Richard D. James Album
Template:Good article Template:UBE Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox album Richard D. James Album is a studio album by the British electronic music artist and producer Richard D. James under the alias of Aphex Twin. It was released on 4Template:NbspNovember 1996 through Warp Records. It was composed by James on his Macintosh computer, and took longer to complete than his previous albums. It features fast breakbeats and intricate drum programming which draw from jungle and drum and bass. James' drum loops are paired with lush string arrangements, and ambient melodies reminiscent of his earlier work, as well as modulated vocals from James.
Richard D. James Album entered the Dance Albums Chart at No.Template:Nbsp7,<ref name=MwNov96/> and reached No.Template:Nbsp62 on the Albums Chart. In the US it charted at No.Template:Nbsp20 on BillboardTemplate:'s Top Heatseekers Albums chart. It had sold over 100,000 units by 1997, making it Warp's most commercially successful release at the time. It received critical acclaim, with much of the praise going to its production. It has since been described as one of the best albums of 1996 and the 1990s overall by music critics.
Background and production
In 1995, Richard James released the two Hangable Auto Bulb EPs under his AFX moniker, experimenting with exaggerated rhythms inspired by drum and bass in a style that came to be called "drill 'n' bass".<ref name="p4k">Template:Cite web</ref> This faster style of drum programming was inspired by James' friend Luke Vibert, also known as Plug.Template:Sfn James stated that while he worked with triplets and complicated beats in the past, that Vibert "got me into doing it a faster pace. He gave me the spark to do it faster, but now I'm trying to take it to all extremes".<ref name="keyboard-book"/> This rapid, computer-based approach would become the dominant style of James's work through the end of the decade.<ref name="p4k" /> In the following year, James released the Aphex Twin EP Girl/Boy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
James has stated that most of the album was composed on his Macintosh computer<ref name="keyboard-book">Template:Harvnb</ref> and that the album took longer to create than any of his previous albums.<ref name="electronic-beats">Template:Cite web</ref> Describing his approach to drum programming, he stated that "sometimes I just hit the keyboard in a way I'd like the rhythm of the tracks to sound. Then I'll spend four hours moving all the notes where I want them to go."<ref name=pulse/> Some tracks on the album include James' vocals modulated on a computer; in "To Cure a Weakling Child", James manipulated his voice to sound like a child giving a lecture about their arms and legs.<ref name="keyboard-book"/><ref name="electronic-beats"/> For the orchestral arrangements on the album, James bought a violin at a car boot sale. He taught himself to play a note from the instrument by placing it on a table, playing a note and sampling the note.Template:Sfn
Composition
Richard D. James Album is a work of electronica<ref name="Hermes 88"/><ref name="Evening Standard">Template:Cite web</ref> that has been characterised as James's "swan dive into jungle and drill'n'bass" by ViceTemplate:'s Dan Weiss,<ref name="Thump">Template:Cite web</ref> and labeled as a work of IDM by Pitchfork,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> working with jungle,<ref name="allmusic-review"/> drum and bass<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="Cole">Template:Cite web</ref> and ambient and acid techno in some tracks.<ref name="Cole"/> Andrew Spiess of PopMatters noted that '[w]hat makes Richard D. James Album stand out among James' previous works is the synthesis of delicate, symphonic sounds and hard, jackhammering beats," noting that the album consolidated his 1995 entry into the short-lived drill 'n' bass subgenre.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> James has claimed the influence of jungle music came from "any of the drum 'n' bass and breakbeat artists" and that he has "always been into nicking other things [...] and making something different".<ref name="keyboard-book"/> Patric Fallon of Stereogum noted the album heavily relies on drum programming, sampling, and "other digital intricacies that would've been otherwise unthinkable without computers".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It also features lush string arrangements and simple keyboard textures built over quadruple time breakbeats.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> A reviewer for Spectrum Culture wrote that the album used unstable time signatures.<ref name="Cole"/> Steve Taylor found the record Aphex Twin's "most terrifying" one, with "weird stop-start beats, white noise and tough melodies."<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Template:Listen John Bush of AllMusic noted that the album continued James's "forays into acid-jungle and experimental music,"<ref name="bush">Template:Cite web</ref> noting that the album was "more extreme than virtually all jungle being made at the time", with beats layered over slower melodies that characterised James' earlier ambient works.<ref name="allmusic-review"/> Eric Carr of Pitchfork opined that the album was one of the "aggressive combinations of disparate electronic forms", with "almost-brutal contrast between its elements".<ref name="pitchfork-2003">Template:Cite web</ref> Exclaim! commented that tracks such as "Girl/Boy Song", "Yellow Calx", and "Peek 824545201" were "loosely based on jungle".<ref name="exclaim-2015"/> SpinTemplate:'s Will Hermes linked the album's use of vocals, both sung and sampled, its cover artwork and title, stating that "Richard D. James might be the first electronica LP that not only gropes for narrative but also aspired to an abstract sort of autobiography."<ref name="Hermes 88">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Release
