GreedyMe.com

“A somewhat nonsensical CD done by the Homestar Runner characters!”

“Another Homestar Character Shirt!”

“A Homestar Runner Character on a Sweater!

HOORAY HOMESTAR RUNNER!”

“If techno ever does become the sound of young America, don't expect Richard James to be its poster boy, deserving though he may be. A native of Cornwall, England, James is obsessed with the mechanics of music making: As a kid, he took apart and reassembled the living room piano. Under the names Aphex Twin, Polygon Window, AFX, and other aliases too numerous to mention, he showed that he could make entire tracks with the sounds produced by tapping on a Coke can. Like the indie rockers of yore, he revels in his marginality because of the creative freedom it gives him. His full-length U.S. debut, Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994), includes some of the most serene sounds this side of the Orb, but his favorite hobby is the not-at-all-blissful pastime of driving a Daimler Ferret Mark 3 tank through his parents' backyard.
None of his recordings have captured the competing impulses to lull you to sleep and blast out your eardrums as well as Richard D. James, his third and best album. As the title indicates, James has turned inward for inspiration, painting aural pictures of real and imagined scenes from his west country childhood. "Goongumpas" is a fanciful, playful tune that wouldn't sound out of place on the soundtrack to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. As his adventures with the family upright indicate, James was a bit of a devil even as a child. "Beetles" is the sound of a boy frying bugs on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass, and "To Cure a Weakling Child" shows flashes of the sort of sadism found only on preschool playgrounds. If you still doubt that young Richard developed early on, the romantic Nino Rota-style strings on "Girl/Boy Song" are just made for passionate seductions, and the tune appears in three mixes, each one hot and hornier than the one before.
The raucous undercurrents of even his calmest tunes and the sources of many of his most common sounds are what link James to the rock tradition. With Richard D. James, the artist solidifies his position as an electronic music mastermind who has earned a spot beside such well-respected innovators--whether or not he's destined for stardom. --Jim Derogatis”

“Reissue on Play It Again Sam America.”

“None of the chirpy, intricate, eclectic tracks on I Care Because You Do sound dated, certainly not in any heinous way. Richard James's work stands outside any genre cages and continues to satisfy dedicated listeners. This is at least partially due to James's twisted, British-bad-boy sense of humor: the title of the disc alone is something of an ironic display. I Care Because You Do is a sound introduction to James's peculiar, personal work, which ranges from symphonic to spartan to relaxing to unnerving, though it generally manages to be all those at once. The disc is cleverly constructed and juicily modern, and it's easy to see why critics, struggling to understand James's emergent "ambient techno," early on compared him to minimalist composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich. James was clearly influenced by these pioneers, but his music is more about stretching the limits of what one perceives to be music, of sound itself. --Mike McGonigal”

“A 26 track compilation on 2 CDs of Aphex Twin's blinding remixes (plus two previously unreleased Aphex tunes). Encompassing 10 years of always evolving, unpredictable Aphex Twin sounds, from acid trax and raved-up bangers to strangely commercial pop and his inimitably delicate, ambient empathies. Gatefold digipak. Warp. 2003.”

“Special edition CD with hardbound cover and 12 page booklet.”

“British electronics wunderkind Richard James (alias Aphex Twin, AFX, Polygon Window, etc.) claims he heard the compositions on Selected Ambient Works, Volume II in lucid dreams. Like abstract paintings composed of shades of a single color, James's resonant explorations of specific timbres linger close to a central idea on each cut, incorporating just enough variation to remain disturbing. While its predecessor, Selected Ambient Works '85-'92 drew on seven years' worth of material, the uniform quality of these untitled tracks, plus their judicious sequencing, suggests they were assembled over a shorter period. Clocking in at over 150 minutes, the double-disc set (if this is "selected," how many hours of outtakes remain?) provides an exemplary introduction to the quieter facets of James's expansive, idiosyncratic aesthetic. --Kurt B. Reighley”