Music

2001’s ‘Drukqs’ was the first mildly disappointing Aphex Twin album. Despite flashes of brilliance it felt both overlong and overfamiliar, alternating between cod-Erik Satie piano meditations and abrasive but seemingly phoned-in splatters of drill ’n’ bass. His imminent retirement was rumoured and there were also suggestions that the album was born out of his frustration at the constraints of his lengthy contract with Warp Records.

However, 2005 saw him return, as AFX, in typically contrary style. The Analord series comprised 11 12-inch singles, released monthly throughout the year. Stylistically, they saw him returning to the radiant but sinister acid techno with which he made his name. And, as if serving some sort of self-imposed penance for the overindulgences of ‘Drukqs’, they were constructed using nothing more than an antiquated Roland drum machine, a 303 and a couple of vintage synths.

This album represents an entry-level version of that eccentric enterprise with ten choice cuts of Cornish acid culled from the unwieldy sprawl. It’s a qualified success. Nothing here approaches the unique and beautiful strangeness that characterised Aphex’s mid-’90s peak. But there’s easily enough freshness and invention to suggest that there’s plenty more to come.