DrukQs

''Drukqs'' (stylised as ''drukQs'') is the fifth studio album by the British electronic music artist and producer Richard D. James under the alias of Aphex Twin. It was released in October 2001 through Warp Records. It is a double album that includes a variety of contrasting styles, from meticulously programmed beats inspired by jungle and drum and bass, to classical-type piano and prepared piano, ambient, and electroacoustic pieces. It features the piano composition " Avril 14th", one of James's best known recordings.

James released ''Drukqs'' to pre-empt a potential leak after he accidentally left an MP3 player containing his music on a plane. It was intended to be his final release with Warp, in accordance with his label contract. The record entered the Dance Albums Chart at No.1, remaining in the top 10 for five weeks, and entered at No.22 on the Albums Chart. It received polarised reviews from critics: many dismissed it, focusing on its perceived lack of innovation and similarity to James's previous works, while some praised it as an accomplished work.

Background and release

James released ''Drukqs'' to circumvent a potential leak after he accidentally left an MP3 player containing 180 unreleased tracks on a plane while travelling to Scotland. According to James: "I thought, 'They're gonna fucking come on the internet sooner or later so I may as well get an album out of it first.'" James had no intent to release any of the record's tracks to the public prior to the incident. He intended it to be his final release as part of his contractual obligation to Warp. The album was mastered in early July 2001. It was released as a double CD album on 22 October 2001.

The record entered the Dance Albums Chart at No.1, remaining in the top 10 for five weeks, and entered at No.22 on the Albums Chart.

Many track names are written in Cornish—for example, "Jynweythek" ("Machine")—or are coded titles. James has stated that the title is not related to drugs, and is "just a word emade up." About the album's two-disc length, James said "the way I listen to music now is that I buy a CD, put it on the computer and just take the tracks I want anyway. I'd hope that people would do the same with this CD."

Music

The LP is a double album featuring a variety of styles: rapid, meticulously-programmed tracks utilising exaggerated drum 'n' bass breakbeats, ambient, electroacoustic, and piano and prepared piano pieces inspired by classical music made using computer-controlled instruments such as a modified Yamaha Disklavier and several MIDI-controlled, solenoid-based drum mechanisms made by James. ''Drukqs'' includes music in the genres of drill 'n' bass, jungle, classical, electroacoustic, acid, drum and bass, techno, IDM and ambient. It contains tracks dating back "seven or eight years", according to James, though most of the album was relatively new. ''Keymag'' described it as "switching restlessly from his most acidic drill 'n' bass yet to incredibly lavish prepared piano pieces inspired by John Cage." ''NME'' noted that the album moves through techno, drum 'n' bass, and early-90s rave, while the piano interludes were compared to the work of Erik Satie. ''Pitchfork'' also noted "several purely electro-acoustic excursions".

James said that "A lot of he tracksare quite old-style sounding, I reckon. I’ve done loads of tracks which are really new in style and which don’t sound like anything else but I didn’t want to release those tracks." While acknowledging similarities with his past records, James said that "I haven’t done something in so much detail before." Of the album's complex drum programming, he said "it's quite similar to guitar solos, only with programming you have to use your brain. The most important thing is that it should have some emotional effect on me, rather than just, 'Oh, that's really clever.'"

In 2015 James released the EP '' Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2'', featuring further computer-controlled instrumental tracks, as a sequel to ''Drukqs''.

Reception

''Drukqs'' is among James's most divisive releases, with Oli Warwick of '' Crack'' noting that it provoked "widespread indignation amongst music critics, whose primary criticism seemed to be that James had delivered something reminiscent of previous releases, rather than some bold new mode of electronic expression." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 66 based on 21 reviews.

On its 2001 release, Alex Needham of ''NME'' called it "beautiful" and "bulging with goodies". The review for ''Playlouder'' called it "probably his best album to date". For '' Spin'', Simon Reynolds criticised the album as "unimpressive" and "trapped by the potential for infinitesimal tweakage," stating that it "sounds merely like a slight extension of the Aphex sound circa 1996's '' Richard D. James Album'' and 1997's '' Come to Daddy''." ''Pitchfork'' described the album's " drill'n'bass" tracks as "throwbacks to the past rather than prospects on the future; and for all of their compositional strength, there's an element of the Aphex Twin mystique missing." Dave Simpson of ''The Guardian'' stated that "much of ''Drukqs'' sounds like weaker echoes of things Aphex Twin has done before, which no manner of hyperactive drum machines or daft titles can disguise." Pat Blashill of ''Rolling Stone'' called ''Drukqs'' Aphex's "most irrelevant album to date", and added "rumor has it that James merely loaded this record with outtakes that have been eating up space on his hard drive for years, then released the album as a deal-breaker with his label, Warp." In ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'' (2004), critic Sasha Frere-Jones wrote "weirdly dismissed by many, ''Drukqs'' is often spectacular".

The piano composition " Avril 14th" became one of James's most popular tracks, later being used in a ''Saturday Night Live'' skit and the Kanye West song " Blame Game". As of April 2017 the track was James's most streamed track on Spotify, with approximately 124 million streams. By this metric, it is his best-known composition. " Avril 14th" has also been used in films such as ''Marie Antoinette'' (2006). "QKThr" has also seen widespread use as a TikTok sound, primarily in relation to the 'subtle foreshadowing' trend, where a video's unfortunate ending is slowed down and spliced throughout the video itself.

Track listing

All songs composed by Richard D. James.

Personnel

* Aphex Twin – music, photographs

Charts

Certifications

Notes

References

External links

Drukqs.net
nbsp;– The official ''Drukqs'' Web site: free MP3s and information ( Flash Player-enabled browser required for access).
*

''Drukqs'' at the Warp Records discography


''Drukqs'' on Discogs

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Aphex Twin albums
Warp Records albums
Sire Records albums
2001 albums
Compositions for prepared piano