"Drukqs" by Aphex Twin (Drukqs - Aphex Twin)

Member Name: MC Quirkafleeg

Product:	Drukqs - Aphex Twin
Date:	07/07/03 (184 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Completely unique, Very varied, Guaranteed to be faster music than most of the music you've heard

Disadvantages: Would probably cause a car crash if listened to in the car, Intentional painful discordance, Headache inducing

Here goes, the most epic review you?ve ever seen, of the most odd CD in my collection. It's actually a double CD, containing a total of 30 tracks, and this review aims to cover every single one of them. The album is "drukqs" by none other than intelligent techno artist Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin.

So where do we start? Track 1 I suppose.. an awkwardly named "jynweythek", a fitting start to a weird album. The tune is merely a slightly random melody that sounds like it is being played from one of those little music boxes with the rotating dancer in it... this is set to an intermittent beat, and is a bit dull, not the best way to herald a 30 track music fest!

Track 2 sounds like a sneeze... "Vordhosbn" is its name, starting with very heavy bass at around 140 BPM getting irregularly faster. Completely filtered hi hats and a metallic ensemble of noises joins. After one minute 15 seconds, this tune is joined by an even heavier bass, with a lovely synth string oscillator going insane through both ears (i'm listening on my headphones as I type this). The spitting beats continue through out, with constantly changing basslines, the tempo fluctuating spontaneously.
Far more upbeat than the first track, this tune is actually pretty neat.

Track 3, "Kladfvgbung Miosk" err yeah. This is a very sinister sounding tune, strange metallic sounds, like someone randomly hitting pans and the highest keys on a piano, is joined by a big booming bass which is already hurting my head after one minute, any advanced bass on your stereo would be ill advised, unless you were planning to replaster anyway. Merely 2 minutes long this tune.. strange enough to remember though.

Track 4, "Omgyjya- switch" sounds like an internet abbreviation for something scary, and well.. the tune is very very scary. Sounds like someone hitting some empty barrels whilst someone whips a whip in a non-human manner again
st a metal sheet. Subs and weird roaring sounds join in shortly afterwards, and the music boxesque timbre is used once again.. but with the mad sort of beat heard in track 2.
THis beat then descends into a set of completely random percussive noises at around 200 or so BPM, which slow down into a nice sounding breakbeat with a sort of.. Eastern Synth sound joining in the fray. Later in the tune the beat dies off to result in a large number of heavily pitchbended oscillators, the beat returns, and these two sections take turns until the entire tune is repeatedly heavy buzz phased into termination. Quite intensely surreal... but good!

Track 5: "Stratha Tynhe" oh my, something I can pronounce! This is a strange random, yet melodic piano tune, relaxing to listen to, yet several chord changes set your teeth on edge.. a pleasant tune all the same.

Next, track 6: "Gwety Mernans" This consists of a single panning bass sound for 35 seconds, then accompanied by a very slow heavily echoed piano. The sound is quite like that of listening to a child slowly hit keys on a piano whilst in a windtunnel. Ambient to the extreme I'm starting to drift off to sleep as I listen to it.. and at 5 minutes long, for what it is, there is plenty of time to do so.

Track 7, "Bbydhyonchord" this track starts like the intro to some motown classic, with rhythmical clapping, and a simple beat. Unfortunately the track progresses nowhere for its 2:30 entirety.. one to miss really.

Track 8: "Cock/Ver 10" strange name, strange tune.. filled with confusing pitch bends and heavily sliced beats panning in and out. This is quickly dropped in favour of another sort of synth sustained dulcimer sound, with an equally insane beat. This is then rather rudely interrupted with the line "COME ON YOU CUNT, LETS HAVE SOME APHEX ACID" how nice oO At 4 minutes the tune makes you jump with a quite painful dirty synth cacophony
with those completely random percussive blasts making your brain want to ooze out of your ears. Strange.

Track 9: "Avril 14th", completely different again, this time a TUNEFUL happy piano tune, it sounds like music lifted from a ?aaah family values? sort of sitcom from the mid 70s. It?s quite nice though, it stops rather abruptly though.

