Aphex Twin’s albums came so fast and thick in the ‘90s, their quantity so uniformly high, that it can be hard to pinpoint a definitive peak. Taken together, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2, …I Care Because You Do, and Richard D. James Album make for a veritable mountain range of towering classics released in just four short years. But it’s hard to deny the latter album represents a particularly impressive achievement. Not only was it the last Aphex Twin LP for the next five years, until 2001’s Drukqs, but it also marked the triumphant conclusion of James’ impish early period, in which every new production seemed determined to be more audaciously fleet of foot than the last.
Much like …I Care, Richard D. James Album is built atop a dizzyingly intricate drill ’n’ bass foundation in which breakbeats splinter into slivers of glass, and synth riffs ricochet like pinballs. Despite all that kinetic fury, though—and despite James’ leering, frankly terrifying visage on the front sleeve—the mood is light, the colors delicately shaded.
Opening track “4” bounces atop a string-synth melody infused with childlike naivete; “Cornish Acid,” despite the minor key, bumbles like a Keystone Cops routine. Purposeful ugliness bubbles up in blistering breakcore tracks like “Peek 82454201” and “Carn Marth,” but it’s never overpowering. In contrast, the sweetness of “Fingerbib,” “Goon Gumpas,” and “To Cure a Weakling Child” practically drowns the album in twee. The closing “Logan Rock Witch,” meanwhile, employs an actual slide whistle. Rarely has unabashed silliness seemed so consequential—or so moving.