Drukqs is a double album released in 2001 by Aphex Twin. It contains tracks dating back seven or eight years, though most were relatively new. James rushed its release after accidentally leaving an MP3 player with new tracks on a plane, aiming to preempt an internet leak.
A compilation bundling Aphex Twin’s two most provocative late-90s singles — 'Come to Daddy' (1997) and 'Windowlicker' (1999) — plus remixes and instrumentals. Released in 2000. All tracks built electronically. Videos by Chris Cunningham. Charted in the UK Top 40. Satirical intent confirmed by artist statement.
Selected from years of cassette recordings Richard D. James made from age thirteen on equipment he built himself, this debut curated by label head Renaat Vandepapeliere reads as a fully formed statement rather than a curiosity. Its melodic, sometimes industrial tracks pair beauty with unease and remain a founding document of ambient techno.
Aphex Twin's second album moves almost entirely into slow, largely beatless ambient composition, built from old analogue synthesizers and, by Richard D. James's own account, half-remembered fragments of dream. Nearly all twenty-four tracks went out untitled, leaving fans to name pieces that reward patient, undistracted listening across a two-and-a-half-hour running time.