Track 10: ?Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount? this actually samples the bell of the church on said mount to intro the tune, then an unreviewable bunch of ridiculously high speed sounds with a very low bass invade, its like Drum and Bass on even more drugs than usual? it contains some seriously cool sounding skip-beat breakdowns, which sounds quite like techno remixes of some of my industrial metal tunes.
The next part of the tune involves 80s computer game sounds with a 220 or so BPM beat shooting along in the background. The buzzy bass on this tune sends shivers down me, it sounds really really good, with the oscillator piano overlaid on top. The extensive use of electro-toms is quite nice too, even at the insane speed they move at. A pretty damn good tune if I may say so, even if it seems to resurrect itself everytime you think its finished, a tactic it uses to ensure a track length of an admirable 8 minutes.

Track 11: ?Gwarek2? this track samples the sounds of:

Something like someone crying in a lift shaft
Someone relieving themselves into a metal urinal
The extensive sampling of someone running a stick along railings
A whole lot of yelling.

The tune gets quite nightmarish, with the railings, and then some bat like sounds? strangely atmospheric, the introduction of an machinery like bass accompanies the railings for over 3 minutes, which gets pretty boring. This tune takes too long at what it does, and fails in doing it anyway? it does not justify the 7 minutes of my life which it took away from me.


Track 12: ?Orban Eq Trx 4? this is one of
those weird tunes you?d expect to see on a sinister flash movie. The bass is really heavy and incredibly funky, I?m actually able to drum my foot to this tune, makes a change! A single skipbeat accompanies the bass, occoasially being sliced? only 1:30 long.. but great all the same.

Track 13: ?Aussois? this isn?t a track really, it lasts a mere 7 seconds, and consists of two people speaking a language I can?t quite identify.

Track 14: ?Hy A Scullyas Lyf Adhagrow? long names mean just one thing?. Musicbox time again. This tune is incredibly incredibly boring. It just drifts along for 2 minutes, meandering out of any conceivable riff pattern.

Track 15: ?Kesson Dalef? This sounds like something Robert Miles would do while drunk, a very scary sounding piano tune, its very good though... but it appears to ooze nothing other but complete EEEEVIL. Good job it lasts only 80 seconds.

AND THAT CONCLUDES DISC ONE!

Yes folks, we?re only HALFWAY THROUGH. Now take a break for a moment, you?ve been staring at the computer screen for a little too long.

And now on we go?

Track 16: ?54 Cymru Beats? This is one of those mad beat tunes, with the silly percussion, but instead of synth dulcimers, this time we get someone manically going ?woo!? oh what fun! Of course the synth melody has to kick in sometime, and it does, swapping back and forth with what sounds to be very heavily filtered Welsh. This gives way to some highly scary 404 basslines with straining strings in the background, very nice. Various sampled vowel sounds hammer into your head with the help of a synchroed banging beat, which begins to really really confuse your brain after a while. The music after the four minute mark is causing me to have to stop after this tune for a minute, because I?m getting a headache. 6 minutes of aural pain.

Track 17: ?btoum-roumada? wow, what a surprise my spell check has underlined that one too? this one is a very strange
tune, its played on another organ like instrument, and sounds to be a heavily variated Auld Lang Syne. It?s quite pleasant after the previous tune at any rate, it drags on though, at 3 minutes long it doesn?t sound long, but trust me? it feels it.

Track 18 ?lornaderek? the title I?m assuming comes from a merger of Richard?s two parents... given that this track is merely a 28th birthday answer-phone message sent through a slight bubble filter. This track is worth listening to, merely for the funny Cornish accents and the parental harmonics oO

Track 19: ?2kThr? This tune is very very odd. It sounds to be some form of air-powered organ, with a strange springing sound like someone moving their feet on some pedals of some sort. Its quite a sad sounding tune, and only lasts 80 seconds.

Track 20: ?Meltphacc 6? This begins in a very ambient fashion, with a quiet 404 bass slowly getting louder to join a progressive beat, which then turns quickly to a funky drum and bass style beat. The pads could use to be playing a slightly more harmonious tune, but who is complaining? Its good stuff. Although continued listen starts to bore you rigid, it doesn?t really progress too far away from the normal without straying back again in the next section. Six and a half minutes is a little too lengthy for what it is.

Track 21: ?bit 4? bit being the keyword, this track consists of two heavily panning filtered synth bass notes, and nothing else. 20 seconds long, and 4 of those are silence!

Track 22: ?prep gwarlek 3b? I like this tune, sounds reminiscent of when you sit in a room and all you can hear are two taps dripping and the clock ticking, and you make little tunes out of the sound. This is accompanied by a simple bassy piano riff throughout? only 75 seconds long though.

