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100

Dot Music

In-between the chaos and peace, 'Drukqs' induces a whole host of emotions using acid squiggles, plucked piano strings and 80s electro-breaks.

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Launch.com

The best work of his inventively mad career.

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Playlouder

Everything sounds more accomplished, more intentional than previous efforts. Most important of all, though, 'Drukqs' is an unpredictable (yet compelling) listen.

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New Musical Express

What 'Drukqs' never is, of course, is boring. It's also beautifully paced. No track sounds like the one before, even though Aphex rarely strays far from the musical palate that's served him so well in the past.

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Mixer

Sounds more like a greatest hits collection than a singular artistic statement.... Drukqs is unparalleled in its production and undeniable in its brilliance. [Nov 2001, p.73]

E! Online

The long-standing ambient-techno pioneer uses everything from heart-attack-paced jungle to classically minded electronic minimalism to remind us why bands like Radiohead cite him as an influence

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Armchair DJ

If refining one's vision rather than foraging for new sounds is the mark of emerging artistic maturity, then it appears that techno's jester genius has finally decided to grown up.

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Urb

Drukqs is the most sincere album [James] has released since 1995's I Care Because You Do. [Nov/Dec 2001, p.131]

Alternative Press

A dense, diverse, and sometimes dauntingly complex double CD. [Dec 2001, p.78]

Splendid

It's a refinement of James' existing art form rather than an exploration of startlingly new concepts

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Almost Cool

While there are a couple of tracks that are completely amazing, the album as a whole could have used a little better sequencing to make it more tight.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Unfortunately, most of the album's beautiful moments are cordoned off from the unbeautiful ones in ways that leave both wanting.

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Blender

Odd, ambitious, confounding, and occasionally brilliant -- which is to say it's much like the five Aphex albums that preceded it. [#4, p.114]

HOB.com

What's lacking, though, is context.

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Billboard

Much of "Drukqs" sounds like two different albums competing and thus canceling each other out.... An ambitious but ultimately failed experiment.

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All Music Guide

Aside from all the criticism, the previously unreleased musings of Aphex Twin are still far more intriguing and solid than most producers' best releases.

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Spin

The resulting cavalcade of "decent bits" seldom leaves an imprint in your memory, let alone your heart. [Nov 2001, p.130]

Q Magazine

There is so little personality or variety that when Lornaderek turns out to be a 30-second birthday ansaphone message from his mum and dad, it is not a gimmick but a touching highlight.

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Mojo

Represents a giant leap backwards. [Nov 2001, p.112]

The Wire

Not enough of Drukqs confidently breaks new ground, and too often James falls back on the all too familiar dysfunctional jitterbeat which has typified Aphex output since 1996's Richard D James album. [#212, p.55]

Rolling Stone

His most irrelevant album to date: a double CD, thirty-track compendium of indecipherable song titles, gratuitously weird sounds and occasional wisps of ersatz classical piano that are aimlessly pretty.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Headrik J. gave it a10:
By the way Mark W, the cover is the inside of Richard's Disklavier, not a typewriter. Vordhosbn is some of the best programming in the history of electronic music.

R gave it an8:
This was the first warp album I ever heard and it led me to buy many more. There are many filler tracks here, like the annoying skits you find in a lot of hip hop albums, and it's these that put a lot of the critics off. However, well over half of the 100 minutes of music here is excellent (even if that makes up of less than half of the 30 tracks), some of the best work he has done I feel. Although fairly experimental in places (not necessarily a bad thing), the music is often catchy and sometimes quite moving. Although I often agree with the scores on metacritic, you have to remember that a lot of the reviewers only have the album for a few days before they review it, and I believe this needs a little bit more time and patience than that. I actually put this 100 minute double album onto one cd about 80 minutes long, removing 11 of the silly tracks. I only did this because it was easier for listening to it on a walkman. What I was left with was the nine proper songs, and the filler which is actually worthwhile, like the short interludes on the Boards of Canada albums. It is excellent, and just shows that if you can overlook the minority of material here which is deliberately stupid, you are left with an album with many strengths. So if you are interested in Aphex Twin, do not hesitate to buy this album, so long as you are willing to take on a challenge.

charlie h gave it a10:
If you are interested in hearing an album that trancends classification, destroys expectations and simply delights, you must listen to Druqks.

Jimmy J gave it a 10:
Those who think this album should have been cut down to one CD, you might as well just stop listening to Drukqs altogether, as you're not getting this music at all. 10/10

JP gave it a 10:
Aphex Twin isn't out to please people or make a cohesive album. Richard D. James just does what he does best: create and put together sounds and twiddle the knobs. What he makes is unlike anything else. It evokes emotion and imagery, excitement and relaxation. This 2-disc album is packed with more detail and ideas than whole music careers. He does it all himself, and he's like a mad genius amusing himself, then releasing bits for us.

Elliott gave it a 10:
Drukqs is a modern classic. It is unlike any album before. Songs like Vordhosbn and Meltphace 6 are simply incredible. As are the lovely piano interludes. One of the best releases of 2001.

Mark W gave it a 10:
For who says this album isn't coherent,i answer:look at the cover.A typewriter,Symbol of the infinity of combinations of real.just what justifies,dear Rolling Stone,the chaotic names of the tracks,what justifies their random disposition in the album.Even if i'm sure that for Aphex himself,at least the tracks order HAS got a sense.But also:this album HAS been wanted to be on 2 cds.30 tracks there are,none of them eliminable.Why everybody weeps the inutility of the piano tracks or of lornaderek,bit4,aussois,and doesn't care of the abundance of drum/drill'n'bass tracks?Cause they think the last ones are normal.When you listen to Drukqs you have to consider every track at the same level,every sound with the same dignity.what emotion suggests you rdj mama's voice?don't care if you don't think it's music,try to concentrate to what that SOUND suggests you.every track wants to prepare you to the next one.every track has right to be,such as bbydhyonchord,which fundamentally is a not too happy tribal house piece,and i feel a sort of irony towards mainstream and its ultra-celebrated house music,so little and stupid after 6 astonishing tracks.It's musical conformism squeezed and reduced to a fragment of song by the intelligent,absolutely NOT crazy music.Dear critics,haven't you noticed that all the drum'n'bass tracks,at least on cd 1,are variations of the same melodic pattern,which finds its peak in the central stop of Mt st michel?and what they say about the piano tracks?bad Satie's copies,uncoherent with the rest,too simple etc.Who knows Rdj know sthat piano is a great new entry,anticipated by that Nannou on the Windowlicker EP.But this wouldn't justify those tracks if they weren't REALLY beautiful.Modified piano gives a different appeal and atmosphere every time,and we can find connections with the titles sometimes,see Father.Aphex likes to put in contrast headfucked technology with classic sounds.Who did this before?this is the novelty.Drukqs doesn't present any new kind of music,but it's a refinement and a revolution of the concept of 'album'.I think it's normal if even some of the fans didn't appreciate it.

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