Jump to content

Richard D. James Album

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Degree9 (talk | contribs) at 02:19, 31 January 2010. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Untitled

Richard D. James Album is an electronic album by Aphex Twin, whose real name is Richard David James. It was released on Warp Records in 1996.[1] The work features use of software synthesizers and unusual beats. It is his fourth official full-length album. The album garnered high acclaim from music critics, and was named 40th in Pitchfork Media's "Top 100 Albums of the 1990's" list.[2]. It was also placed #55 on NME's Top 100 Albums Of All Time in 2003. In 2009 covers of "Milkman" and "To Cure a Weakling Child" were performed by Born Ruffians for the Warp20 (Recreated) compilation.

Overview

This album contains at least two sounds from the Spectrum home computer: a program being loaded from a tape, and sound effects from the game Jetpac. The tape noise in "Carn Marth" is the loading screen data for the game Sabre Wulf, and "Peek 824545201" contains the header block from Starstrike 3D. On "Logan Rock Witch", James sampled children's toys as percussion instruments. The track "Fingerbib" has a reversed violin playing in parts of the song. Some of the tracks, including the single "Girl/Boy Song", seem to sample children's songs. In addition, many of the songs are kept short. The UK release of the album was just over half an hour long, supposedly because James claimed that anything over that in length bores him, and he cannot concentrate. "Fingerbib" and "Logan Rock Witch" were originally composed for James' unreleased Melodies From Mars project [3]. The bonus tracks "Milkman" and "Beetles" contain vocals, and distorted vocals can be heard on "Milkman" and the two "Girl/Boy" remixes.

Media attention and reception

Songs from the album were used on several different television ads. "To Cure a Weakling Child" was used in a high-profile UK TV advertising campaign for the mobile phone company, Orange. The song "4" was used in a US government anti-drug advertisement spot, as well as an advertisement in the United States for the Special Olympics. "Girl/Boy Song" was used in a Bank of America commercial.[4] In addition, a remix of Logan Rock Witch was among the many bootleg remixes of Aphex Twin that V/Vm did as part of his Helpaphextwin series. Many critics also reviewed the album, Pitchfork Media quotes "The Richard D. James Album is 43.5 minutes of pure electronic genius"[5] A review by the Chicago Sun-Times' Jim Deragotis said of the album: "James has turned inward for inspiration, painting aural pictures of real and imagined scenes from his West Country childhood." Jason Fine of Rolling Stone commented on the album as "combining jolting beats, pristine melodic fragments and random noises into elegant – if at times unnerving – futuristic pop". He also commented "Not all of Richard D. James goes down easy", explaining the "menace lurking beneath the jerking beat of "Peek 82454201."[6] The song "Beetles" is used in the film Shot List [7]

Track information

Tracks from the original Warp Records release:

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."4" (sampleⓘ)3:37
2."Cornish Acid"2:14
3."Peek 824545201"3:05
4."Fingerbib"3:48
5."Carn Marth"2:33
6."To Cure a Weakling Child"4:03
7."Goon Gumpas"2:02
8."Yellow Calx"3:04
9."Girl/Boy Song"4:52
10."Logan Rock Witch"3:33

The American, Canadian, and Australian versions of this album contain the following five extra tracks that had previously been released in the UK as the b-sides of the Girl/Boy EP.

No.TitleLength
11."Milkman"4:09
12."INKEY$"1:24
13."Girl/Boy (£18 Snare Rush mix)"1:57
14."Beetles"1:31
15."Girl/Boy (Redruth mix)"1:37

Song titles

"Carn Marth" is frequently, albeit incorrectly, referred to as "Corn Mouth", mainly due to James' poor handwriting. The track is named after a hill in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. Logan Rock is also a famous rock located in Cornwall, and is sometimes misspelt (due to the writing on the back) as "Logl/Rock Witch" or "Logon Rock Witch". Goon Gumpas is a village located near Redruth. The tracks "INKEY$" and "Peek 824545201" are named after keywords in the Spectrum's Sinclair BASIC programming language.

Charts

Year Chart Peak
position
1996 UK Albums Chart 62[8]
1997 U.S. Heatseekers 20

References

  1. ^ "Richard D. James at Discogs". Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  2. ^ "Top 100 Albums of the 1990's". Retrieved 2009-01-16.
  3. ^ "Melodies From Mars in Discogs". Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  4. ^ "Space Age Bachelor article". Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  5. ^ "Richard D. James pitchfork review". Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  6. ^ "Richard D. James rolling stone review". Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  7. ^ "Soundtrack listing". Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  8. ^ "Chart Stats - The Aphex Twin - Richard D James Album". ChartStats.com. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_D._James_Album&oldid=341013461"