Richard D. James Album

Untitled

Richard D. James Album is an electronic album by Aphex Twin whose real name is Richard David James. It was released on Warp Records in 1996. The work features use of software synthesizers and unusual beats. It is his first official full-length album since …I Care Because You Do, released in 1995. The album garnered high acclaim from music critics, and was named 40th in Pitchfork Media's "Top 100 Albums of the 1990's" list.

Overview

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. 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. In addition, many of the songs are kept short. The UK release of the album was just over half an hour long, supposedly because James claimed that anything over that in length bores him, and he cannot concentrate. "Fingerbib" and "Logan Rock Witch" were originally composed for James' unreleased Melodies From Mars project . The tracks "Milkman" and "Beetles" contain vocals, and distorted vocals can be heard on "Milkman" and the two "Girl/Boy" remixes.

Media attention and reception

Songs from the album were used on several different television ads. "To Cure a Weakling Child" 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 a Bank of America commercial. Many critics also reviewed the album, Pitchfork quotes "The Richard D. James Album is 43.5 minutes of pure electronic genius" 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." Jason Fine of Rolling Stone commented on the album as "combining jolting beats, pristine melodic fragments and random noises into elegant – if at times unnerving – futuristic pop". He also commented "Not all of Richard D. James goes down easy", explaining the "menace lurking beneath the jerking beat of "Peek 82454201."

Track information

Tracks from the original Warp Records release:

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"4 ("	3:37
2.	"Cornish Acid"	2:14
3.	"Peek 824545201"	3:05
4.	"Fingerbib"	3:48
5.	"Carn Marth"	2:33
6.	"To Cure a Weakling Child"	4:03
7.	"Goon Gumpas"	2:02
8.	"Yellow Calx"	3:04
9.	"Girl/Boy Song"	4:52
10.	"Logan-Rock Witch"	3:33

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

No.	Title	Length
11.	"Milkman"	4:09
12.	"INKEY$"	1:24
13.	"Girl/Boy (£18 Snare Rush mix)"	1:57
14.	"Beetles"	1:31
15.	"Girl/Boy (Redruth mix)"	1:37

Song titles

"Carn Marth" is frequently, albeit incorrectly, referred to as "Corn Mouth", a mistake possibly attributable to James' handwriting. The track is also named after a hill in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. Logan Rock is also a famous rock located in Cornwall, and is sometimes misspelt (due to the writing on the back) as "Logl/Rock Witch". Goon Gumpas is a village located near Redruth. The tracks "INKEY$" and "Peek 824545201" are named after keywords in the Spectrum's Sinclair BASIC programming language.

Charts

Year	Chart	Peak Position
1997	Heatseekers	#20

External links

• More info, artwork and samples
• Complete Aphex Twin discography
• Richard D. James Album at the Warp Records discography (features audio clips).