bass sound is renamed “drill ‘n’ bass” by some fans.
2. …I Care Because You Do – 1995
Aphex Twin’s third studio album often finds itself unfairly low on ranking lists. For me, this release shows James taking a critical step forward from his ambient beginnings toward something stranger and, at moments, more attractive. The album was also James’ last to be recorded primarily with analogue technology before he embraced digital alternatives.
In true Aphex Twin style, James painted a creepy self-portrait to make the debut of his “smiler” artwork run. The music is highlighted by ‘Alberto Balsam’, which hears a sample of James dragging a chair alongside a mixture of ambient and techno sounds; it’s wholly experimental yet somehow accessible. The album is also home to ‘Ventolin’, a true endurance test sure to rile up your neighbour’s dog.
1. Selected Ambient Works 85-92 – 1992
While it’s difficult to place one Aphex Twin LP in front of another due to the sheer variety of styles explored, his 1992 debut album sits comfortably on top for me. To listen to this album today, it sounds extremely current, but back in 1992, the music was wholly unprecedented.
Selected Ambient Works 85-92 wasn’t a mainstream sensation upon its release, but its influence pervaded the dawn of electronic music to inspire a host of artists from differing musical backgrounds. The 74-minute double album takes the listener through ambient soundscapes covering a wide range of tempos and emotions with Aphex Twin’s characteristic ingenuity. There’s a reason why this iconic album features on the front of so many t-shirts today.
