Aphex Twin I Care Because You Do CD

Also known by his real name, Richard D. James, Aphex Twin is one of most intelligent and innovative artists in the world of electronica. His seemingly limitless imagination has encompassed hardcore techno, drum 'n bass, atmospheric beat-based trance music, and highly abstract compositions of the most alien and delicate nature.

While James' previous album-length releases (SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS 85-92 and VOLUME II) tend towards the spacious and the meditative, I CARE BECAUSE YOU DO tempers the artist's sophisticated, ethereal textural concepts with sheer sonic aggression. "Ventolin," with its nails-on-a-chalkboard screech and a breakbeat that could remove skin from bone, may be one of the most abrasive songs ever recorded. But James' artistry oozes through his confrontational stance. In such pulsing, gorgeous collages as "Waxen Pith" and "Acrid Avid Jam Shred," shifting rhythmic patterns hold together layered melodic fragments and otherworldly dialogues of sound to achieve the equivalent of an aural mandala. I CARE is not to be overlooked.

Live Recording

Aphex Twin: Richard D. James.

Personnel: Aphex Twin (synthesizer).

Rolling Stone (5/4/95, pp.65-68) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...as a truly singular artist working by his own self-generated rules, [Aphex Twin] is making some of the most engaging and important music of our time..."
Spin (7/95, pp.74-75) - 8 - Very Good - "...cutting the middle out of [techno]'s kitchen-sink aesthetic without sacrificing melody, coherence or rhythm....The idea of keeping all sounds distinct from each other persists throughout, while the sounds themselves summon wholly different climates..."
Entertainment Weekly (6/2/95, pp.54-55) - "...[Richard] James creates sounds that are simultaneously comforting and scary--a fitting metaphor for the contemporary clash of technology and the humans befuddled by it..." - Rating: A-
Q (5/95, p.99) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...quite fabulous....point[s] to a future of some distinction for British techno's potential equivalent of an Eno, Nyman or Glass."
Alternative Press (8/95, pp.76-78) - "...Much of the album places impossibly complex, spastic beats in your face while morose synth figures of menacing, otherworldly beauty swell in the distance....It's totally alien but infectious all the same--much like the perverse Mr. James himself."
Melody Maker (4/22/95, p.33) - "...his difficult third album....I became enthralled by the tiny house piano during `Mookid', the Venusian reggae of `Cud', the wondrous juggling of metal-bashing with jazz-funk in `Alberto Balsam' and the sublime [Philip] Glassian symphony of `Next Heap With'..."
Musician (7/95, p.106) - "...Aphex's music is...accessible because of its adherence to conventional ideas of groove and melody. While he spins eerie clouds with minimalist, single-note melodies, it's the grooves that do the work here. The beats shatter-shake..."
Q (Magazine) (p.124) - "[H]ere it all came together in an astonishing rush, from 'Icct Hedral''s cinematic orchestration and thumping beats to 'Ventolin''s industrial squeal..."