Richard D. James (album)

Infobox Album |
Name = Richard D. James
Type = Album
Artist = Aphex Twin


Released = November 4 1996
Recorded = 1995/1996
Genre = Drill n' Bass Techno Electronic music
Length = 32:03 41:49 (non-European version)
Label = Warp Records WARP043 (Europe) Sire/Elektra Records 62010 (rest of world)
Producer = Aphex Twin
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:7v5tk6jxqkr0 link]
* Entertainment Weekly A- [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,286627,00.html link]
* Pitchfork Media rating-10|8.4 [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/14987/Aphex_Twin_The_Richard_D_James_Album link]
*Robert Christgau (B+) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=aphex+twin link]
* Rolling Stone Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/244895/review/5942562 link]
*Rolling Stone Album Guide Rating|4|5 [http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/ Rating sourced here]
* Spin Magazine Rating|3.5|5 2/97, p.88|
Last album = "Girl/Boy EP" (1996)
This album = "Richard D. James Album" (1996)
Next album = "Come To Daddy" (1997)

"Richard D. James", also known as "Richard D. James Album", is an album by Aphex Twin, whose real name is Richard D. James. Released in 1996 on Warp Records, the work features use of software synthesizers and is an archetype in the drill 'n bass genre.

Overview

James named the album after himself for two main reasons: the first being that he had released so much material under his various guises, that he thought he should have a self-titled album, and the second being that he had an older brother that died at birth also named Richard James. Richard D. James may have released the album as a form of tribute to him (Richard James' memorial is displayed in the album insert of the US edition, as well as on the cover of the UK-only "Girl/Boy EP", and the story of James' brother was featured heavily in press articles about the release).

"Richard D. James Album" is influenced by the works of James' friends, including Luke Vibert's "Plug" series of EPs and Squarepusher's "Feed Me Weird Things" and other early works. James avoided the cliched and copyrighted breakbeats often used on drum and bass recordings, such as the Amen breakFact|date=July 2008, and instead programmed Apple computers' software synthesizers—a novel approach at the timeFact|date=February 2007.

On "Logan Rock Witch", James sampled children's toys as percussion instruments. Some of the tracks, including the single "Girl/Boy Song", play plucked and bowed string sounds. 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."

Track listing

Tracks from the original European release:

# "4" – 3:37 (Audio|AphexTwin4.ogg|sample)
# "Cornish Acid" – 2:14
# "Peek 824545201" – 3:05
# "Fingerbib" – 3:48
# "Carn Marth" – 2:33
# "To Cure a Weakling Child" – 4:03
# "Goon Gumpas" – 2:02
# "Yellow Calx" – 3:04
# "Girl/Boy Song" – 4:52
# "Logan Rock Witch" – 3:33

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

"Milkman" – 4:09
#

"INKEY$" – 1:24
#

"Girl/Boy (£18 Snare Rush mix)" – 1:57
#

"Beetles" – 1:31
#

"Girl/Boy (Redruth mix)" – 1:37

Notes

*As can be seen above, many of the songs are kept short, and the original album was just over half an hour long, supposedly because James claimed that anything over half an hour in length bores him, and he cannot concentrate. Fact|date=February 2008

*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". The tracks "INKEY$" and "Peek 824545201" are themselves named after keywords in the Spectrum's Sinclair BASIC programming language. This theme is continued in the later album "drukqs", which features the Sinclair ZX81 keyboard font in its artwork - the ZX81 having been the forerunner to the Spectrum.

*Carn Marth and Logan Rock are both landmarks in Cornwall. Goon Gumpas, in the civil parish of St Day, is a village near Redruth in Cornwall.

*The album was followed by "Come to Daddy", which included a remix of "To Cure a Weakling Child", dubbed the "Contour Regard" mix. The original album mix 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 the US in a Bank of America commercial [http://www.space-age-bachelor.com/features/99/aphex.htm] .

*David Firth, the creator of the online series "Salad Fingers", has used "Milkman", "4" and "Girl/Boy Song" in his own unofficial videos. ( [http://www.fat-pie.com/milkman.htm] )

*"Carn Marth" is frequently, albeit incorrectly, referred to as "Corn Mouth", a mistake possibly attributable to James' handwriting.

Charts

External links

* [http://xltronic.com/discography/release/224/aphex-twin-richard-d-james-album-warpcd43 More info, artwork and samples]
* [http://xltronic.com/discography/advanced.php?show=releases&artist%5B%5D=1&format=all Complete Aphex Twin discography]
* [http://www.warprecords.com/ography/release.php?cat=WARP43 "Richard D. James Album"] at the Warp Records discography (features audio clips).