Track 23: ?.father? This track is well, how can I put it? Truly awful. It consists of nothing but chords and single notes pressed at random, yet ensuring they do not
go together, for a mere 55 seconds.

Track 24: ?taking control? This track is great, and I believe it has been released at some point. Continuous use of ?I?m taking control of the drum machine? filtered in more ways that would be deemed possible is an intriguing part to this tune. The difference with this track is that, whilst mad... it succeeds in maintaining a distinguishable rhythm. It has a lovely set of beats, with proper bassy kicks and hissy sounding snares. The tune is run through many different phazers and filters throughout the duration, and it has a great effect. Around the 3 minute mark it hits completely insane surrealism, with samples of what appears to be Richard?s mother shouting her kids, and talking about various fruity beverages. Sampled in such a way as to scare the living crap out of me.. ?YA WANT A DRINK? OooOOHH a blackcurrant drink?! MUUUUuuuUUM!? later followed by ?Lorna?! Derek?! RICCHHAAAARD! Saraaah? repeatedly filtered until you want to go and hide somewhere safe. ?Decent bit? heralds a part which is in fact, quite decent.. a ridiculously quick snare sample madness, running at around 220 to 240 BPM, enough to make your ears bleed... yay! Definitely one of the best tracks on the album, it may last 7 minutes, 10 seconds? but it?s worth it.

Track 25: ?petiatil cx htdui? Another piano based tune, it?s alright I suppose, but it doesn?t really interest me. 2 minutes seems to last forever.

Track 26: ?ruglen holon?. Yup, yet ANOTHER Musicbox tune, and its crap. 1:50 seconds I wont waste again. Harsh I know, but to the point, it?s a review, I?m meant to be critical.

Track 27: ?afx237 v.7? The first minute seems to pass by in no time, and sends your head into some form of feared frenzy, not a single part of the tune is consistant for more than 10 seconds. It then appears to decide on a way forward after then, changing less frequently, but it is by no means static, the tune jumps from one tune to another erratic
ally and without warning, typical Aphex. It?s a pretty neat ?tune? and I say tune in the loosest sense possible.

Track 28: ?ziggomatic 17? I really like the title of this track, it conjures images of some intriguing robot designed to do all your household chores, whilst dancing in a mysterious fashion. I invite you to dance in a mysterious fashion to this, for it is the only it is possible. This would make curious breakdancing music, the 404 bass is used once again, and the tune slowly descends into complete chaos. YAY! Nearing the two minute mark it gets very ambient all of a sudden, and it feels like part of your brain has just fallen out of your nose, you just stop and think ?what the hell just happened?? It?s a seriously cool tune around the 4/5 minute mark, harmonics are used endlessly with a number of pleasing electronic sounds with a complex yet quite flat beat in the background. It has a damn good chord progression too? yes, an Aphex tune with enough repetition to allow something recognisable as a chord progression, this is a rarity. It gets really really nice and ambient near the end, dreamy and sleep?..inducing?.. *zonk* I wake up and the song continues, at 8:30 minutes in length, its no wonder a vocoder at the end says ?thank you for your attention, bye!? Well, I can claim to have had an attention span for the first 7 minutes of it anyway?.

Track 29: ?beskhu3epnm? the crappiest song title I?ve ever seen? and once again, it?s a music box tune?. GAH. Although it has to be said this tune ends up sounding almost identical to ?prep gwarlek 3b?, until a proper piano section starts up.. nearly 2 minutes long, it just gets boring very very quickly though.

Track 30: ?nana 2? THE FINAL TRACK! Richard rounds the album off with a little slow piano ditty, its really quite nice and easy on the ears, for once he is aiming NOT to be discordant, and it?s a pleasant way to round off the album.

So there we go, my word count reads 2,390? o
uch. So a summary of the album? Well?

Its on the whole completely ridiculous, and nothing whatsoever like anything else in your collection, unless you own another one of his albums. The variation across the album really is quite astonishing, from slow piano tunes like the final track, to completely insane synth madness. I enjoyed listening to the album as I wrote this, and it kept me interested enough to write a review of such ridiculous length, so that must mean something.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wishes to have something a lil odd for the collection, and the name Aphex Twin gives you underground geek appeal, speak to anybody in a music shop near you, and you?ll probably be deirected towards some true gems of alternative music.

A great album, with some crap now and again, but ehh.. nothing is perfect. 4/5.

Summary: