AFX (Aphex Twin)
Analord 3 + Analord 4
Rephlex

Analord 3

It opens with "Boxing Day". Much more urban sounding than anything on Lords 1 and 2, #3 opens with an almost hip-hop beat. Still quite stark, more staccatos play at around 144 BPMs. The harmonies that enter at the 3 minute mark bring this tune to its apex for me: I am remind of a lit- up, black city night ride: a great feeling. Contrast that with the dark-greener imagery of Analord 2 and the raw no-feeling of Analord 1. I find myself blown away by "Boxing Day". "Klop Job" uses a major key chord progression to house another mid-tempo beat. 16th note chirps pan while string pads provide an ether. It's an odd place that "Klop Job" takes us after the night ride offerings of "Boxing Day".

Side B houses "Midievil Rave's 1 and 2". Letting his sense of humor shine through again, Richard D. James keeps us at the same moderate pace here. The sounds are interesting and funny. Incredible fart-bass abounds on these 2 tracks, as you might have imagined.

Analord 4

"Breath March", "Crying in your Face", "Halibut Acid", and "Home Made Polysynth" bring Analord to perhaps its most humane places yet.

The drum programming on "Breath March" is brilliant. Those fills, specifically, damned creative and somehow able to take a character, that human one. "Crying in your Face" is not a sad song. It uses a dry drummachine sound and a bit of vocal that is processed into realms beyond oddity. There is somewhat of a "synth solo" in this song, bringing Mr. James' personality again to the forefront, something he is sparing with. "Halibut Acid" is involved with more staccatos and dry xylophone like clicks. Melody, while hardly absent in this song, is definitely something you might have to listen pretty hard for at times. "Home Made Polysynth" sets an out-of-tune ether of synths against another dry drum machine.

Analords 3 and 4 shape Analord up to be the year's most ambitious and indellible album from one of modern music history's most original and creative composers.

Copyright © 2005 Bill Banks