I Care Because You Do

Plenty of contrasts in frequency and hardness, a general lucidity of tone and timbre, and an obvious talent for balance and proportion are the hallmarks of this album.

Highly recommended.

Anyway, moments of "f**k with the listener's head" music do appear here, eg. on the track Ventolin, but at this point they were the exception rather than the rule. What you get is a continuation of the subliminal vibe present on both Selected Ambient Works albums, only with harsher beats(I think Autechre took many of the harsh beat/fragile melody innovations on display here, and ran with them in their own direction.) When I say subliminal, I mean it; another reviewer here said it was "mind control music" and he has a point. If I were a psychologist studying music (or perhaps Boards of Canada, who seem fascinated with discovering the mathematical underpinnings of great music), I would dissect this album to try and figure out how the simplest of tones, and the simplest of contrast in melody and rhythm, evoke such vivid mental images and strange feelings. Incidentally, Richard said he used to have the ability to lucid dream, and that all of his pre-Drukqs music sounded "yellow" to him. I'm somewhat dubious of his synesthesia claims given his penchant for self-promotion, but I bet there's something to this. It's funny how you can tell if something is made for the artists' enjoyment, or to satisty/annoy his fans (this sort of evaluation has little to do with artistic merit - there have been many pop albums with clear target demographics that were nonetheless brilliant.) To my ear, I Care Because You Do is one of the best examples of the former type of album; it sounds like Richard made it for himself, though you can see him toying with the idea of celebrity in the cover art and playful song titles, many of which are near anagrams of "Aphex Twin."

Back to the music. Well, it's hard to classify. I will say that this album has a "cowboy western" motif not present in RDJ's other work. Really. Listen to Wax the Nip, Wet Tip Hen Ax, and Mookid and I swear there is a whistling sort of melody that brings to mind Ennio Morricone and Clint Eastwood squinting at the sun. As others have said, there's also a serious "classical" vibe to the melodies, that caught Philip Glass' attention among others. If you've listened to Drukqs and find the idea of Aphex Twin aspiring to Erik Satie legitimacy sort of sad, don't fret: the "classical" arrangements here sound much less forced and are really beautiful.

I'm a bit tired of people labeling RDJ a "genius," as though everything he puts out is pure gold. I think somehow the label genius is only applied if an artist has a prickly, attention-getting personality, a dash of charisma and fame-hunger. Why do people never say, for example, that Orbital are geniuses, when their Snivilization and In Sides albums show better consistency and have tracks that to my ear blow much of Aphex Twin's work out of the water? Who knows. Anyway, point being that this album is still a bit uneven like all Aphex Twin stuff. As is often the case with electronic artists, it seems as though RDJ has trouble finding good bridges for songs. Even the much-praised Alberto Balsam has a boring drum breakdown in the middle that bugs me every time. Like I said it's subliminal, and much more likely to put you in an altered state of consciousness, than stimulate the way the Richard D. James album does. Nevertheless it fully rates five stars, and if you are someone who's just curious about this "Aphex Twin" guy, you can't go wrong with this album or the Richard D. James album, though I'd start with the Come to Daddy EP, which is the purest distillation of RDJ's "genius" to date IMO.