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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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What's lacking, though, is context.
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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 '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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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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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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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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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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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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The best work of his inventively mad career.
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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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It's a refinement of James' existing art form rather than an exploration of startlingly new concepts
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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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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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MixerSounds 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]
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Alternative PressA dense, diverse, and sometimes dauntingly complex double CD. [Dec 2001, p.78]
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BlenderOdd, ambitious, confounding, and occasionally brilliant -- which is to say it's much like the five Aphex albums that preceded it. [#4, p.114]
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UrbDrukqs is the most sincere album [James] has released since 1995's I Care Because You Do. [Nov/Dec 2001, p.131]
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SpinThe resulting cavalcade of "decent bits" seldom leaves an imprint in your memory, let alone your heart. [Nov 2001, p.130]
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MojoRepresents a giant leap backwards. [Nov 2001, p.112]
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The WireNot 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]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 105 out of 114
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Mixed: 2 out of 114
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Negative: 7 out of 114
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Nov 15, 2010
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Oct 22, 2016
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Jul 27, 2013