Aphex Twin's Drukqs Do Work

Richard "Aphex Twin" James' new album Drukqs blasted into the UK and Japanese charts this week, debuting at 6 in Japan's 'domestic-dominated allcomers chart (Music Week) with sales of 42,000 copies. In the UK, the album went to 22, becoming Warp's second highest chart album (their first being Aphex's 1994 breakthrough record Selected Ambient Works). Despite its immediate commercial success, the album attracted several harsh reviews, with Q magazine even suggesting James has run out of ideas.

"Drukqz comes in just two varieties," said Dorian Lynskey. "Pretty Philip Glass minimalism and beat-mangling drill & bass; officially the world's least favourite dance sub-genre."

The record, in fact, does consist of a large number of classical style piano pieces mixed alongside 200+ bpm electronica style tracks, some of which are distinctly unlistenable. Whether this will affect longer terms sales seems unlikely, though, since James appears to have become electronic music's equivalent of Stephen Hawkings, the philosopher and writer. Just as Hawkins's multi-million selling book, A Brief History Of Time, was bought by thousands and read by few, so Drukqs looks certain to grace more shelves than the inside of CD players.

5 tracks from the new album; 'Jynweythek', 'Avril 14th', 'Meltphace 6', 'Taking Control' and 'Nanou 2' are also available now as MP3s through his official website (also on the Warp site).

http://www.warprecords.com

http://www.drukqs.net (official Aphex Twin site)

http://www.hawking.org.uk (Stephen Hawking- a Brief History Of Time)

Tags

• aphex twin