Classics (Aphex Twin album)

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This article is about the Aphex Twin album. For other uses, see Classics (disambiguation).
Classics
Aphex Twin - Classics.jpg
Compilation album by Aphex Twin
Released December 1994
Recorded 1990
Genre Acid techno, hardcore techno, techno
Length 74:03
Label R&S Records
Producer Richard D. James
Aphex Twin chronology
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
(1994)Selected Ambient Works Volume II1994		 Classics
(1994)		 Ventolin
(1995)
Alternative cover
Reissue cover

Ventolin1995
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4/5 stars[1]

Classics is an electronic music compilation album by Richard D. James, more commonly known by his pseudonym of Aphex Twin (credited here as The Aphex Twin). The album was released in December 1994 (see 1994 in music).

The album consists of the Digeridoo and Xylem Tube EPs combined onto one CD with a handful of other songs. The album contains James' signature acid house sensibilities. It mostly features repetitive tracks performed on analogue synthesizers and drum machines, with some rather harsh-sounding remixes of Mescalinum United's "We Have Arrived". It was released by R&S Records following James' success on Warp Records. The track "Phlange Phace" has the track "AFX 114" from another album "Compilation" in it.

A remastered version of the album was released on 2 June 2008. The cover for this reissue resembles that of Selected Ambient Works 85–92, albeit with the black and white inverted.

Background

As a teenager James gained a cult following being a disc jockey at the Shire Horse Inn in St Ives, with Tom Middleton at the Bowgie Inn in Crantock and along the beaches around Cornwall, learning new musical techniques.[2][3] He studied at Cornwall College from 1988 to 1990 for a National Diploma in engineering. About his studies, he said "music and electronics went hand in hand".[3] James graduated from college; according to an engineering lecturer he often wore headphones during practical lessons, "no doubt thinking through the mixes he'd be working on later".[4]

James' first release as Aphex Twin, later changed to AFX, was the 1991 12-inch EP Analogue Bubblebath on Mighty Force Records. In 1991, James and Grant Wilson-Claridge founded Rephlex Records to promote "innovation in the dynamics of Acid — a much-loved and misunderstood genre of house music forgotten by some and indeed new to others, especially in Britain".[5] From 1991 to 1993 James released two Analogue Bubblebath EPs as AFX and an EP, Bradley's Beat, as Bradley Strider. Although he moved to London to take an electronics course at Kingston Polytechnic, he admitted to David Toop that his electronics studies were being evacuated as he pursued a career in the techno genre. After leaving school James remained in the city, releasing albums and EPs on Warp Records and other labels under a number of aliases (including AFX, Polygon Window and Power-Pill); several of his tracks, released under aliases including Blue Calx and The Dice Man, appeared on compilations. Although he allegedly lived on the roundabout in Elephant and Castle, South London during his early years there, he actually resided in a nearby unoccupied bank.[6][7]

In 1992 James also released the Xylem Tube EP and Digeridoo (first played by DJ Colin Faver on London's Kiss FM) as Aphex Twin, the Pac-Man EP (based on the arcade game) as Power-Pill, and two of his four Joyrex EPs (Joyrex J4 EP and Joyrex J5 EP) as Caustic Window. "Digeridoo" reached #55 on the UK Singles Chart, and was later described by Rolling Stone as foreshadowing drum and bass.[8] He wrote "Digeridoo" to clear up his audience after a rave.[3] These early releases were on Rephlex Records, Mighty Force of Exeter and R&S Records of Belgium.[9]

Notes

  • "Isopropanol" is an extended mix of "Isopropophlex" from James's Analogue Bubblebath. The track time, 6:23, matches that of "Isopropophlex" from the original Digeridoo (EP).
  • "Analogue Bubblebath 1" is extended by a few seconds from its original version, with a different ending.
  • "Tamphex" contains looping samples from a television advertisement for Tampax.
  • This album was chosen as one of Q magazine's 50 heaviest albums of all time in July 2001, noted for its crunching, metallic malevolence.
  • "We Have Arrived (Aphex Twin QQT Mix)" was later re-released on the remix compilation 26 Mixes for Cash.
  • A 3rd remix of We Have Arrived appeared on his 2015 soundcloud dump (a collection of 230 "leftover" tracks from all eras of his career) under the title "Pcp 2 (unreleased version)". [10]

Track listing

All tracks by Richard D. James.

  1. "Digeridoo" – 7:11
  2. "Flaphead" – 7:00
  3. "Phloam" – 5:33
  4. "Isopropanol" – 6:23
  5. "Polynomial-C" – 4:46
  6. "Tamphex" (Hedphuq Mix) – 6:31
  7. "Phlange Phace" – 5:22
  8. "Dodeccaheedron" – 6:08
  9. "Analogue Bubblebath 1" – 4:46
  10. "Metapharstic" – 4:33
  11. "Mescalinum United - We Have Arrived" (Aphex Twin QQT Mix) – 4:23
  12. "Mescalinum United - We Have Arrived" (Aphex Twin TTQ Mix) – 5:06
  13. "Digeridoo" (Live in Cornwall, 1990) – 6:21

Personnel

  • Aphex Twin – Synthesizer, Producer
  • Richard D. James – Producer
  • The Mover – Producer

Charts

Chart (1995) Peak
position
UK Albums Chart 24[11]

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ https://soundcloud.com/user18081971/2-pcp-2-unreleased-version
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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