Aphex Twin: Drukqs

With his overwhelming back catalog and enduring status as electronica's foremost auteur, Aphex Twin's Richard D. James is the one dance-music figure everybody can agree on. Though it's been displayed in varying degrees over the years, his talent is sprawling enough to spawn new genres while deconstructing old ones into splintered communiqués from an ever-present future. James' genius comes at a price, though, as evidenced by the awe-inspiring but hugely cumbersome Drukqs, the first proper Aphex Twin album in five years. Weighing in at 100 minutes, the 30-song double-disc pokes and prods all the elements of Aphex Twin's tool bag, from mournfully beautiful ambience to eye-twitching visions of breakbeat schematics. Fully realized tracks such as "Vordhosbn" skitter and swoop like an epileptic ballerina who hits her cues with fitful purpose, following an internal logic that eludes Aphex Twin peers like Squarepusher. Drukqs' best tracks ("Cock/Ver 10," "Mt. Saint Michel Mix+St. Michaels Mount," "Meltphace 6") mark an evolution in James' new beat work, which better integrates micro details that have trailed off like ellipses on past albums. But a sizeable minority of the songs come off like sketches of rhythmic ideas pulled from James' vault and presented in as-is condition. The same goes for the album's frequent "unclassical" interludes, many of which mimic the piano tinklings of Erik Satie in full. Some of them are gorgeous, incorporating the studiousness of John Cage's prepared-piano pieces and the gameful swing of Sun Ra. Unfortunately, most of the album's beautiful moments are cordoned off from the unbeautiful ones in ways that leave both wanting. Drukqs is a typically rewarding Aphex Twin album, but significant editing—or better yet, more ambitious treatment of its patchwork ideas—could have made it a faultless classic.