Richard D. James Album was released through Warp on 4 November 1996.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was released on compact disc, cassette and LP;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> early copies of the album were distributed with a plastic sachet containing James' hair.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The American version included the Girl/Boy EP as bonus tracks.<ref name="pulse" /><ref name="allmusic-sire">Template:Cite web</ref> The album entered at number 7 on the Dance Albums Chart<ref name="MwNov96" /> and at numberTemplate:Nbsp62 on the Albums Chart in the UK, on 16Template:NbspNovember 1996.<ref name="UKchart">Template:Cite web</ref> It was released in the United States through Sire Records on 28 January 1997 and charted at number 20 on BillboardTemplate:'s Top Heatseekers Albums chart.<ref name="BillboardElectronic97">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> By November 1997, it had sold over 100,000 copies and became Warp's most commercially successful release at the time,<ref name="RDJWW" /> the former of which surprised James.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="space age" />
Along with ...I Care Because You Do (1995), Richard D. James Album was reissued on vinyl on 18 September 2012 by record label 1972.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Warp announced their own re-issue of the album on 180-gram vinyl for 8 October 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Critical reception
Template:Music ratings Richard D. James Album received acclaim from music critics. In the United Kingdom, The IndependentTemplate:'s Ben Thompson wrote that "The intuitive sense of melody [James has] been striving so hard to suppress over the last few years has come to the fore too, and the result is the most magical pop record of the year: the year in question being AD 2001."<ref name="the-independent">Template:Cite news</ref> NME reviewer Ted Kessler praised its sense of "fresh musical perception" and called it "a record that's absorbed the rhythmic advances made by drum'n'bass in placesTemplate:Nbsp... yet scribbles furiously over its roots with sparkly chemical melodies and splintered clanging".<ref name="nme-review"/> Martin James of Muzik remarked on the album's "Squarepusher-esque rhythmical assaults" and deviation from previous Aphex Twin records, finding that Richard D. James Album "succeeds because you get the feeling that this time round, he's laughing with you rather than at you."<ref name="muzik-review"/> In Future Music, Andy Jones summarised it as sounding "like a list of sparky ideas all taped as one-offsTemplate:Nbsp... From genius to sheer madness. Sometimes unlistenable but never dull."<ref name="fm-review"/>
In North America, PitchforkTemplate:'s Ryan Schreiber stated that "The Richard D. James Album is 43.5 minutes of pure electronic genius" and "just when your brain starts to comprehend a rhythmic pattern, the beat shifts, turns left and crushes your torso under the steering wheel."<ref name="pitchfork-review"/> Rolling StoneTemplate:'s Jason Fine commented that "Aphex Twin coaxes great emotional resonance from his machines" and combines "jolting beats, pristine melodic fragments and random noises into elegant – if at times unnerving – futuristic pop." However, he also commented that "not all of Richard D. James goes down easy."<ref name="rs-review"/> Marc Widenbaum of Pulse! called the album, "quite simply, the strongest art-pop record to appear since Laurie Anderson's Mr. Heartbreak", defined by a "series of lovely tunes atop a decisive, rhythmically fascinating girding of rapid-fire, turn-on-a-dime percussion."<ref name="pulse">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Entertainment Weekly writer David Browne called it James' "quirkiest, most personal work" and said that "4" and "Girl/Boy Song" revealed "a new warmth and wistfulness".<ref name="ew-review"/> Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post gave the album a negative review, referring to the music as "sloppy", "offhand", "a noisy mess" and sounding "like a private joke".<ref name="washington-post">Template:Cite news</ref>
Richard D. James Album was placed in numerous best-of lists. NME placed the album at number 20 on their list of the best albums of 1996.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Wire also listed the album among their top 50 albums of the year for 1996.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2003 Pitchfork listed their top albums of the 1990s, with Richard D. James Album ranking at 40.<ref name="pitchfork-2003"/> Pitchfork stated that RDJ is not "easily dated by [its] technology", and doesn't "sound stale compared to modern variations."<ref name="pitchfork-2003"/> Also in 2003, NME ranked it 55th in their list of the top 100 albums of all time.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Slant Magazine placed the album at number 91 on their list of the top 100 albums of the 1990s, describing it as "more fascinated by textures than almost any other electronic album ever crafted".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2015 Spin placed the album at number 71 on their list of the best albums of the past 30 years.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the same year, Exclaim! listed Richard D. James Album on their list of Essential Richard D. James albums.<ref name="exclaim-2015">Template:Cite web</ref> The review opined that the album was "not necessarily a release that you immediately fall in love with", but that it was "endlessly rewarding".<ref name="exclaim-2015"/> Evening Standard named it among "the most influential electronica albums of the past 20 years."<ref name="Evening Standard"/> In 2019, Reverb called the album "perhaps the best-known IDM release of all time" and a "highwater mark" for the genre.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Track listing
All tracks are credited as being written and produced by "Me" (Richard D. James).<ref name="back-cover">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Template:Track listing Template:Track listing
Personnel
Credits from the back cover of the album.<ref name="back-cover"/>
- Aphex Twin (credited as "Me") – writer, producer, sleeve
- Johnny Clayton – sleeve
Charts
| Chart (1996–1997) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Albums Chart (CIN)<ref name="UKchart"/> | 62 |
| UK Dance Albums Chart (CIN)<ref name=MwNov96>Template:Cite news</ref> | 7 |
| US Top Heatseekers (Billboard)<ref name="Inc.1997">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | 20 |
| Chart (2023) | Peak position |
Sales
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