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Imagine a speeding train, the sound of a forest, the rhythm of a madman in full epileptic fits, the breath of the wind... "easy to reproduce," someone might say, "many have already done it, but they never stood out because they were ends in themselves." Well, no folks, stringing together random noises haphazardly and passing them off as concrete music isn't enough...
Aphex Twin with "Drukqs" shocked everyone, but despite its breaking the norms, the album manages to convey those sounds that many try to reproduce with natural recordings without actually recording them. Aphex works at his console and churns out a heap of 30 songs that flow like a subway, without being lengthy like the slow pulsations of "Selected Ambient Works Vol. II".
"Drukqs" came out long after the previous masterpiece and was flooded with unfair criticism: were people stuck searching for something new from our artist? Tired of the usual IDM, indeed, Aphex made his rhythms even more angular, rejecting strings but adding delightful breakmasterpieces on harpsichord and piano (the very short yet beautiful "Jynweythekylow" and "April 14th"). From time to time, he revisits early '90s delay notes ("Bbydhyonchord", highly cryptic, almost like a bolt from the blue, a scream within an enchanted forest) and offers short spoken interludes or simple rhythmic notes. Needless to say, the Cornish boy truly knew how to surprise when we thought we knew what to expect from him. No more danceable rhythms (but then again... when did he ever make dance music?), now the rhythms wound with their edginess and become hard, penetrating an unstoppable sonic madness ("Cock/Ver10", "Mt. Saint Michel+St.Michaels Mount").
The result is a challenging album, but not impossible and, for this reason, unique. Perhaps the highest point the artist has ever reached. Delirious like the wallpaper in your grandparents' house.
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